Recycling Dilemma

As a member of society who regularly recycles, I was dumbfounded when I noticed that three of the four members of my household had not recycled their Styrofoam dinner containers.  As I was retrieving the recyclables from the trashcan it made me wonder, why do some people recycle and others not?  Furthermore, if this is going on in my household, how many other households are ignoring the global recycling efforts and what can I do to encourage my family members to participate in these efforts?

To tackle these questions, I decided to get statistics on recycling.  Of course, I was amazed to learn that one person creates 4 pounds of trash per day, which is equivalent to 1.5 tons per year (#1 Recycling Fact, 2017). This certainly is problematic when one considers the world’s population.  As I write this blog the world’s population is just above 7.5 billion (Current World Population, 2017). Estimates suggest that American’s currently recycle about 34.6% of their waste (EPA, 2016).  This lackluster number encouraged me to motivate my family members to become part of the recycling community. 

Recycling is considered both a social and resource dilemma.  Recycling benefits society because it reduces solid waste, pollution, and contamination, preserves our natural resources, creates jobs, and saves money. However, with only 34% of the American population contributed to these causes there seems to be a public goods problem.  Public goods problems are created when an individual must decide to contribute to a project benefiting everyone and is voluntary (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).  Recycling does help everyone in the environment, takes an effort, and is voluntary.  This could be the rationale why some take the time to recycle and other’s do not.  However, when enough members of society contribute to the public good of recycling, both the environment and society benefit.  The EPA began a campaign, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in part due to the limited number of resources that are being depleted (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, 2017).  Many people in our society seem to believe the earth has an unlimited supply of resources and they continue to exploit these resources which may lead to “tragedy of the commons” (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Willian Lloyd termed this phrase to describe individual compulsion to increase resource use in a limited resource world (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).  Psychologists have been employed to study this and other types of attitudes and behaviors to encourage recycling efforts.

Researchers determined that “recycling behaviors are affected by people’s attitudes toward recycling, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and personal norms” (Onel & Mukherjee, 2017).  Furthermore, household recycling efforts should be made convenient to increase participation (Onel & Mukherjee, 2017).  Armed with this data, my hope was to alter my family’s behaviors and attitudes towards recycling. I started by moving the recycling bin in closer proximity to the trashcan.  Now that the recycling bin is conveniently located near the trashcan it will be an obvious choice.  Furthermore, my family enjoys wildlife.  Local visits to the zoo, aquarium, and even the backyard reveal all the wondrous animals for us to enjoy.  Unfortunately, waste products such as plastics are harming our environment and wildlife.  So, when I informed my family of the harmful pollution effecting wildlife they are admit about Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling as an effort to protect the environment and wildlife (ESI Field Report, n.d).  In just one week they are notably more consciousness of disposing of their plastics and other waste materials in the proper recycling bins.

Our planet has limited resources and by altering perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes psychologists are enabling people to become consciousness and accountable for their recycling efforts.  Conveniently changing the location of the recycle bin near the trashcan has enabled my family members to recycle more frequently.  Also, showing the children informational appeals from various wildlife advocacy groups about the harmful effect plastics has on wildlife renewed their recycling efforts.  Both social and resource dilemmas are barriers to recycling.  Hopefully with positive changes in social norms, government interventions, and personal attitudes these factors will alleviate these barriers.  I know my recycling efforts are paramount for future generations to enjoy this beautiful landscape and I hope you will all join and increase the recycling efforts.

 

Endangered Species International, Inc. (n.d.) ESI Field Report – Important Call: Plastics kill! Retrieved from http://endangeredspeciesinternational.org/plastickills.html

Onel, N., and Mukherjee, A. (2017). Why do consumers recycle? A holistic perspective encompassing moral considerations, affective responses, and interest motives. Psychology & Marketing. 34(10). 956-971. DOI 10.1002/mar.21035

Recycling Facts. (2017). #1 Recycling Fact: You can make a difference. Retrieved from https://recyclingfacts.org/

Schneider, F., Gruman, J., Coutts, L. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Los Angeles. Sage.

Worldometers. (2017). Current World Population.  Retrieved from http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2016). Advancing sustainable materials management: 2014 Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-11/documents/2014_smmfactsheet_508.pdf

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2017). Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/recycle

 

1 comment

  1. I thought that this was a very eye-opening article. I guess with my generation in which recycling was a hot topic and even the reason for many school-wide presentations that recycling is just 2nd nature. I had always assumed that most people recycled to some degree even if they aren’t as religious about it as I am since I separate everything that people would at least be doing the bare minimum of doing paper and plastic. So, I guess I was just naive about it. Everyone in my family recycles pretty much everything. It was good to see that this had a positive ending with more recycling going on.

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