RECYCLING -- HOW EASY MUST IT BECOME?

Single-stream recycling, in which mixed cardboard/paper and recyclable containers such as glass, metal and plastic are commingled into a single collection container, is the wave of the future. In my neck of the woods, I have seen rectangular mini-dumpsters emblazoned with the ubiquitous ‘recycling logo’ parked behind grocery stores and strip malls, throughout apartment and condominium parking lots, next to commercial buildings and essentially everywhere in between. Upon closer inspection, prominent ‘single-stream recycling guideline’ stickers placed in multiple spots on the dumpsters offer a breakdown of all the items that can be conveniently deposited in one container:

PAPER ITEMS, SUCH AS:

• Newspapers, glossy inserts, magazines, brochures, junk mail, greeting cards, telephone books, office paper, file folders, books, sticky notes/index cards, cardboard egg cartons, paper packing material, cereal/food boxes and flattened cardboard boxes, etc.

PLASTIC CONTAINERS, SUCH AS:

• Beverage bottles, milk/juice jugs and yogurt/dairy tubs (numbers 1-7, depending on your region)

METAL CONTAINERS, SUCH AS:

• Clean cans, pet food containers, aluminum foil, pie pans, take-out containers

• Empty aerosol cans

• Steel bottle caps and metal jar lids

GLASS CONTAINERS, SUCH AS:

• Bottles, jars, empty candle containers, etc.

Considering the fact that I am an unabashed eco-geek, I am an active member of a green social network, and I am on a perpetual quest to find a (woefully elusive) green collar job, why should it be surprising that I tend to go above and beyond the call of duty to preserve the resources available to me? As such, I still willingly and habitually deposit all of my household recyclable items into 4 separate bins in my garage prior to transporting them to one of the single-stream containers described above. I know, I know…it hardly makes much sense when the entire process has been simplified for me. Bada-bing – drop-n-go – oh look, I’ve saved the planet.

With all of the time that I could conserve simply by NOT pre-sorting, I could take up a stimulating new hobby, such as knitting pot holders out of the cat hair tumbleweeds congregating in the corners of my home. In light of the no-brainer convenience of today’s drop-n-go-single-stream recycling program, why on Earth are people still disposing of such materials in the garbage??

Case-in-point. For YEARS now, my mountain community has offered its residents two smallish garbage dumpsters to use for their household waste, and without fail, I ALWAYS SEE both receptacles jam-packed with cardboard packaging, newspapers, laundry detergent bottles and the like. There is no excuse for this, especially since there is a perfectly huge single-stream recycling container permanently fixed in the parking lot of our local grocery store. Sure, they have to drive approximately 20 minutes to visit it, but unless the offenders grow or shoot and kill all of their own food, sooner or later, they are destined to visit our closest purveyor of pantry staples.

This apathy is not isolated. Forty minutes away from my home, the garbage dumpster located behind my company’s office is no different (heavily used by the city’s municipal departments) as are the countless bins found throughout my mother’s condo complex. In both cases, the dumpsters can be found side-by-side with community single-stream recycling containers. I am not an eco-elitist and hardly think that my carbon footprint is hovering in the angelic stratosphere.

With four cats and an unshakable addiction to the scoopable type of cat litter, I should be strung up from the highest post for my eco-crimes against hills and dales (note to self: good topic for a future blog). That being said, why is it so challenging for people to jump on the basic eco-responsibility bandwagon?

Are we as a society that LAZY…that blasé about the role that our small, albeit significant conservation actions can make? Will community waste management programs, out of sheer frustration and utter desperation, be forced to police our garbage via mandatory curbside-slop-sorting? If the impetus for fellow Greenwala Spencer Brown’s business is any indication, when no one is watching, it seems to be in people’s nature to take the easy way out.

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If anyone has actually read this blog, would you please share your thoughts on this topic with me? Have you observed similar waste disposal offenses where you live? Are there any programs out there that are able to rise above the human factor and achieve zero-waste status, or is that a pipe-dream? What can we as concerned citizens do to affect change?

http://agricultureguide.org/recyclinghow-easy-must-it-become/