Recycling crosses political lines, says new poll

According to a recent national survey conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation and commissioned by the Aluminum Can Council’s Curbside Value Partnership (CVP), a majority of both Democrats and Republicans support curbside recycling. According to the study, in areas where curbside recycling is available, 70 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Republicans say they “always” participate.

Other findings in the study:

- When asked how important curbside recycling was to them, both Democrats (95 percent) and Republicans (94 percent) answered that it was at least “somewhat important to them,” if not “very” or “extremely important.”

- Only two percent of each party stated it is “not at all important.”

- More than half of respondents in both parties believe that recycling is their responsibility in order to help the environment.

- Both parties are careful about recycling newspaper and aluminum cans. However, after newspapers and cans, they were split. Democrats are more careful to recycle glass (18 percent) than Republicans (10 percent) and Republicans are more careful to recycle plastic (24 percent) than Democrats (16 percent).