The graph below shows the percentages of different types of household waste recycled in a city between 1992 and 2002.
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Sample Essay
The bar graph displays the percentages of 4 different categories of residential waste recycled in a city in 1992, 1997 and 2002.
Overall, while the percentages of glass, paper and plastic recycled went up, that of cans fluctuated over the course of this 10-year period.
There was around 13% of glass recycled in 1992. This number increased to just below 30 percent in 1997 and to almost 50% in 2002, making glass the most recycled waste material by percentage in these two years. The percentages of paper recycled showed a similar upward trend, though they increased less significantly over the period, at around 12% in 1992, 18% in 1997 and 29% in 2002.
The percentage of cans recycled, in comparison, first experienced a drop from roughly 15% to 12% between 1992 and 1997, but then rose to just over 20% in 2002. Households recycled a lower percentage of plastic, at only 10%, than the other types of waste in 1992. This figure only grew to approximately 12% in 1997 before remaining at this level in 2002.
