> because they take recycling money out of the pocket of the municipality

I was curious if the municipality is doing a good job of recycling but couldn't find numbers. Like for the city of Santa Clara, what percentage of the recycling is brought in by the municipality. I kind of think it is probably lower than that brought in by competitive commercial entities.

I did find:

"Recycling rates were up for all material types: aluminum rose to 85 percent, compared to 83 percent between January and June 2007; glass rose to 79 percent from 71; and the most common plastic, No. 1 PET, increased to 63 percent from 58."

None of the numbers are above 90, and PET is about 60% so having more people like this who bring these numbers up is a good thing.