Factors Shaping Recycling Habits Essay

America is one of the largest countries along with being one of the largest waste producers in the world. In 2013 Americans generated about 254 million tons of ("Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2013 Fact Sheet"). So where does all of this trash go? Approximately 55% of 220 million tons of waste generated each year in the United States ends up in one of the over 3500 landfills ("Center for Sustainability & Commerce"). This trash that ends up in the landfill consist of metals, steel and aluminum can, plastic bottles, and paper along with other miscellaneous items. The issue with this is that the majority of these items will never decompose and just sit in the ground forever. While other items like paper will eventually decompose there is still a better alternative than putting it into a landfill. This alternative is known as recycling. What can we recycle? What can the average family do to recycle more? Where does trash end up if it is not properly thrown away or recycled? What is the impact of the improperly disposed trash on our environment? What can the government do to help?

One of the many questions that have arisen in the recycling world is whether roadside recycling or drop off at a recycling depot is more effective. One of the studies that have been conducted proves that curbside recycling is slightly effective. "Specifically there is a 1% increase in the percentage of a county's population served by curbside programs increases total beverage container decking returns by only .48% for plastic, .08% for glass, and .07% for aluminum (Beatty et al 752)". This data supports the fact that curbside recycling does technically increase the materials recycled, but it appears that it is not worth the cost to use it over a recycling depot. The issue with this data is that it states that only 1% of the population began to use curbside recycling as a new method. There could be a potential issue in the population lacking information or reluctance to begin this new method, a problem previously discussed in this paper. With this in mind if 1% of the population began using curbside recycling and the materials recycled increased by 1% and .1%, think about the potential effect curbside recycling could have if 15-20% more people began participating. The amount of materials recycled would be astounding and the program could be found to be effective. There is also data that shows "household time cost differences would have

What happens after someone throws their water bottle into the recycling bin? Or what about when they toss out their newspaper? With recycling, anyone can reduce waste and in turn help the environment. Recycling has many economic and environmental advantages; therefore, its use must undergo exponential growth.

Ever since elementary school, we’re taught to recycle. They usually do not tell us why it’s so important to recycle or what it does for the world, but they just say to recycle. So some adhere to what we’re told and others just pass it by as if it were nothing. Maybe if we were told why we should do it, more people would actually take the time out of their day and recycle. When we here the word “recycle,” we think of soda cans, water bottles, and plastic material, but what many don’t know is that there is much more than that we can recycle. Once people start to recycle, they realize it’s completely easy and becomes more of a habit. “In 1973, not a single curbside recycling program existed in the United States.

Two methods of recycling are in use by people today: single stream recycling and dual stream recycling. The latter involves separating paper and cardboard from glass and plastic for pickup while the former allows them to be mixed. Single stream recycling first began “in the 1990s… in California” (Laskow). It has become increasingly popular since then. This method is favored by people because of its convenience and lack of difficulty. The majority of the United States has voluntary recycling programs because they are relatively easy to manage. For the most part, it has proven to be both affordable and efficient. Current voluntary recycling programs “save the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 39.6 million cars from the road” (Cernasky). It is evident that little is wrong with voluntary recycling programs, so there is no reason to attempt to improve something that is not broken. A mandatory policy also will not have complete compliance because wherever mandatory laws are enforced, rebellion will follow. Altering recycling programs to make them mandatory could cause recycling to be less efficient and affordable.

Today, policy makers and waste management companies have been trying to find new ways to reduce the amount of waste entering the landfills because we are rapidly running out of space for such use. In 2000, U.S. residents and businesses produced more than 221 million tons of waste, which is approximately 4.5 pounds of waste per person per day. However, the amount of waste sent to landfills in 2000 was down 13% from the 1990 total, and the amount of waste recovered in recycling has nearly doubled during the same period (ASCE,

Recycling is the key to a successful environment for generations to come. When I think about recycling, several synonyms come to mind, like reduce, reuse, reclaim or recover. We need to be promoting recycling of old items and materials at school, work, in restaurants and at home. When we reuse objects or make them new again, the old material is not wasted, and new materials are not being produced.

