Need help to save the earth. Parents are to stubborn to recycle.?

Question

live in a super smalll town and we have to go into town if we want to recycle and i have tryed to get my parents to but they said that it is to much of a hassle. what can i say or do to get them to recycle cuz we drink up to 1 gallon of milk in ONE day. Help me please!!!!!

Answer 1

Sounds like my family.  But I don't do it either.  But I will soon.

I live in a 1 square mile town.  So I understand about small town.

And the recycling center is literally right here.  It is like a minute walk from my house.  I can see part of it out my window.  haha

Just make or buy containers where you can put recyclable stuff in.  But separate it.  Since you said you live in a small town and there is a place to recycle, bring the stuff over at least once a month!

And boom!  There you go!  Just tell your family to put it into the right bins and you'll do the rest.  Tell them there will be less garbage to bring outside.

Answer 2

become a freegan

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism ]

by doing this, you don't support factory farming, you do not product any trash, and you reduce landfill

Answer 3

It would be a great way for the fed's to get involved.  Have ALL cities, towns, villages, townships, all of America recycle, all of our trash.  

Makes more sense than some dumb check in the mail plan, jobs are what is needed, not a hand out.

Answer 4

AWESOME.  Do it yourself.  

  

Compile, rinse, compact/crush and sort all the recyclables into 4 groups:

  Plastic-  usually #1 & 2 only   (number inside triangle recycle symbol on the bottom)

  Aluminum and Tin cans-  

  Cardboard and Newspaper-

  Glass-

+Rinse inside all plastic, glass, soda cans, soup cans, etc.

+Crush/compact plastic bottles and aluminum cans (this makes a HUGE difference)

+Break down/flatten cardboard boxes

+No broken glass

I use paper grocery bags for sorting, one per group, and store the bags in the garage so they are out of the way.  Then, whenever your parents go to town (once a week? twice a month?), you can bring your recyclables.  Recycling won't be a hassle to them if YOU do all the 'work', and I'm sure they will be more supportive once you prove that you are willing to do it yourself.



It's EASY, I promise.  I live with 4 people that Consume tons and generate just as much waste.  I rinse out their endless soda cans and milk jugs (every day) because this is something important to ME.

Answer 5

Hiya,

I remember having a similar problem when I was living at home. Just tell them it is important to you, and that you will do it all..... for me, in the end it became a routeen, and my mum has recycled ever since!!

just make sure you DO start it... take the bottles and clean them yourself.... store them somewhere out of the way... if they see you are keen and determined... hopefully they will start to help you.

take them along into town when ever you are going for other business

good luck!

Answer 6

You could try starting small and easy like news papers they will store well without smelling and generally don't take up much space, then the next time you go into town ask them to stop by the place that you would take the recycling.  Then if you get them to do that you might be able to convince them to bring other recyclables along as well.  Its worth a shot anyway.  You could also look up buisinesses that buy scrap metal and paper in your area there might be a few and the extra incentive of getting money might help your parents along.  You can also see if your locality mandates recycling by law.  Some do I know a town in CT that started cracking down on people who were not recycling, it might give a better boost to have your parents do what they should.

If all else fails tell your parents if they don't start recycling you are going to get a tatoo, ...OK so maybe not.

Answer 7

I don't see the problem, that gallon of milk will get recycled naturally in your septic tank.

Answer 8

do you have a recycling box because if you do you could tell them to not throw anything away and let you deal with it. thats what i had to do with my parents, we only recycle if i take care of everything

Answer 9

Recycling is a habit forming thing.

If your parents were not brought up into "recycling" by your grand parents, then it is a habit they never learned. So you are the "teacher" and must find creative ways to make them join you into recycling. It will take a long time but eventually you will "teach" them the art of recycling.

Good luck and I am glad the new generation is getting into the habit of recycling. My generation had a built in motivator for recycling. Soda glass bottle had a deposit of 3 cents. Tin cans were worth like 15 cents a pound. Scrap metal was 30 cents a pound. Now back then, a shirt was $1.98 and a good pair of Levi jeans was only $2.98.

So we automatically "looked" for things to pickup and recycle. There was "instant" money to be made. The retailer would pay you the 3 cents for the bottles and the scrap (junk) yard man would give you money "on the spot".

Then plastic and aluminum came around. Now recycling became "big business" and people began turning off because the immediate reward was no longer there.

Good luck and hope you can "teach" your parents to recycle. We parents forget that many time our children become our teachers. I know I did. Until I got wise and knew that I had borrowed the earth from them. Therefore it was up to me to try and help in preserving it.