[Justine S]

Hey everyone,
Today at the Global Issues Club meeting, we were discussing ways by which we can pursuade students at our school to recycle their pop cans and juice boxes, instead of throwing them in the garbage. Our school is terrible in terms of litter and recycling. Even though the recycling bin is right beside the garbage can, students will throw their cans in the garbage. I don't understand how people can be this careless, but I guess it's their choice. My question to everyone: how do you think we can get people to start recycling? Or do you feel that this is not an important issue? Also, to those of you not from Dover Bay Secondary, what is the recycling situation at your school like?

[Stephen M]

Another problem at our school is garbage--not enough of it goes in the bins. So I see the problem is to (i) get people to start throwing refuse in garbage bins/recycling boxes, instead of the floor, and (2) teach people to differentiate between garbage and recycling and CARE.

I will deal wit the second one (because this is a thread on recycling) but as you will see it is linked to the first. You see the problem with getting people to recycle is that you are making them do something on top of not putting it on the floor (now for many of us this is just common sense but in my school you wouldn't believe the mess). So if one throws their recyclable materials into a nearbye garbage can, they aren't thinking... darn, I should have gone and found a recycling, they think... hey I did well and found a garbage can!

Also, at least at our school (Dover), the litter problem was so bad that it was the focus of staff adn student efforts. With this effort ("put things in the garbage can") it is sort of hard to send out what students may percieve as an opposite message ("don't put THESE in the garbage bin").

But I am being overly pessimistic. I think it is just a question of getting the recycling bins out there... for instance in many cafeterias and food courts I have seen there are recycling (bottles) bins right next to garbage bins, and they are appropriately marked. This comprises the two steps: make the recycling boxes/bins available, and let people know exactly what to put in and wat not to. Garbage bins should also be labeled with what not to put in, and be next to recycling bins.

As for the importance of a problem, I think recycling in general (the three
"R's" in fact--reduce, reuse, recycle) is an important concept to put into practice in one's life. I think that the concept is perhaps greater than the act of recycling--i.e. using renewable resources. I see this as the recycling of resources. But also recycling in daily life is important because it reduces the resources consumed in the first place.

[Justine S]

Stephen M, on Oct 27 2004, 04:13 AM, said:

teach people to differentiate between garbage and recycling and CARE.

That sounds great.

In a perfect world, you would put up the labels, make everything accessible, and every student would put their garbage and recycling into the appropriate containers.

Our school is nothing close to a perfect world.

The problem is that, as you said, they don't care. Once they care, then everything else will fall into place. But how can you make someone care? Can you really change the way they feel about the world and make them a kinder person? Or is it just a matter of getting the information out to them in an effective format?

Is this possible? If it is, how could we make the first step in solving the problem? Although, to me it seems as though the problem is humanity and our complicated minds.

[Stephen M]

Justine S said:

Although, to me it seems as though the problem is humanity and our complicated minds.

Indeed, the "exploitative mindset of humanity," which you touch upon, has coem up recently in debating club. It is also a great philisophical debate: wether humans are basically good or evil.

Justine S said:

But how can you make someone care? Can you really change the way they feel about the world and make them a kinder person?

To answer this, think about the last time something really affected you. Somethi8ng made you care about an issue. Now, chances are this thing was a picture, movie or book--some sort of story. We need to find things that people can relate to, for these are the things that affect us most.

However, we in this world are bombarded by a multitude of stories--a multitude of relevant things (AIDS in Africa, be polite, Red Sox Win, Don't put your recycling in the garbage bin, etc...) that it is hard to pick one out to focus on, much less good in all things. So, all things considered, I think our society and our school are making progress on recycling by actually having recycling bins available and having many students use them correctly.

[Devin T]

The solution for garbage: Eliminate janitors.

Too often we expect people to act for no reason. Presently there is no penalty for not throwing things away. If we let waste build up around the school, students will realize that being responsible with their garbage is necessary.

The same applies to recycling. Once humans start to run out of plastics, etc. they will realize the folly of their actions.

[Robbert L]

hey Steve/Justine,

Well this sounds bad but I'll let you know how we (in The Netherlands) face this problem, at least at my school .

We don't have any recycling bins, or anything like that and we also have a lot of mess, but we have found some solutions, one effective some less....

The first one is: After each break 7-8 students have to stay and clean up where pupils can eat during their break, these students have to do that for a week. How these are chosen: Each student has to do it once a year. They start with the seniors and go all the way back to the freshmen, but sometimes it occurs that there are so many classes that not every student has to clean up.

The second one is: There are always two people "looking around" during the breaks (we have a big school so we have four breaks a day, two for the younger pupils and two four the older pupils) these two people have got to supervise and the look out if there aren't any fights, people who trow garbage on the ground etc. But if one sees you throwing garbage on the ground, then you're screwed:
You have to come with him, carrying a red basket where other students can throw there garbage in There is no way at my school you can be humiliated more then to get punished like this, maybe a idea for the most persistent pollutionar at your school .

But I agree with Justine, we should have more attention drawn to the fact that we quite pollution our world.

But to brighten things of, in the Netherlands we have three different bins at home, one for paper, one for fruit, vegetables and garden garbage (sorry, translated it directly from Dutch) and one for the "rest". And small chemical waste is also picked up at homes, once in 3 months at the end of a street you can bring, so you can get rid of your batteries etc.

Hopefully you think my post is usefull to your problem!!

also some apologies for my long absence on this forum have been quite busy.

[Justine S]

Devin T, on Oct 29 2004, 12:53 AM, said:

Once humans start to run out of plastics, etc. they will realize the folly of their actions.

