We all create trash everyday and we are used to collecting it and throwing it out in big bins every week. Most of us have a normal large trash bin and a large blue recycling bin. Our recycling bin can be limited and you cannot simply add anything that is recyclable to it, there are rules. This is the extent of the average trash service in America. The United States has a culture of consumption and convenience; we do not always thinking about the larger scale impact of our daily choices. This is something we need to take a look and make a change to improve our environment’s health for the future and ourselves.
The way that we treat trash in America is part of the problem for our environment as a whole. To put it into perspective, “Every 15.5 hours, Americans throw out enough plastic to fill the largest NFL stadium in the country, AT&T Stadium (the home of the Dallas Cowboys), and the pile grows larger every year” (Pforzheimer, 2021). This has an enormous negative impact on our environment and if we do not get it under control it will only get worse. A large portion of our garbage consists of a lot of single use items; this creates more mass to be collected, wasted, and puts more fuel towards global warming. That is not the only way we are being affected by this problem, we also have to deal with air pollution, water contamination, and ocean contamination. There are ways we can improve our current trash system to make it more environmentally friendly and lower the impact overall.
I had the incredible opportunity to live in Germany for three years and there were many things that I loved about that experience. One thing that really stood out to me was their recycling system. I know, it sounds weird and trust me it was pretty frustrating at first, but once I got the hang of it I could not believe that we do not do this in America. It involved a lot of different bags/bins, yellow for plastic/metal containers, blue for paper/cardboard, brown bin for compostable biodegradable waste, and a much smaller grey bin for everything else. Also, where I lived every village had their own glass collection at an easy access location with three very large receptacles; white, brown, and green for the different colors of glass. They were very strict about trash and if you put the wrong thing in the wrong bag/bin they would not pick it up. Then you would have to take your own trash to a location to be appropriately processed, i.e. frustration. I was just being an impatient American and did not want to correctly sort things, but they made me. Pretty soon I started to do it naturally and my “everything else bin” became less and less full every week. This of course made me feel good about doing my part and made me think more about all of the waste I make and where it goes. This whole experience definitely changed my ideas about trash, the types of items I buy, and making more conscious purchases to buy reusable items and fewer plastics.
Let’s look at Steg and Vlek’s four-step process to promote pro-environmental behavior. The first step is to choose a specific behavior that can be changed and will improve our environment (Gruman et al., 2017). For this situation we are examining our trash system in America and how it can be improved to produce less damaging waste for our environment. The second step is to examine the fundamental factors of this behavior (Gruman et al., 2017). The main factors here are that we create and throw away a lot of trash that could be handled in a better manor. We have a culture of consumption and convenience that lends to the way we think (or don’t think) about items and throw them away. We have an outdated trash system in place that does not properly mange our waste in a more environmentally friendly way. The third step is to create and apply an intervention to attack the problem and decrease the negative affect on the environment (Gruman et al., 2017). As I have mentioned above, Germany is a great example of how to implement a cyclical recycling process. Where the majority of items that you use get recycled and reused. We could take their structured system and phase it in to our current system, until it can be fully applied. The fourth step is to evaluate the intervention and the effects it has on the behavior, the environment, and human life (Gruman et al., 2017). It is a fact that German citizens throw away a much smaller amount of trash “everything else bin” in comparison to other countries, about half of the world’s waste generation per capita (Bravo, 2021). If America were to use this intervention imagine how much better we could make our environment. I acknowledge that this would be hard to implement and not all American’s would be on board immediately. As Bravo stated in his article, “the involvement of citizens has been key to its success” (Bravo, 2021). We would have to phase it in slowly, effectively; maybe with incentives to get buy-in and then it would become the new norm and America would have a healthier future!
References
Bravo, E. (2021). The German recycling system: The world’s best recycling country. Tomorrow.City – The biggest platform about urban innovation. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://tomorrow.city/a/german-recycling-system
Gruman, J.A., Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Pforzheimer, A. (2021). Trash in America. The Public Interest Network. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://publicinterestnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/US_Trash-in-America-2021-SCRN.pdf
I find it very interesting how recycling methods differ from country to country. Japan also has detailed rules on how to dispose of garbage. For example, after separating recyclable and non-recyclable items, it is necessary to further separate them into smaller items such as clothes, milk cartons, magazines, newspapers, cardboard boxes, and so on. In addition, garbage cannot be taken out every day of the week, so if you forget to take it out, you have to wait until the next garbage day. If you have to sort your garbage so finely and can only take it out a few times a week, as you mention, I began to think about the need to reduce garbage as well.
I also agree with you that the rate of recycling could be increased by other countries gradually adopting some of the recycling initiatives that Germany is undertaking. For example, according to Bennett and Alexandridis (2021), Germany sends pamphlets and booklets to its citizens to educate them about the recycling process so that residents understand how the system works and how to properly participate, and the German government has fined citizens for improper waste sorting. Other systems have been set up to promote recycling by providing economic incentives, such as repayment of a deposit if they recycle (Bennett & Alexandridis, 2021) In this way, government-led education and incentives may be important for citizens to understand and take action. Although it is costly, it would be worthwhile to follow Germany’s example and try to implement it step by step.
References
Bennett, E. M., & Alexandridis, P. (2021). Informing the public and educating students on plastic recycling. Recycling; Basel, 6(4), 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling6040069
It’s smart to look to other country’s recycling methods and encourage that America follows suit. Because you’re right, our current recycling program does not effectively handle our trash situation. There needs to be a give-and-take between American citizens and the set-up of our waste program. This situation falls neatly into the social dilemma category, specifically a social trap, because most people discount the negative long-term effect and then engage in the short-term reward (i.e., not recycling) since its easier (Gruman et al., 2016). I would wager that incentives are necessary when it comes to implementing “green” solutions. Specifically, its noted in a study on water consumption that those who had an increase of environmental information experienced more pro-environmental behavior with reduced water consumption compared to those who simply received monetary incentives (Rajapaksa et al., 2019). Its surprising to discover that non-monetary incentives resulted in increased pro-environmental behavior; however, reading further, its noted that since this information campaign had a positive impact on attitudes and behaviors, its more likely to have a long-term effect (Rajapaksa et al., 2019). Which makes sense given that behavioral change is more impactful and sustainable than doing something for monetary gain. It’s rooted in the human experience whereas monetary incentives are superficial. So, when thinking of an intervention, incorporating an information campaign to promote pro-environmental behavior may be the way to go!
References
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Rajapaksa, D., Gifford, R., Torgler, B., Garcia-Valiñas, M., Athukorala, W., Managi, S., & Wilson, C. (2019). Do monetary and non-monetary incentives influence environmental attitudes and behavior? Evidence from an experimental analysis. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 149, 168-176.