Out of all the growing problems in the world, the massive accumulation of garbage seems to be the least of the people’s worries. Countless landfills are being satiated by trash of all shapes, sizes and composition; many now being paved over to serve as foundation for housing, airports, businesses, etc. If the situation were as simple to resolve as paving over the putrescent landfills, then there wouldn’t be debates or research about the environmental effects of pollution associated with improper discarding of waste materials. A majority of the types of waste can be recycled, but at what cost? Many will argue that recycling is the only way to eliminate such landfills and protect the environment from further damage. Several

On average humans produce around 4.3 pounds of trash per day (“Municipal Solid Waste”). With 7 billion people and counting the amount of trash being generated is increasing (“United States Census”). All of our bottles, wrappers and food is being thrown away and entering our landfills. Landfills are man-made structures that are carefully designed to separate trash, we produce, from other land areas. These structures are made so that the trash and the byproducts of it do not contaminate groundwater or the environment around it (“Learn about Landfills”). Some ways that individuals can reduce the amount of trash that ends up in landfills is to recycle, donate, reduce food waste, and purchase materials with less packaging (“15 Easy Ways”).

When we hear "recycling," we think of "doing." People are lazy, and the last thing we want to do is walking up to a recycling bin. Us being lazy is the most prominent problem with why we need to start to care about our environment again. As always, we drink plastic water bottles, use plastic bags, eat from plastic containers and decide to toss them away in trash cans, and we still overlook that such action is equivalent to piling up the dumps in the city and under the ocean. For so long, many people have neglected the importance of utilizing recycling bins and reusing resources for the health of ourselves and our environment. After analyzing many articles, I have concluded we all should start using our reusable supplies, utilizing recycle bins, and refusing plastics because we need to reduce landfill waste, avoid consumption of plastic chemicals, prevent trade association for American chemical companies earning millions from us turning the Earth into a junkyard.

The first step in becoming part of the recycling solution is to break bad habits by establishing new ones. Priority number one is set rigid criteria for what you recycle. The best suggestion is everything. When you begin to thing this is okay, or that doesn’t item doesn’t really matter, you allow yourself the leeway of being lax.

Two methods of recycling are in use by people today: single stream recycling and dual stream recycling. The latter involves separating paper and cardboard from glass and plastic for pickup while the former allows them to be mixed. Single stream recycling first began “in the 1990s… in California” (Laskow). It has become increasingly popular since then. This method is favored by people because of its convenience and lack of difficulty. The majority of the United States has voluntary recycling programs because they are relatively easy to manage. For the most part, it has proven to be both affordable and efficient. Current voluntary recycling programs “save the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 39.6 million cars from the road” (Cernasky). It is evident that little is wrong with voluntary recycling programs, so there is no reason to attempt to improve something that is not broken.

Throughout our community, United States citizens are straying far from the practice of recycling. In today’s society, we have become more dependent on throwing wastes away than protecting our environment. Our school systems try to encourage young children to recycle by making posters and sponsoring activities around Earth Day, but in all truthfulness the general population doesn’t practice the ritual of recycling. For example, our high school cafeteria allows students to use Styrofoam trays and plastic cutlery. A

Public garbage cans, waste management vehicles and even several businesses all promote the need for recycling. These things should serve as a constant reminder to us of the importance of recycling. Consumers produce a large scale of garbage (ARTICLE 1) the average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. If Americans take an active role in recycling, we can work to reduce the amount of garbage currently in our landfills and dumps. Recycling has become more of a responsibility rather than a way to earn or save money. It can help clean and protect our environment for each other and the generations ahead. Landfills are growing quickly, which are affecting our environment as well as our resources. This is where recycling materials such as plastic, paper, glass, etc., play a huge role in conserving our resources.

1.3 Methodology The objective of this research report is to examine the behaviors and attitudes towards waste and recycling among students of HKU SPACE Community College. The survey was conducted at HPCC campus. 50 copies of questionnaire were issued within October and the responses rates are 100%. Questionnaire sample can be referred to the appendix 1.