Switch the Bins

Question 2 on this year's Massachusetts ballot got me thinking about the recycling habits of the everyday citizen. Question 2 asked Mass residents if they would want to expand the deposit law to include plastic water, juice, and other bottles and cans without a current deposit.

Proponents of the law argued the financial incentive would encourage more recycling since each bottle and can would have a surcharge on it, not just soda and beer containers. Throwing the bottle or can away would mean losing the deposit.

The measure is a move to encourage more recycling, something Americans have made great strides on in recent years, but still has much more work to do. Recycling plastic has gone from almost zero in the 1980s to just below 10% by 2010.(1) Plastic is the material that worries me most. We have been recycling paper, metals, and glass in large quantities and in growing percentages for years. Reduction in paper has been aided by increases in paperless workplaces. Reduction in metal and glass consumption can be due to increases in plastic. But even if we were still not recycling those materials as much, they are biodegradable. Plastic is not and it's used in everything now.

Massachusetts voted to not expand the bottle deposit to other beverage containers. But the outcome of the Massachusetts ballot results doesn't change much. It shows that we still have progress to make on the plastic front. Even if the deposit law expanded there was still no proof it would be effective.

If we are unable to impose a surcharge on corporations for a waste tax from the consumer products they make, which end up in landfills, if we cannot provide large financial incentives for consumers to reduce plastic consumption, and if the cost and convenience to produce plastic products remains a strong factor in their growing production, we must find a way to encourage recycling the large quantity of plastic in the world.

Image from hitechautomotive.com

What is an easy short-term solution? Switch the bins!

Think about the following items and what you do with them when you want to get rid of them:

Empty bread bag
Tin tuna can
Paper bag from Chipotle
Deli side dish container
Whipped cream cheese tub
Plastic grocery store bag
Glass pasta jar
Plastic McDonald's cup
Candy bar wrapper
Toothbrush consumer packaging
Clothing tag

You probably throw many of these items in the trash right? Why do we throw perfectly recyclable items into the trash?

1. The trash can is bigger
2. It is in an easier-to-access place in the kitchen
3. It has a lid to contain smells
4. We don't want to take a trip to the recycle bin for a small item
5. Habit

Recycling bins are small, ugly, usually away from us in the garage or outside, and they don't have a top! We throw most of these items I have listed above into the trash when they are clearly recyclable!

The first thing we need to do is get recycling bins that take the place of our trash bins so they are easier to access, can contain smells, and handle most of the items we discard. Then we need to think about each item before we throw it away, asking ourselves if the item can be recycled.

Eventually, with enough practice, we will have just a small amount of things going into the trash with a much larger amount going to recycling. We need to stop asking ourselves, "Is this recyclable?" and start asking ourselves, "Is this trash?"

(1) http://greennature.com/article561.html