As Indiana plastics facility burns, questions rise over recycling-center safety

As the fire at an Indiana plastics-recycling storage facility burned into its third day Thursday and officials scrambled to calm evacuated residents and measure air quality, larger safety questions emerged across a nation that relies on recycling to help offset the impact of teeming landfills and littered waterways.

Are recycling centers — challenging to regulate because they range from small community-led efforts to major industrial facilities — as safe as Americans think they are?

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