Recycling is often equated with sustainable practices, and why shouldn't it be? The idea of taking a used resource and melding it into a renewed version of its previous self for use again fits very well into the sustainability fight against pollution and resource depletion.But is recycling really enough? One could argue that recycling is in reality just a band-aid over a much larger problem.While recycling is by all accounts better for the environment than shipping off materials to the nearest landfill (or seeing trash end up in the oceans, such as what takes place in the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch), recycling is in many ways an example of shallow sustainability practices, i.e. it fixes the problem in the short term while ignoring the long term ramifications and underlying root of the problem itself: over consumption (see previous blog post on Reducing Consumption in a Consumerist Society.)
Roseland argues, and I agree, that "'re-think' should be at the top of any waste management hierarchy," followed by practices to reduce consumption, reuse, recycle, and lastly, recover used materials (Toward Sustainable Communities, 74). While recycling may prolong the length of time between the creation of a product and its demise in a landfill, the fact is that if we were to reconsider our consumption in the first place, there would be far less material in need of being recycled at all. When it comes down to it, recycling your plastic bottle may make you feel good about yourself, but it doesn't negate the true costs that went into that bottle's production.
Recycling isn't enough- we need to change our current practices to lead a life that aligns more closely with the tenets of the deep ecology movement, which views life as an interconnected web of interactions and relationships. Recycling certainly will play an important role in our future, but it is not the final answer to using our resources sustainably.
I think your post really hits the problem straight on the head. However, I also think that changing behavior takes time.. and we might not necessarily have that much time available to us as a society. Thus, in the meantime we need to think about other policy mechanisms to divert the amount of products entering our waste stream. Roseland gives many examples of these types of tools. For instance, deposit-refund schemes give people an incentive to recycle their products. We could provide subsidies for reusable containers or tax materials such as plastic, aluminum, metals, etc. Likewise, programs such as pay-as-you-throw encourage people to throw away less trash because the more you throw the more money it costs.
ReplyDeleteHowever in the end, it is most important that we re-think how we dispose of our products and reduce the amount of overall consumption. Even small increases in re-think, re-duce and re-use will have major impacts on the amount of consumption we have as a society.
There are movements out there that stress reusing EVERYTHING...i.e., every single part of a product. I read about one of these in Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, but I'll be darned if I remember the company that was doing it. But basically, they could take the materials used to build one particular product, reuse all of them, and turn it into a chair or something. Or maybe it was make an entire chair out of recycled material. Something like that.
ReplyDeleteI think there's an economic argument out there that says that increased recycling will just lead to further resource use. As in, we know we can recycle something, so it's no big deal to use it the first time. I think I've heard that argument used to point out how paper recycling can increase the rate of deforestation, whereas if we couldn't recycle, we would know that those trees we just chopped down could only be used once, and we might be more in a mood to conserve them instead. So maybe the answer is banning recycling or reusing things completely.
Recycling is not enough - agreed! One Bag At A Time, and the whole idea of reusable bags, is great because it stops the demand for plastic bags. Additional ways to change plastic bag use can be seen at stores such as Marsh, that give you 5 cents off for every reusable bag you bring to put your groceries in.
ReplyDeleteOne Bag At A Time = http://www.onebagatatime.com/bag-blog/recycling-is-not-enough/
Since change behavioral change can be hard to do, why not try changing some of the material? For example, in 2005 only 12% of bottles were recycled.. not so hot. So why not push for recycling AND make biodegradable bottles? It's worth a shot..
Article on biodegradable bottles = http://ensobottles.com/blog/2010/08/why-recycling-is-not-enough-to-solve-plastic-bottle-pollution/
Very interesting blog = http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/lv-grn-why-recy.html
Both have this great, very short, video about recycling water bottles (and the lack there of) check it out, if you have time
I completely agree that recycling isn't enough. I like the concept of "precycling" that Roseland mentioned in CA, just "rethinking" as cooler word. Also, while I know bigger steps have gone towards it, more can be done with reusing. We had to watch a short video for my solid and hazardous waste management class: http://www.hulu.com/watch/184846/cnbc-originals-trash-inc-the-secret-life-of-garbage. While it's a lengthy installment, around 35 min through, a man is using ground up water bottles to make new materials. These materials are used for a variety of products. The sad thing is, is that he has to import a good number of bottles because not enough are recycled in the US and I think everyone has a grasp on how many bottles are produced here. Not cool.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how large of an impact it has made, but several years ago I bought set of cloth napkins and refused to ever buy a roll of paper towels again. One thing I DO know is that I don't feel guilty anymore every time I pull a napkin out of my drawer.
ReplyDeleteIt's also sort of unfortunate that we (as Americans) feel that toilet paper is the best solution to use for *ahem* bathroom hygiene, when it is actually less sanitary and more wasteful than using water and normal washing methods like a large portion of the world does.
Does it get under anyone else's skin how all of the restrooms in the SPEA building still have paper towel dispensers for drying our hands? Isn't one of the ways to induce change to lead by example?
Sure, all of these things I've mentioned are recyclable, but they are all still a huge waste of resources.
I could swear I already posted a comment, but I don't see it. Yes, re-think is the key. As we re-think, we tend to go back in a time before advertising, when common sense prevailed. For example, it used to be cool to bend over a drinking fountain and take a sip when you needed it, without need for a plastic bottle of water and without need for a stainless steel reusable bottle. All you needed were your lips and a little suction. Shallow sustainability gets a lot of attention and it can be the first baby step toward deep sustainability. I tend to encourage any step in the right direction.
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