Why Don't You Recycle?

[Gin&Tonic]

I don't recycle.

At all.

Anything.

I'm not a bad person, sure, I care about the planet, but hey! What's one person sorting their paper from their plastic gonna realistically do for the planet?

Aren't there enough evil big companies out there that don't recycle? Can't we blame them? Okay. As long as I don't have to admit I'm lazy.

Can I make a difference? Is my zero point a billion zeros one conrtibution really worth me sorting through my garbage? Should I feel guilty?

How many of us here recycle, and how many of us here feel guilty that we don't? Why don't we recycle? Do we want to, but are too lazy? Is it too hard? Recyclers, do you despair at people like me and my fellow non-recyclers? Deep down I know, I should recycle, but the rubbish is being dumped somewhere I can't see it. Out of sight, out of mind. I wish I could see the damage non-biodegradable waste does to our planet. Then maybe I'd understand, and take the time. Do we need better, more relevant education therefore?

What's everyone's standpoint?

[Twatybollocks]

I would recycle if the council would get off their lazy arses and get the program going. Just a few housing estates away they get several different bins and bags for storing bottles, paper, aluminium cans etc and the council picks them up once a week. They still haven't implemented it on our estate and we've been waiting 5 years!

[Leonidas]

What's one person sorting their paper from their plastic gonna realistically do for the planet?

But that is what everyone who doesn't recycle thinks. What difference can just I make? But if everyone who thought that way then changed their ways, then it would make an astronmical difference. What needs to happen is people need to visably be seen to making an effort in order to encourage others.

Aren't there enough evil big companies out there that don't recycle? Can't we blame them? Okay. As long as I don't have to admit I'm lazy.


Some of these huge companies are actually doing huge amounts to recycle, and making a difference. For example, I found out yesterday that the Hilton chain in the UK and Ireland is making huge leaps in trying to save energy and recycle produce. When you think of the amount of rubbish produced by such a huge hotel chain, then this can make a difference. However, not enough is done by enough companies such as this, and so it can seem quite pointless.

[Playbus]

I simply don't have time to sort my rubbish into catagories.

And what do I pay £104 to the council every month for anyway?

[Mystical Parrot]

i recycle, lots.

here in brighton the council introduced a scheme to recycle more household waste. we recycle paper, bottles, plastic bottles, tins, batteries, cardboard and egg boxes.

the council also introduced a subsidised composter scheme to reduce waste that can be disposed of by composting.

why do i recycle? well the economic effects arnt a reason (it costs more to recycle than to produce new tin cans and botttles) but we cannot continue to fill dumps with our rubbish or we wont have anywhere left to fill. it is really a waste of resources as well if we just throw everything out without thinking about the future and surely we want to keep the world as clean as possible with as much unused resources as we can if we have the choice of using something else.

while it takes time to sort out your waste surely it is better to spend 5 minutes sorting than have future generations living on tips with no resources left isnt it?

[Cheeky Prophet]

I live in Germany, where one of their biggest concerns is the environment (which I think is wonderful because of the beautiful gardens, and clean streets and whatnot), and everyone recycles. There's certain days of the week specified that it's a plastic day, or a bio day, and you can only put out that trash. You're also only allowed one trash can for normal trash, so that you don't end up throwing everything in there (you'd run out of room).

I think its wonderful. So, I have to take a few seconds every morning to tear the plastic off of my microwavable breakfast and throw it in a separate trash can, or take a few seconds sorting my trash before I throw it away, but it eventually becomes second nature- you don't even have to think about it.

When I was visiting Texas this summer, I was so used to recycling that I had to consciously think before I threw anything away not to have to separate the plastic and paper. I was so used to recycling that not recycling became an inconvenience to me, if that makes any sense.

If you neglect the environment now, it only going to make it worse down the road. So what if you're only one person? If everyone felt their vote wouldn't count in an election, no one would get elected. You just have to think that no matter how small, that it does make a difference.

[Deathdevil]

You know if every person thaught, what is it going to help if I recycle, then no one would and that would result and us being out of resources in 10 years.

I think it's important to recycle. Even with small things, like paper... Paper can be recycled and made new paper from with only 1/3 the amount of wood to make the same amount. So each time you save up 2/3 of a forest...that's worth a minute of your time...

Let's face it, recycling isn't hard but it helps the earth and it helps us. So, RECYCLE! :p

[Mystical Parrot]

i think we have more than 10 years of resources left but we shouldnt just exploit them and leave the next generation with nowt to build spaceships to escape to the moon

[Fick]

I recycle glass jars and bottles, paper, and cans because the council make it easy for me to do so by providing a box in which I dump them, they then collect it every two weeks and someone else has the hassle of sorting it.

But if I had to sort it all out myself I would probably recycle less.

[gotmarmalade?]

im too lazy to recycle i just cant be arsed but i do work in a charity shop so it balances out!

