Waste without a doubt is a problem. Specifically waste that has to do with things that should be recycled that aren’t. This is because a few possible things: lack of awareness to which people don’t know what can be recycled and what cannot, as well as the theory of the free rider program that people believe that if they don’t recycle, someone else will somewhere else to balance it out. This percentage of people is astronomical as can be seen on garbage day the amount of bottles and cans that collectors are able to find in the trash to deposit as money.
One thing that stuck out in this article was that only 15% of residential waste is recycled, down from 23% a few years ago. This shows that people just don’t think its a big deal anymore to recycle, because there definitely is not a decrease in the amount of plastics being used as containers for consumer goods from years ago.
I have a few solutions to the recyclable wastes issue:
- Increase the amount of money awarded per can/bottle that is recycled in the machines
- If people dont want to make the effort to go to one of the machines, lets have the State fund a service of trucks that drive to residences on a scheduled basis to pick up the cans and pay people for their effort.
I think we all can agree that there is no better incentive than a cash payout or a tax cut. If there was a way to implement an awarding system for people to recycle it will jumpstart a upward trend in the amount of waste properly recycled. Eventually, there can be a decrease in the awards given out but humans are highly influenced by habit and if they are recycling properly for a long time it will become second nature to recycle for no reward just because that is what they are used to doing.
