Why is it that there are not more items being recycled in every state?

Question

In the north batteries, more types of plastics, and also metals are also recycled. Recycling should be mandatory everywhere.

Answer 1

thank you, you are soooo right.

i bet only about 1 ton of waste gets recycled of every 10 there is.

and they educate us on global warming, but do they mention any ways to REALLY help?

no

if recycling was mandatory, i personally think the world would be a place. (well partially. there's still rapist, murders, and thief's. *sigh*)

Answer 2

Someone has to sort all that waste and find a place willing to take it for enough money to pay for the time and labor to pick it up, take it to a central place, and sort it.  It is expensive hiring the labor and uses a lot of gasoline to truck all that waste around.

My city recycles only #1 and #2 plastics, so no Styrofoam. And I have to pay about $7 a month for them to pick up the recyclables.

My dad ran a small aluminum can recycling business.  He had to buy very expensive equipment in order to handle the cans.  The stench from the cans was unbelievable (beer in TX heat) and it was very noisy.  Then, he had to take it to a buyer.  It was incredibly hard work.  If you want to make good money and are willing to work 10+ hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, you can do well at this.

People picked up cans and brought them in so they could earn some money to live on.

Answer 3

What about states that are poor, or do not have much population?

I moved to Idaho, from Washington (state).  Washington has more millionares per capita than anyplace else on earth.  Washington is a wealthy state, and reycycling is big there.

Washington state has very nearly 6 million people there.  Land mass wise, Washington is the 18th largest state in the U.S.

Idaho has just over 1 million people in the state.  Idaho is the 14th largest state in the U.S.  That means it is quiet a bit bigger that Washington.

The population density of Washington state ranks it as the 14th most populated state in the U.S.

The population density of Idaho state ranks it as the 39th most populated state in the U.S.

So Idaho is not only much bigger, but the population is MUCH less.

The 2005 total gross state product for Washington was $268.5 billion, placing it 14th in the nation The per capita income was $42,702, 17th in the nation.

For Idaho, gross state product for 2004 was US$43.6 billion. The per capita income for 2004 was US$26,881.

So Washington state brings in 224.9 BILLION dollars more than Idaho.

Now I'm just giving facts and figures on the two states I'm quiet familar with, and have lived in almost my entire life.

So, please tell me exactly how Idaho should impliment a recycling plan?  Who exactly is going to pay for it?  Would those be the local families, where 9 out of every 10 children qualify for the free lunch program at school, because their parents are so poor?    Or do you think maybe some of these parents and children are more worried about buying a winter coat for their child, since winters here are brutal, with temperatures dipping into the negative 50's (F) with wind chill?

I grew up in the wealthy state, where reycyling was a fact of life, and were it was a fact of life that very nearly everyone spayed/neutered and vaccinated their cats and dogs.

I now live in a state where there are feral dog packs that kill livestock, feral cats are just a fact of life, diseases happen ever year in pets because so few are vaccinated.  I live in a state where children get to eat maccaroni, or beans once a day, because that is all their parents can afford.

Know why people recycle in Idaho?  To get money to buy gas, or a new set of tires, or keep the electric turned on.

It costs $.50 cents here to take your trash to the dump.  That is so people will drive their trash to the dump, instead of dumping it out in the desert.

So, how exactly to you sugest mandatory recycling be set up for poor states?

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 4

It depends on what type of manufacturing facilities are available, I would think.  If you don't have any plants which recycle different materials in your area, then you probably won't have as much of an emphasis on recycling.  No one wants to lose money on an enterprise like that.

I would recommend that everyone use and recycle aluminum, especially.  It is easier to recycle than many other materials, and is actually a profit maker for recycling companies.  It also doesn't lose any of its favorable qualities in successive generations.  It just gets melted down and re-processed.