[Gork]

Well, I like to see mother earth suffer so I don't recycle. Instead I go out and buy all sorts of hazardous material and then go out to the wild life sanctuary. There I dump out all of the Haz-mat into the lake or force-feed it to some endangered species, depending on my mood. Most of the time though I just throw the paper into the aluminum only bins and the aluminum into the plastic only section.

[pebble_rebel]

Well, I like to see mother earth suffer so I don't recycle. Instead I go out and buy all sorts of hazardous material and then go out to the wild life sanctuary. There I dump out all of the Haz-mat into the lake or force-feed it to some endangered species, depending on my mood. Most of the time though I just throw the paper into the aluminum only bins and the aluminum into the plastic only section.
I prefer to just leave it in a pile outside my house, sometimes sprinkerling it with tit bits to encourage small mammals to become entwined in packs of beer and umm... yogurt pots.

[Jasmic]

My local authority is pretty good. We have one black wheely bin, for normal yukky rubbish, and a green wheely bin for recycling. The black bin gets emptied every week, the green once every two. To be honest, I recycle so much that I could get away with reversing this. That is for a family of four, without glass that I have to take to the bottle bank myself, which I do as well.

It is up to us to do everything we can to recycle. It doesn't bother me that my next door neighbour cannot be bothered. That is up to him, but I have been doing everything I can for a good few years now.

[Fick]

My local authority is pretty good. We have one black wheely bin, for normal yukky rubbish, and a green wheely bin for recycling. The black bin gets emptied every week, the green once every two. To be honest, I recycle so much that I could get away with reversing this. That is for a family of four, without glass that I have to take to the bottle bank myself, which I do as well.

It is up to us to do everything we can to recycle. It doesn't bother me that my next door neighbour cannot be bothered. That is up to him, but I have been doing everything I can for a good few years now.

I was about to say the same thing about green bins, but then I noticed your location. ;)

[Deathdevil]

We have:

Black bag -> normal garbage (gets emptied every week)
Green bin (large) -> garbage from the garden, all green stuff (gets emptied once a week)
Blue bag -> metal tins, lastic cartons, milk cartons, ... (emptied once a week)
Paper -> paper... (gets emptied twice a week and there's a maximum amount, don't know at what it is right now, I think 0.5 M²

Glass -> glass... (You have to bring it to a special collectors tin in a busy part of the city...

It works alright... U have to pay for everything except for the Glass and Paper...
The other things work with stickers. U get the bags and bin for free, but you have to put a sticker on it if you want it to be emptied. They pull off the sticker so you can't use 'em twice.

[Jimmeh]

I recycle often.. Probably because I believe that if everybody had the "I only make a teensiest difference" idea that there would be serious problems... Also it doesn't take much out of my time so that's hardly a problem..

I dont really cringe or get angry that people who don't...I just wonder to myself why they don't but it's their own life and they can live it how they want..

And yeah as MP said I'm from Brighton so the council has set up a good collection service for us..

[an_reithe]

A year or two ago my family used to recycle loads, had different bins and all that, but now we have forgotten a bit about the whole thing. We do have a compost bin and use it, we recycle glass and plastic bottles and news paper. But my dad is an ignorat twat and just burns everything which leads me to roaring at him.

If people want to recycle here they have to go all the way out to the dump where there is facilities for that, but I really wish the council would provide bins which might encourage more recycling here.

[Jasmic]

But my dad is an ignorat twat and just burns everything which leads me to roaring at him.

Sorry, but that is a male primal urge thing, we all love a good fire! Same thing when we push the woman out of the way to cook a barbecue. Me Man, cook meat...ug!

Anyway, how many people go to the superstore and drive straight past loads of recycling bins? Ours has paper, glass, clothes, books, rags, ummm, plastic? Think it has plastic.

Recycling is easy. Problem is, throwing it away is easier.

[GorillaBearBear]

That's why where I live they refuse to take your bins away if you don't seperate Green waste, Recyclables and rubbish. Good idea if you ask me

[Lionel]

I favour recycling, and encourage but not force others to do the same. Here's a really easy suggestion:

Universities always have recycling bins. I think it may be a legal duty. So keep a box in your room, and put all your paper in the box. Then, once a term, or once a fortnight depending how much you use paper in your room, empty the box out in the recycling bin. Believe me, if everyone did it, it would make a huge difference, and it takes 2 minutes per fortnight. Last term I also put my wine bottles/cans in the same box.

Also, you could put (with the consent of the authorities) a box in your kitchen for all manner of recyclable waste. It does make a difference; all I can do is to encourage you to recycle. Offices have surprisingly good paper recycling facilities; there's a confidential shredder/recycler at a rate of about one box for every 12 staff at my office. But people would still rather just dump paper into the bin right beside their desks. It's just laziness; I guess people will do something eventually when it really matters. I just hope it doesn't get too bad before then.

:)

[catspider]

I recycle as much as i can - and living in a student house with 6 other people thats often a lot of cans & bottles. :)

We have wheelie bins for recycling glass and paper (2 for each), but they're currently overflowing in our back garden cos we haven't figured out what day the council come to empty them. :rolleyes: