My sister moved to Florida about 5 years ago and I was appalled when I got there over how difficult it is to actually recycle. At her apartment complex, recycling wasn’t even an option and for a coastal state where trash often pollutes the beaches, I didn’t understand why not. Even at the beach itself, there wasn’t anywhere to recycle, only trash bins. It was especially weird to see coming from a place like Boulder where most places have pictures and directions for recycling, trash, and compost. This isn’t just an issue in Florida though, it’s a nationwide problem that needs to be addressed. China may be the main producer of plastics in the world but what a lot of people don’t know is that the U.S. holds the infamous title as the top producer of plastic waste.
If you’re like me, you recycle as often as you are able to. Unfortunately, a lot of our recycling doesn’t get recycled at all. According to the EPA, in 2017, only 8.4% of all the waste produced was recycled. The problem isn’t just because people aren’t recycling but rather the issue is due to poor infrastructure. Current programs and policies simply can’t handle the massive amounts of waste we produce every year. The waste-management system is so bad that in 2016, the U.S. had to ship over half of our entire plastic wastes overseas. We are currently taking the “out of sight out of mind” approach because a lot of the nations that receive our trash can’t even handle it all either. Since the U.S. is the 2nd biggest polluter in the world, it’s very unfair for our solid waste to negatively affect other countries along with our atmospheric waste as well.
In 2020 at the America Recycles Summit, the EPA announced the current recycling goal as 50% by 2030. While this is a positive sign, it will not be an easy task to achieve. In 2018, we were only able to recycle roughly 69 million tons out of a total 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste which equals less than a quarter overall. If we as a nation truly want to reach 50% by the year 2030, we will have to increase our rate of recycling by roughly 27%. This is clearly a tall task, but it’s not an unachievable one. Just like anything else, recycling is a business so the main reason why it’s not happening more is that it’s not profitable. Many places that used to be able to sell their recyclable materials, now have to pay in order to get rid of it. If manufacturing companies would put a focus on using recycled materials instead of creating more, recycling as a whole will increase due to better profitability.
The solution for our nation-wide recycling issue comes in three different parts. The first is that we need to better educate the public on how to recycle. When items aren’t properly cleaned or put in recycling by accident, it causes contamination. A lot of people don’t even know what items are supposed to go in the trash vs. recycling and this education would be a great step towards limiting contamination. The second part of the solution has to do with accountability. The companies that manufacture goods in the U.S. need to be held more accountable for all of the plastics and other materials that they are creating. If incentives and policies were put in place to prioritize creating bio-degradable products or even products that can be easily recycled and come from recycled materials, this could greatly help with slowing down the filling of our landfills. The final part of the solution has to come from our nation’s government. We need to increase funding for waste-management facilities all over the nation so that we can better manage our own trash here at home instead of just making it another country’s problem. Funding for these programs usually goes more towards local schools, police forces, and other public services but waste-management programs need to have more of a priority than they currently do.
As our population grows, so too will our waste. This problem won’t fix itself and will continue to get worse and worse. I believe that if everyone comes together to solve this problem, the government, manufacturers, and the overall population, we can achieve much better results. This will potentially result in more jobs, a cleaner environment, and a more sustainable future for generations to come.
References:
National overview: Facts and figures on materials, wastes and recycling. (2021, January 28). Retrieved March 05, 2021, from https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#:~:text=These%20Facts%20and%20Figures%20are,25%20million%20tons%20were%20composted.
Parker, L. (2021, February 10). U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds. Retrieved March 05, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/us-plastic-pollution#:~:text=In%202016%2C%20more%20than%20half,properly%20manage%20and%20process%20it.
Whitcomb, I. (2020, March 07). How much plastic actually gets recycled? Retrieved March 05, 2021, from https://www.livescience.com/how-much-plastic-recycling.html
