Bloomberg is expected to use part of his address to push initiatives that would increase the number of parking spaces for electric cars and begin recycling more plastics and food waste.

WSJ: Bloomberg gives final State of the City address

After reading about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and seeing a photograph of an albatross with its belly full of plastic several years ago, Terry started cataloguing the plastic waste she creates each year, concentrating on disposable plastics (not her laptop or television, but things like food packaging, shipping waste, straws, and so forth).

FORBES: 5 Easy Ways To Kick The Plastic Habit

The pits at Balad were at one point open and burning everything from plastics and food to medical waste.

CNN: Congressmen want more info on 'burn pit' claims

Metals and plastics are sorted from the general waste and sold on, but the firm said the market for this type of material had "dropped substantially".

BBC: Tayside and Central Scotland

Newcastle-under-Lyme uses separate containers and bags for refuse, cardboard, plastics, paper, glass and cans, textiles and garden waste.

BBC: 'People are being given too many recycling bins'

While it is legal to export plastics for recycling in some countries, it is illegal to export waste.

BBC: Father and son admit illegal waste export to Brazil