Madison Reporter

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway took to twitter Nov. 15 to celebrates recycling.

"It’s America Recycles Day," the mayor wrote. "You too can become a master recycler!”

One success story in Madison was the master recycler class held by Sustain Dane earlier this year, the city said.

"The master recycler class taught over 500 Madison-area residents about how and why recycling works in our city," according to a news release. "The program also asked them to complete an outreach project to help spread this knowledge to their friends, family, coworkers and neighbors."

The outreach programs were successful, the city said.

"They ranged from neighborhood social media postings and newsletter articles to a recycling game staged at a neighborhood festival," according to news release. "Overall, their work taught over 44,000 residents of our community about how to recycle more and recycle right. That is phenomenal."

The class will be held again in 2022, the city said.

Trillions of plastic pieces are dumped into the oceans each year, killing 100 million marine animals each year, according to the British company, Condor Ferries.

In the United States, the rate of recycling has increased from less than 7% percent in 1960 to 32% today, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.