At Sims Municipal Recycling in Brooklyn, 20,000 tons of metal, glass and plastic recyclables make their way here each month, all destined for another life: commodities that can be sold to manufacturers.  

At Pratt Industries on Staten Island, recycled paper lives again, too, as boxes.

This is recycling at work. But it hasn't always been this way in the five boroughs.     

"We used to have a one-bin system. Everything got thrown away," said Bridget Anderson, deputy commissioner of recycling and sustainability with the city's Sanitation Department.

That all changed 30 years ago, when recycling became mandatory in New York City. 

Anderson says the modern recycling movement began 50 years ago, with the first Earth Day. 

"There was a very, very robust grassroots movement to try and help make this happen. And then the city caught on, and city legislation passed a law in 1989, Local Law 19 of 1989, that created a mandatory citywide recycling program,"  she said.

Since then, more than 16 million tons of recyclables have been collected by the Sanitation Department, but it hasn't been easy. In the beginning, the city got the word out with public service announcements featuring celebrities, everyone from the late Law and Order star Jerry Orbach to Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street.

Sanitation captures about 50 percent of recyclables New Yorkers get rid of. Tom Outerbridge, who runs Sims Muncipal Recycling in Sunset Park, thinks we can do even better.

"Do I expect to get to 100 percent? You know, probably that would be wishful thinking. But could we get to 75, 80, 90 percent capture rate, recovery of those materials? I think that is certainly possible," Outerbridge said.