When it comes to recycling paper, 96% of Americans have easy access to a recycling program where they live. 94% have access to plastics recycling. So, why don’t we recycle more? Well, the answer may lie in the understandable difficulty some consumers have grasping the recycling rules where they live. The concept of recycling is simple–take something you no longer want or need and put it into a system that will use it as a building block to make something new. But, just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s always easy to do it correctly.
There is a great deal of nuance when it comes to recycling where you live and work–the rules are different between various communities and different recyclers. And as soon as you think you understand the system, something new is added or subtracted. Waste Dive, a company that publishes stories related to the waste management industry, recently published a great article entitled, “Why Most Americans find Recycling Confusing” that hit on this very issue. When busy families and workers can’t quickly understand how to make the right environmental choice (recycling), they will simply make the one they are most-familiar with (trashing).
So, our job as your local Solid Waste Management District, is to help you understand the recycling programs here where you live and work. We provide resources like our Guide to Being Green: Waste Reduction, Reuse and Recycling in Hendricks County and our Online Recycling Directory to help. But, sometimes, the most effective way to get your questions answered is to just contact us directly–that’s what we’re here for. If we don’t know the answer, we probably know someone who does.
