Each Friday, my family takes out their trash to be picked up and hauled off to who knows where, and every other week the same goes for our recyclables. But how much is truly recycled, and how do we fare against other countries? We, as Americans, should learn from across the pond and recycle more of our waste instead of throwing it away to a landfill. America tries to sound green and eco-friendly, but we only recycle 34.3 percent of our waste (EPA, 2013) and 12 percent goes to energy recovery (EPA, 2011). Of what we produce before recycling, paper takes the lead at 27 percent, followed by food at 14.6 percent, yard trimmings at 13.5 percent, plastics at 12.8 percent, metals at 9.1 percent, rubber/leather/textiles at 9 percent, wood at 6.2 …show more content…
If you do not have this sticker, your trash will just have to rot on the streets- so sad, too bad. In Germany, they are a lot stricter and willing to recycle. Per surveys, 90 percent of Germans are willing to sort their trash (Tristana Moore, BBC, 2005) into the five separate recycling containers: yellow for packaging (like milk cartons), blue for paper and cardboard, three bins for clear, brown, and green glass, a bio bin for food and yard waste, and black for everything else or if one is just too lazy to sort these themselves.
But wait, there’s more. Denmark regards waste as not just waste, but a resource (Thomas Buch-Anderson, BBC, 2005). Tough government standards have led the Danish to recycle 31 percent of their waste, incinerate 62 percent, and put the remaining 6 percent in landfills. Since Denmark isn’t big enough to have their own recycling plants, they ship it off to other countries and have them properly recycle it. Greece seems to be the worst out of Europe in recycling- a mere one percent. All sorts of recyclables go to their one and only landfill, which is near perhaps one of Europe’s largest recycling facilities. But this plant is at a standstill, after, ironically, it was badly damaged by a mountain of waste.
Rome seems to be at Greece’s level of recycling. Their government is trying quite desperately to fix this. They have ordered to set out 2,500 new bins, since Romans have a hard time to find a bin, and one that is not already full (Jeremy
Recycling has been the environmental crusade to reducing the human footprint, with it’s spotlight shining down on in recent years. It was the noblest of causes, recycling being a great idea for the environment and society; but it is being handled poorly. Its modern descendant has turned into a corporate scheme with recycling becoming a business, instead of being about the environment because marketers are using environmentalism as a excuse for overconsumption, recycling products are only being recycled for profit, and cities & big business use inflated numbers to attain media attention. Let’s now take a look at the bread and butter of
Recycling is not a new concept. The history of recycling goes back thousands of years. According to the Environmental Encyclopedia article “Recycling”, published in 2011:
There are many programs but too little enthusiasm. ”Recycling programs abound, but people are often lackadaisical about putting plastic,paper, glass and metal into those bins”(“How Do You Encourage Recycling”). The world has enough programs but it need more people. People need to think about how recycling helps everything and everyone around them. ”They asked people to think more abstractly about why recycling contributed to the community, air, land, and water resources “(“How Do You Encourage Recycling”). When people recycle they need to remember why they are doing this and what it helps. The world needs to look at what it can gain or lose when recycling and not recycling. ”Marketing professor Kate White of University of British Columbia shared studies that looked at two kinds of messages:those that highlight the negative consequences of not recycling,loss framed message, versus those that emphasize the positive consequences of recycling,gain framed message.”(“How Do You Encourage Recycling”). These messages will address what people can gain and lose. Motivating people to recycle could make a huge change in land pollution even solve the problem with
Recycling is one of the most common ways to keep America clean. The recycling bins are one of the most recognizable logos across the world. People all across the U.S. have recycling bins, inside of their household. The sad thing is most people do not use them, they most of the time just throw stuff in the regular trash that could be recycled. For example, plastic, paper, cans, glass, cardboard, and even computer hardware (www.recycleacrossamerica.org). People don’t realize that they could be doing the world a big favor, just by recycling these everyday items.
Recycling has become "mandatory" in many states and towns. Landlords can fine a resident for not following the rules of recycling. It was made official awhile back that certain things should not be sent to our landfills,such as paint cans, car parts, and any kind of hazardous materials. Americans are already recycling at a high rate.
