One of my friends actually yells at me for recycling! Isn't that crazy? Her logic is: "why bother recycling when it all goes to the same place anyway?" I've tried to reason with her, tell her that it
doesn't all go to the same place, that's the whole point, but she doesn't believe me. She claims that once her mother saw the trash-collectors take her recycling bin and dump its contents into the same pile on which they dumped her trash. So now the whole family firmly believes that recycling is a myth and seems to be against it.
Goodness, that's terrible. The problem is, it's more or less the same concept anywhere. People don't recycle because they don't see others doing it very much, and since no one thinks anyone else is doing it, well, it's sort of like a vicious cycle. Sometimes I pick up after people, dragging out the stuff they just dumped into the trash and relocating it to the next bin over, the recycling bin. Sure, it can be a bit nasty sometimes, but people who do this still get funny looks anyways. It's a sort of societal mindset that people have to get over. Movements don't happen when the majority of people are too unconcerned to give common sense a second thought.
I'm in Canada (Toronto) and we now have to pay for garbage collection. The more garbage you make, the more it will cost - we'll see if it works. Recycling is free. Our neighborhood is also turning into an awsome vegetarian, organic, earth cookie haven!!! It's awsome - I hope it lasts.
That's a brilliant idea! That's a system that should be implemented everywhere, since it might actually be effective in forcing people to recycle. Sometimes, you just have to hit people in the pocket before they start doing anything- or thinking, for that matter.
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