Will they? I'm no expert, but it seems to me as though by the time we realize "the folly of our actions" we will already be dead.

Although pollution is already a huge problem, many people aren't adjusting their lifestyles to compensate for this. So if they havn't realized this already, they might wake up one day and say 'Oh look, we've depleted all our natural resources, ruined the earth, and polluted the air. I think today I'll start recycling." And then they will die because it is too late!

Or am I wrong? One day soon will people wake up and want to recycle? This just doesn't seem realistic to me.

Instead of waiting for everyone to realize the consequences of their actions, I think we could pursuade them that there's already been plenty of damage done to the earth. I like Steve's idea of using stories, effective ones. That could be the way to someone's heart, which then gets them caring and thinking, and then they'll recycle!

[Devin T]

Justine S said:

Although pollution is already a huge problem, many people aren't adjusting their lifestyles to compensate for this

I see no evidence for this. Probably most people don't either.

[Stephen M]

Devin T said:

I see no evidence for this [pollution problem]. Probably most people don't either.

The evidence is there: see www.pollution.com for an exaple (I haven't checked out the site's credentials yet). Unfortunately, humanity's apathy means that even when evidence of a large progem is in front of us (or perhaps in the case of pollution, over our cities and in our water) we do not act, preferring to lead our unhealthy lifestyles.

Here is a question for Devin: for the human race as a whole, is an apathetic lifestyle sustainable? It seemed that way when the world was much larger than the population needed, but given finite resources and ever-expanding technology which expands population (I can explain why if neccesary), can humanity sustain itself?

ASIDE: I would reccomend, for anyone interested in economics, Jane Jacobs' "Cities and the Wealth of Nations." It explains how, in her view, macroeconomics deos not work because the fundamental unit of economics is not the nation but the city. Very interesting read... I found that it is explaining to me why foreign development in often overvalued.

[Charlotte N]

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Or am I wrong? One day soon will people wake up and want to recycle?

You're right. This is why we pay people to recycle ex. 5c per juice box you bring in to the recycling depot. This is only true for juce boxes, cans, and some other drink containers. Possibly if we started doing this for other recyclable things- newspapers etc. more people would recycle those as well.

I realise that it would be perfect if people knew how they could help the world and did it out of the goodness of their hearts, but I really think that giving a reward would encourage more people to recycle. Problem: Money doesn't just appear, how would we afford this?

More public service adds as well? (Just so people know how they're helping)

[Duncan P]

I think Charlotte is completly right. In order for most people to become motivated, they need some kind of incentive to be bothered to do it. On the money side of things, I'm pretty sure the recycle depot is able to pay people to bring in stuff because people who make products are able to make them cheaper with recyclable goods. I'm not sure if this is a fact or not but it stands to reason. I'm not sure if more public service ads would work because they're on t.v. right now and some people are still doing nothing about it.
Thanks.

[Justine S]

Duncan P, on Nov 15 2004, 05:46 AM, said:

In order for most people to become motivated, they need some kind of incentive to be bothered to do it.

Shouldn't the incentive be to help the environment? We live on this earth and enjoy so many benefits from it, so can't we do this one simple thing to help it out?

Let's say that money was the only way we could get people to want to recycle. Would the money come from the government? There are so many other things that would have a higher priority that it would never happen.

Now let's say the government did set aside some money for recycling. Would it be better to give the money away as a reward, or put it towards making recycling easier and more effective (like putting out more recycling bins, putting out information, etc. etc.)?

Will this ever work?! I guess now this connects to the other topic of what the world needs. It all connects in some way or another...

[Duncan P]

I agree with you Justine. It would be incredable nice if everyone would contribute to the preservation of the environment. But some people aren't motivated. I recently debated a topic about how the environment was more important than anything else. On the negative side we came up with the idea of the Exploitative Mindset of Mankind. That just basically means that some humans are selfish creatures that will only do something if it benifits them in the short term. Unfortunately, many people don't see the advantages of saving the enivornment, and many people might suffer in the future because of the present day's mindset. Well thats my opinion.
Thanks

[Charlotte N]

Quote

Shouldn't the incentive be to help the environment? We live on this earth and enjoy so many benefits from it, so can't we do this one simple thing to help it out?

Yes, it should be our incentive, but then why do so many people not take the incentive? Either they don't care, don't want to take the bother of recycling, or don't believe they are making a difference. We could convince more people to recycle if there was a reward.
Possibly the government would pay for this- you say there are more major issues, but the environment is a pressing issue of today. If this helped, it would be worth putting money into

Quote

Now let's say the government did set aside some money for recycling. Would it be better to give the money away as a reward, or put it towards making recycling easier and more effective (like putting out more recycling bins, putting out information, etc. etc.)?

I think it would be better to give money as a reward. Seriously, I think it's better to have more people recycling and have the process slower than have fewer people recycling and a faster system

haha, Duncan posted while I was writing this. Sorry if some of the info is repeated!

This post has been edited by Charlotte N: 16 November 2004 - 03:31 AM

[Geoff M]

I agree that it would help to give money as a reward for recycling. I mean look how many cans are recycled mainly because of the pitiful 5 cents recieved for each can (bottle drive anyone?)! I mean can you imagine how much it would help to give even say 2 cents for a tin can? or 10 cents for a milk carton? We could even go so far as saying for "this" weight of cardboard you get 5 cents or something. I believe it would make people think twice before throwing some things away.

As a second point I think they should have the service of recieving money for empty cans at schools and other public places. I believe this would cut down on the amount of cans randomly thrown everywhere.