Waste and recycling on Long Island in 2016

Long Island produced about 2.2 million tons of solid waste in 2016 and recycled about 582,000 tons of it, which works out to a rate of 26.5 percent, according to the most recent data provided by cities and towns*. That rate was down from the 27.1 percent recorded in 2014-2015, and the individual rates for the municipalities can vary. For example, tiny Shelter Island reports recycling 88.6 percent of its solid waste, while the city of Long Beach reports recycling 13.9 percent.

You can see the recycling data for earlier years here. And once you've finished with the 2016 data, you can read about current problems with recycling on Long Island.

Obviously towns with larger populations, such as Hempstead or Babylon, will have larger overall numbers than smaller towns. This data, compiled by Newsday from reports submitted to the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, was posted on Oct. 26, 2018.

Tons of recycled and unrecycled waste

* Islip failed to file a 2016 report, so we used its 2017 report; all other town and city data are from 2016, the most recent year available from all other municipalities.

How much recycling per person

Another way to measure recycling is to look at the number of pounds of solid waste that are recycled per resident.