Should we re-enforce Recycling laws in the United States?

Question

While it is true that In Germany you won't be offered bags of any kind, you can still buy them at the check out. Your choices are paper, plastic or cloth and surprisingly a lot of people choose plastic. But they reuse those bags over and over and over again, after all you pay for them ( I think 30 Euro Cents for the big ones) ANOTHER THING to look at in Germany is, that the RECYCLING LAWS are very strict over there. Pretty much everything has to be separated, if you don't you might end up paying a big fine. While trading in plastic bags for paper or even Cloth is a good thing, we should also look at the recycling laws in the United States. I believe if they are re-enforced more, people will think more about how they throw away their trash. I know it is a big thing to ask a person to start separating trash and I am aware of the cost of such programs, it took Germany 15 years to get where they are now, however I believe it is well worth the effort. What do you guys think???

Answer 1

Wish I had time to answer more thoroughly, but my quick answer is YESSSSSS!!!!!

Answer 2

In repsonse to someone else's answer, the United States is 3rd highest in population, not 11th!!  And to answer the main question, yes I do believe the United States should have tougher laws on recycling.  One thing I recently found out is, at least in my area, in the side for recycling newspapers, you can recycle pizza boxes, phone books, soft covered books and all of those boxes that food come in, eg. cereal boxes etc.  In my house this turns out to be a lot.  Just a hint for people who care about recycling.

Answer 3

Laws forcing people to live their lives a certain way are never a good idea, and will never work in the U.S.  As to recycling, I recycle extensively via curbside collection, and I don't need to separate anything.  Paper, plastic, metal - it all goes into the same bin and the recycling people come by once a week and pick it all up.  I have yet to see any program in Europe that matches this.

Answer 4

Not to mention America, god bless her.. is by far the biggest polluter in the world. We create more anual waste than any other nation in the world. Considering we are the 11th biggest nation in population.. (places like china and such have way more people than us!) Yet we create more waste per year than some of these nations combined, is simply staggering.

In short, i say Yes.

We must for the the future.

Answer 5

yes. If not to many people do not take the few moments to do it.

Answer 6

Well, recycling does actually hurt the environment.  With all the factories that recycle the materials, it puts a lot of pollution into the air.  So technically it's not really saving our planet.

Answer 7

I think the answer is to have variable rates for garbage collection. Most households are charged the same amount per month regardless of how much trash they generate. If consumers were billed based on how much trash they put out, many of these people would find ways to recycle.  

The best place for recycling information in America is the National Recycling Coalition

Answer 8

I think we should have recycling laws in all the world. Any how all we live in the same planet.

Answer 9

We need to develop Recycling laws.  But I'm all for it.

Answer 10

I really think we should have recycling laws- since Amercians aren't required to do it, they assume that it isn't important.

It is well worth it to require everyone to recycle- it would drastically reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills.

Answer 11

yes-yes-yes-yes-yes!