Yep. And shaming individuals for an inconvenience, unfunded collective mandate is unhelpful when this is a problem to more cheaply and efficiently solved by single-stream recycling. Most Americans are too worried about their jobs, living paycheck-to-paycheck, is too distracted, or has a family to raise and so don't have the time or mental bandwidth to do everything perfectly properly. Also, very little recycled material actually is ever recycled in America so it's generally a virtue signal to look down on others for not conforming to their habits.
Americans throw out more than three-quarters of their household recyclables
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Re: Americans throw out more than three-quarters of their household recyclables
#12Proper sorting and disposal is one challenge. But a larger challenge is that a substantial amount of plastic, even those items we diligently place in recycling bins, are ultimately funneling into landfills, because it isn't cost-effective to reprocess. [1] [1] https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic-...
Americans have been culturally conditioned to be unable to understand the concept of an economic externality.
You might as well tell them that their god isn't omnipotent, because you almost literally are.
Re: Americans throw out more than three-quarters of their household recyclables
#13The summary in this article misses out the key message of the report it is based on which advocates at great length for more "Extended Producer Responsibility".
It is "strategy one" in their three point plan for improvement and 2 and 3 could be considered sub-points of 1.
Re: Americans throw out more than three-quarters of their household recyclables
#14The remaining 25% is thrown out by the recycling company.
Re: Americans throw out more than three-quarters of their household recyclables
#15Proper sorting and disposal is one challenge. But a larger challenge is that a substantial amount of plastic, even those items we diligently place in recycling bins, are ultimately funneling into landfills, because it isn't cost-effective to reprocess. [1] [1] https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic-...
Americans have been culturally conditioned to be unable to understand the concept of an economic externality. You might as well tell them that their god isn't omnipotent, because you almost literally are.
Recycling currently seems to codify externalities by making governments and citizens legally responsible for the pollution and waste that companies generate and encourage.
But return laws can be problematic as well, as in electronics where a company's business incentives are usually for the cheapest (and often least beneficial/most harmful) disposal.