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In fact, the most sustainable option isn’t available at the trash bin. It happens earlier, before you’re handed a disposable cup in the first place.
In our research on waste behavior, sustainability, engi
In two nationwide surveys in the U.S. that we conducted in October 2019 and March 2022, we found that people overlook waste reduction and reuse in favor of recycling. We call this tendency recycling bias and reduction neglect.
Our results show that a decades-long effort to educate the U.S. public about recycling has succeeded in some ways but failed in others. These efforts have made recycling an option that consumers see as important – but to the detriment of more sustainable options. And it has not made people more effective recyclers.
A global waste crisis
Experts and advocates widely agree that humans are generating waste worldwide at levels that are unmanageable and unsustainable. Microplastics are polluting the Earth’s most remote regions and amassing in the bodies of humans and animals.
Producing and disposing of goods is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and a public health threat, especially for vulnerable communities that receive large quantities of waste. New research suggests that even when plastic does get recycled, it produces staggering amounts of microplastic pollution.
Given the scope and urgency of this problem, in June 2023 the United Nations convened talks with government representatives from around the globe to begin drafting a legally binding pact aimed at stemming harmful plastic waste. Meanwhile, many U.S. cities and states are banning single-use plastic products or restricting their use.
Upstream and downstream solutions
Experts have long recommended tackling the waste problem by prioritizing source reduction strategies that prevent the creation of waste in the first place, rather than seeking to manage and mitigate its impact later.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other prominent environmental organizations like the U.N. Environment Programme use a framework called the waste management hierarchy that ranks strategies from most to least environmentally preferred.
The familiar waste management hierarchy urges people to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” in that order. Creating items that can be recycled is better from a sustainability perspective than burning them in an incinerator or burying them in a landfill, but it still consumes energy and resources.
In contrast, reducing waste generation conserves natural resources and avoids other negative environmental impacts throughout a product’s life.
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Excellent article. The frustration is the whole way the system is set up and now with covid and other fear porn making us over the top germophobes, the board of health is never going to let us bring our own containers to be filled at, say, Island Market deli or hot food case. (I tried, asked, they said no due to health reasons.) So then the solution for me is, don’t buy hot prepared food from their deli anymore. That is an easy decision. Mainly due to the outrageous price increases that make it impossible to even buy potatoes or bean salad. For others, that’s a hard one to sell to people when people are on the go, working too hard and too busy, and they need something quick so they take the easy way out – prepared food in plastic containers or paper boxes (lined, so not recyclable) and dirty food anything is not recyclable – like that pizza box full of grease. That means no to paper plates, napkins, paper towels, ETC – they can’t be recycled.
China is taking none of our recyclables anymore. We used to dump it on them for a price. We were misled by all the hype to think that ALL the numbers of plastic would be recyclable; now only 1 and 2 are recyclable – and you can thank the hardworking staff at ORS to find a downstream facility that will even take those!
In 2012, County Council made a grave error, IMO. We were redoing the solid waste plan. Some of us were working hard to get them to embrace the idea of heading toward zero waste as a viable direction, even if it wasn’t achievable. The county controlled and owned the dump and Exchange; it’s on their land. This is why the Exchange had to do what they did when it burned down.
To our complete dismay, Council made a decision to push curbside pickup so that people would not have to self-haul. This has been ten steps backwards, and a 180 degree turn from zero waste. For instance, at Lavender Hollow we have garbage and recycle dumpsters. If even ONE wrong thing – such as soiled food containers, even if recyclable when clean – gets put into the recycle bin, the whole bin is considered garbage and taken to the landfill because we have no way of sorting that out. The program, IMO, is a giant failure, even though it is such a convenience to us, many of whom don’t drive or have a reliable car, because people get confused which bin is what. Or they don’t understand what is actually recyclable, or have time to sort or make those decisions – or just not care. But it doesn’t encourage collaboration or neighbor helping neighbor – which is another way to reduce and reuse.
In a culture of runaway wealth leaving the rest of society behind and struggling, while a few at the top own everything and others think that climbing toward wealth solve all their problems, I don’t see this trend changing. How would we convince the board of health to let us bring our own containers, when contamination is such a big threat and fear? We won’t; there are laws protecting us from everything – as if we can’t think or make the right decisions, and we as a people have been lured into this cultural laziness.
I say this to myself most of all… but also to the rest of us. I’m an inconsistent cook and I don’t especially enjoy cooking, but all of this has helped me realize that I need to prepare food at home, bring it in the container of my choice that IS washable and reusable, and wean myself off of hot and cold prepared meals as the easy way out – that has been so easy since deli prices at Island Market are now one price for everything and that price is out of sight for a budget such as mine. to pay $9.99 a pound for cheap foods such as potatoes or beans is no longer an option for me. As well, I can bake instead of buy things like crackers or cookies. So many foods we buy today are canned or bagged and boxed in unrecyclable materials. Tetra packs are great but we pay the cost of having to dispose of them. They too were supposed to be “recyclable.” They are not. All of this becomes someone else’s downstream problem. So many packaged foods are not one bit recyclable. I am guilty of this and it is something I can change with awareness, and reeducation. Others can too.
We have been heading in the wrong direction. Everything is so sanitized to the point that many people don’t even hug each other anymore for fear of ‘catching’ something. What about well being of the soul? I believe that this can help keep us healthier. We need connection.
Japan had the right idea, making beautiful reusable things such as waxed fabric to carry food, using pretty fabric and natural materials such as raffia or jute to wrap gifts, ETC. The whole culture was based on beauty and re-use of a few treasured things; much less than many folks in the USA can managed. Things were displyaed, loved, used. I don’t know what it’s like today in “post modern” times but if they are influenced by the USA and the global profiteering garbage, mining, and petroleum cartel, we are doing poorly worldwide, as the Ocean gyres and water pollution troubles show.
This article is a good wake up call and reminder to think before buying, and save money and waste in the process.