Recycling idea the recycling people can do to get people to recycle more?

Question

i saw this episode of the simpsons of when lisa was recycling and mr burns was bankrupt and he started recycling.

now when they were recycling they would take it down to this guy who does recycling and he would give them money for it, now it may not have been much money but it was something.

This got me thinking. not alot of people recycle, they just end up putting it all in the bin and have done with it.

Now everyone wants to make abit of money either big or small. if they had a guy who gave them abit of money to bring him some bits to recycle then i bet some more people would do it.

Like if some people brought a bunch of old newspapers and they only mademaybe 50p to a £1 or a bag full of plasic bottles or cans and made about 75p or so or abit more.

i bet even the homeless people would eve get involved because they are always in need of some money.

what do you people think, i think its a great idea.

Answer 1

I think people should get away from the idea of always wanting money in return for doing something.

Reducing the waste you create is the only way forward, each individual is responsible for what they do and shouldnt be blaming councils and governments and wanting money all the time.

In our home there are 3 of us and we create a maximum  of 10 wheelie bins a year of waste, im not proud of this and am doing my damndest to reduce it but i dont expect payment for doing it and i dont get a rebate on my council tax for doing it either!  

I reuse any bottles and glass jars i get and pass on surplus to home produce makers and i compost all card and paper waste - which actually is mainly unsolicited mail and free newspapers.  The only items i put out for recycling is the very occasional tin can if i buy a tinned product which is very rare and it would probably take me a year to fill the recycling box if not longer. And if i put some effort into that i could turn them into planters and night light holders too.

Answer 2

I do think that major restaurants and large apartment complexes should implement recycling. All they would need to do is put those big green dumpsters out next to the trash dumpsters.

And I think your idea is good, but why not focus on getting homeless people off the streets instead of giving them ways to make money?

Answer 3

There is an expanding program here in the U.S. in which people are given a rebate on their trash disposal fees based on the amount they recycle compared to the total weight of trash they generate.  I hope it continues to expand.

One problem is that each item recycled has a very low value.  The major saving in recycling is in landfill space.  Municipalities can afford to break even, if that, in recycling because each cubic yard of recyclables removed from the landfill waste stream represents a savings of about $90 in associated landfill costs.

Answer 4

Businesses need to recycle is a bigger issue.  As private citizens in my city we get a credit on our trash bill for recycling.  There should be an incentive to get bars to recycle all those beer/wine/liquor bottles.  Most offices only recycle paper.  There is so much in the business world that should be recycled and isn't.

Answer 5

I saw a prog on Chan 4 recently called dumped where all these peopel had to live  on a tip for a while and make a home and money out of it. One woman sorted out a whole skipful of plastic bottles because she really wanted to get the plastic re-cycled, but the bloke who would have bought it said that it has to be really clean to be worth even taking - and then of course it is only worth a little bit.

So the problem is really one of clean stuff - it has to be: all that it is meant to be (for eg no card inn the paper), and it has to be clean enough to not require cleaning. Good idea, but it is not as simple as you might at first think.