Looking down the street you live on, do you notice something lacking? Well, for most of America this seems to ring true. Recycling is a process that is very important for the environment, yet much of the country still does not have mandatory recycling or, at the least, an easier way to recycle. No, most perfectly recyclable materials are sent straight to the landfill. Why exactly is this, anyway? Is it the government’s fault, or the people’s?
Recycling has turned into an undeniably vital issue in the United States as both the populace and the measure of waste all the people who creates to keep on increasing. Municipal solid waste (MSW) incorporates the items that are thrown into the bins, for example, old furniture, tires, or yard clippings. As indicated by a study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Municipal solid waste generation expanded from 2.68 to 4.34 pounds for per person on every day between 1960 and 2009. Americans created around 243 million tons of MSW in
America’s waste production is one of the highest in the world, with less than 27% of all its waste produced is actually recycled. The United States has lenient waste and littering laws, making landfills much fuller than what they would be if the laws were stricter. America also places little to no reward on recycling; those who recycle more often than not pay a fee making it more of a hassle. The U.S. is one of the biggest contributors to waste production in the world, in turn the least green of all countries. “Citizens and government alike in China are taking steps to encourage recycling; this has also become a profit machine” (Norleen). The Chinese have a system where one is able to turn in recyclables and therefore are paid for waste collected. China isn’t the only country others have also started this system and some even have integrated tax reductions. In Japan, one is able to pay for a beverage or a parking meter with recyclable items such as
My trash for the past three years can fit into one Mason jar. Everything in the jar is plastic that is not recyclable by New York City's recycling infrastructure, like pieces of clothing that have price tags, or clothing stickers. I hold onto it for two reasons: One day I hope to recycle it, but also because it shines a light on trash issues that might not be top of mind, like straws or price tags—think of how many there are in the world, and they all go to landfill! That's trash that exists as a problem (Singer, Teen
Americans make more than 200 million tons of garbage each year, enough to fill Busch Stadium from top to bottom twice a day, that’s over 1800 feet! according to Ballparks. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it says Do Something. With the invention of the virtually indestructible material well known as plastic, on top of the rapidly evolving technological world, and the extreme reduction of locations where landfills can be built, it’s hard to believe that 75% of the waste stream in America alone is recyclable, and yet only 30% of it is actually recycled. Recycling is a beneficial solution to many of our increasingly important environmental
Recycling is a very unique and sensitive subject, but adding rules and enforcers wouls be unorthodox compared to the 'American way'. They say "Go Green", I say "Go
People Need to Recycle In the United Sates, where the population is inflated every year. The amount of space for landfills decreases every day. The need for recycling should not be asked, it should just be done out of habit. Everyone in America needs to recycle, to help the lamdfill problem, help the environment, and help produce new products from recycled goods. In America there is about two-hundred and eight tons of residential and commercial trash generated a year, 4.3 pounds per person a day (Prichard 1A). This is an overwhelming amount of trashed produced yearly. When people recycle this number can be drastically cut. But many people do not practice and use
It is a common belief that we are not doing enough for the Earth, but what more could we do? We use the resources we need, and then we put them right back where they came from. Clearly recycling plants and recycling receptacles are being rendered obsolete by the infamous trash bin/landfill combo. They are a huge waste of space. Assuming that we just threw everything away, it would create a considerable amount of space for more practical buildings such as oil refinery’s, plastic manufacturing plants, the list goes on to give better alternatives for taxpayer dollars. Many people do not even recycle, because they know that trash or recycle it
“Recycling is the only key to a less polluted future” - Anonymous. This quote is a quote that we should start to follow. I think recycling should be a mandatory rule for everyone in the entire world.
It will also take forever for the works to separate from them. The article sayes “As mentioned above, recycling saves energy because the manufacturer doesn’t have to produce something new from raw natural resources.”Then they will get mad because all of the plasticstuff is going in the trash. According to my research.”We don't have space to put in the trash and we'll never have a place to put your trash then.” The people will also get mad when we don't have a place to put the recycling place. Thirty two percent of people don't recycle and that is the reason why people don’t recycle which they should.