I found this article very interesting and I would implore the United States grocers to follow suit.
I have been thinking more and more about the amount of garbage I produce. I have been guilty of conspicuous consumption these days. I nearly always buy items over the internet, so there are lots of boxes at my house right now.
It's time that I rethink my recycling habits and my purchase habits. When I was single, I'd have weeks where I only had one bag of garbage and a crate of recycling. Now, I often have two full garbage cans.
I think I'm going to Freecycle some stuff, plus restart curbside recycling. I know I'm too lazy to use dropoff points even though it's cheaper. I'd rather recycle fewer materials than losing motivation and chucking stuff in the garbage instead. The amazing thing to me is that fewer than 10% of those eligible for curbside actually subcribe. What is with my city???
And I'm not the only one who is frustrated. This Indianapolis "blog" post shows how many others wish we'd move toward more green habits. I think we should have free recycling but have to pay for garbage, like Bloomington (Indiana) has done.
Argh, you beat me to it. I was going to Soapbox how I *don’t* like recycling, but now it’s going to seem like I did it in response to this.
Recycling goes back into businesses that profit from free raw materials (not to mention the indirect profiteering by being able to claim “greenness”), and that irritates me. A free recycling/paid garbage plan would work, though.
I like the free recycle/paid garbage plan as well.
Yes, I’m annoyed by bandwagon companies that recycle only to be able to claim being “green.” But even greedy recyclers are still recycling. As for profiting from free raw materials, I don’t care if they do. I care about being less of a consumer. For that matter, reduce-reuse-recycle should emphasize the first two sections more, as in those cases, the materials are never created.
It’s hard to live with less in a society that rewards those that have more. Our nation’s level of credit card debt proves that.
What if they charged for garbage unless you also recycled? Sure, a lot of folks would get the recycle bin just to avoid the garbage fee, but if it’s there they might use it.
I take mine to a dropoff point, because I’m too cheap to pay for curbside. But my stuff is still getting recycled!
I like the idea of forced curbside recycling (seems to work in South Bend and Seymour too). I’m not a big fan of the pay-for-trash program, only because it would be a problem for me–lots of litterbox waste from animal rescue, which is all totally/quickly biodegradable and which makes me buy a particular style of trashbag, which probably won’t be the kind I’ll be forced to buy from the city. But the overall idea is good.
I bet this will be one of those things Indy will never bother to solve.