The United States recycling system is broken. Hearing about the recycling practices in many of my friends’ home towns and reflecting upon my own town’s systems after coming to Penn State has brought this issue to life in my mind. In 1960, Americans produced about 2.68 pounds of garbage a day. By 2017, that number had risen to an average of 4.51 pounds. That puts the total generation of municipal solid waste in the U.S. at 267.8 million tons that year. Although many Americans now recycle on a daily basis, their efforts are put to waste. The reason? Because the system is not set up to succeed.

Recyclables can easily become contaminated. If a single item is placed in the wrong bin, or a dirty food container makes its way into the mix, the entire batch of material cannot be recycled. Beyond this, certain facilities can only process certain materials. Some things that people place in recycling bins, such as plastic bags, takeout containers, plastic utensils and more, end up incinerated or in a landfill. This is hurting our planet in more ways than one.

Problem 1:

Landfills are huge producers of methane gas. The burning of large, open piles of trash emits dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide. The release of both gasses is one of the great contributors to global warming and climate change. Not only that, but recyclables are taking up space that trash would otherwise occupy. Our landfills are overflowing and pollution is becoming an even more pressing issue, as a result.

Problem 2:

Waste production affects all life on Earth. One of the biggest issues, though, is its effect on marine life. Our trash often ends up in waterways or the ocean. For marine life that can’t distinguish between waste and food, consumption of trash leads to certain death. Most animals do not have the stomach acidity to break down plastics, and so they will starve to death because they cannot handle the plastic fragments they have ingested.

So how do we fix the issue?

Unfortunately, the answer is not simple. A certain amount of change must happen on both the corporate end and the consumer end. For one, end-of-life management needs to be integrated into product packaging designs. Moreover, greater public awareness needs to be drawn on how to properly dispose of different types of waste and recyclables, as well.

I think it would be beneficial to take inspiration from other countries’ recycling models. For example, Germany is currently leading one of the most successful recycling initiatives. They have strong government policies on the matter, high public awareness, and a mandatory waste sorting system. No system is perfect, of course, but we should learn from others’ successes in this area to better the United States and ultimately the world.

Again, there is no easy solution. But that does not mean we should ignore the problem at hand. Here is a link to help better your own recycling practices, and hopefully the system will see some significant improvements in the coming years.