[OKC] From Earth911: Why People Don't Recycle

[Miles, Karen]

Why People Don't Recycle

by Ashley Schiller <http://earth911.com/news/author/aschiller/> 


A lot of people just don't recycle. While there may be a temptation to
imagine them as conspiring Earth Haters who take orders directly from
Skeletor, they are usually normal people who try to contribute
positively to society in other ways.
They are members of our family, our neighbors and our friends. So what
makes them choose to bypass the blue bin?
We investigated five individuals who do not regularly recycle. A better
understanding of  their "why" can help proponents of recycling better
understand the "how" of what can be done to increase participation.
Editor's note: Names have been changed to encourage participants to be
candid.

The twenty-something bachelor

Meet Matt, a recent business college graduate living in Utah. While
adapting to his new job, Matt is also preparing to invest in his first
home, not to mention finding a nice young lady with whom he can settle
down. He gives five reasons for not recycling.
"My No. 1 reason is convenience - or should I say, inconvenience," he
says. "We don't have a [curbside] recycling program where I live. You
have to collect all of your items and then drive them to the middle of
nowhere to drop them off. It takes too much extra effort."
Storage is another barrier, especially for those living in multi-family
housing, according to Matt.  "Where am I going to put all of that stuff?
I don't have a lot of extra space, and I don't really want my garbage
lying around my house while it builds up."
Although convenience and storage are the main reasons Matt does not
recycle, there are other factors, including confusing programs. During
college, Matt lived in an apartment complex with a dumpster for
recycables in the parking lot. Even though it made recycling more
convenient, he didn't use it because he didn't know the "rules."
"You can't mix this plastic with that one. Cardboard is OK, but not that
pizza box, even though it's cardboard. Recyclers have their own
language. It's like a foreign country, and I don't want to be a tourist
there," he says.
Matt also doesn't like the philosophy of city-funded programs. "I'm sure
that they pay for themselves to some degree, but I am annoyed that my
tax dollars go to recycling programs," he says. "If people are into
recycling, they should do it on their own. It's not government's place
to decide which causes I support."
Matt's final reason is an interesting insight for those trying to
motivate their friends to get involved. The superior attitude of many
pro-recyclers is an enormous turnoff.
"I wish they would just get off their high green horses," he says. "Stop
being snotty about it. Get your nose out of the air. Stop acting like
you're better than me because you recycle. It makes me want to throw
something in the trash just to spite you."

The thirty-something family guy

Darren is a family guy working for a nonprofit organization in
Washington, DC. While his wife is more apt to recycle, Darren has a hard
time making economic sense of it.
"I'm very skeptical of environmental claims because they are rarely
economic," he says.
Economically speaking, some recycling isn't cost effective, he argues,
citing plastic as an example of a controversial material while others
are agreed to be cost-effective, such as aluminum cans.
"What I wish everyone would learn in Economics 101 is that there are
trade-offs in life. There are both benefits and downsides to recycling,"
Darren explains. "Individually, time is the most precious resource we
use when we recycle. You could have done something else with that time
used to recycle, and you can never get back spent time. On the city
level, it's time, effort and money. It is a question of whether
recycling is the best use of that money, or if it would be better spent
on education or health care. There are always trade-offs."
But people differ in what they consider to be the best trade-off. "I
think a lot of people recycle because it makes them feel good, and
that's fine. For me personally, I get no benefit from recycling, so I
don't' do it," he says.
Darren also says people don't think about what resources will have to be
used to recycle their product. He uses the examples of diapers. While
many people are critical of plastic diapers, cleaning cloth diapers use
water and energy, as well as requiring the use of chemicals that could
eventually get back into the water supply.
"These are strong detergents, but you want a very clean diaper on your
baby. What is the environmental thing to do?" he asks.

The sweet sixteen-ager

Jenny is an enthusiastic teenager who squeezed in a quick interview
between lacrosse games. Her goal is to become a neurosurgeon. Jenny's
main reason for not recycling has a familiar ring: lack of convenience.
"I hardly ever recycle. If I actually find a recycling bin I do - it's
not like I hate the earth or something," she says. "It would make a big
difference if there was a program in my city."
There is also not a strong program in Jenny's school. Some classrooms
have small bins for paper, but she says no one enforces actually using
them.
Aside from a short lecture at the beginning of the year, there is not
much talk about recycling on campus. None of Jenny's friends recycles,
either, and peer influence is especially powerful for teens. "It's just
not a big deal. No one really thinks about it," she says.
Article continues at: 
http://earth911.com/news/2010/10/25/why-people-dont-recycle/
 
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