Kansas City's curbside recycling program started in 2004. Since then, our diversion rates, as in the measurement of how much trash we are keeping from the landfills has stayed consistently around the in the 25-30 percent range. The goal is to reach an 80 percent diversion rate by 2020. We're a ways off, but regional experts remain optimistic.

"We are recycling much more than the numbers show," says Marleen Leonce.

Leonce collects recycling data for the Kansas City, Missouri's department of public works. The city is only counting what it collects, but there has been an increase in recycling from people contributing to commercial and non-profit recycling efforts.