Waste management isn’t something that people often think about unless they themselves are living in an area where they have to deal with the managing of waste on a daily basis. Most of us just take out the trash on our assigned days and wait for the sanitation workers to come pick it up. But what happens to the garbage after that? Does it miraculously disappear? To be honest, I really don’t know what happens to it because I never tried to find out. According to another article, each New Yorker produces about 3 pounds of garbage daily, making that 1095 pounds a year. These numbers eventually add up to much greater numbers when we take every single New Yorker into account. How can we work around this and actually help in the management of all this waste?
Personally, I am huge on recycling – whether it’s paper, cans, bottles, glass, etc. No matter what the situation, if it’s recyclable I make sure that I find a recycling trash bin and dispose of it in its proper location. However, this isn’t the mentality that most people carry. If every person tried to recycle whenever they could, rather than just throwing everything away in a garbage pail, waste would be managed more efficiently. However, like everything else, this also goes back to a lack of knowledge. Most people aren’t aware of the consequences of all this trash that builds up and they don’t know where it goes. They also aren’t aware of how recycling benefits with the waste management and how it helps the earth (especially if you recycle paper). Along with the lack of knowledge, there’s also a lack of these recycling garbage pails on the sidewalks. At the corner of almost every block, there’s a normal wastebasket but not one where you can recycle. If a person had to choose between throwing out their recyclable trash in a wastebasket 2 feet from them or throwing it in a recycling bin 2 blocks away, they would obviously choose the one that’s closer. The recycling situation also breaks down into matter of accessibility. For example, whenever I have some papers I need to throw out, I collect them and throw them out at school in a recycling bin because there’s no other place that’s accessible for me to just recycle my papers. Most people would not do this. However, I feel that if people were a little more aware of this situation, maybe they would actually try and recycle.
