Shoppers embrace recycling program

Target began its in-store recycling program just nine months ago, and some of the early numbers from the program are staggering. Between April 2010, when the program was launched, and December 2010, the company collected and recycled more than 170 million shopping bags and more than 1.4 million pounds of cans and bottles. In addition, the company said it collected roughly two million units of small electronic items such as MP3 players and cell phones.

Those are some big numbers to be sure, but as customer awareness of the company’s recycling capabilities in the coming year those figures are likely to look puny by the time Earth Day 2012 gets here.