Like any blog, one has to start somewhere. I start here, now…somewhere in the middle.
As I get older, I become more aware about what I consume in terms of purchases and all the physical materials that are part of a purchase. Whether it be groceries, clothes from a store, a new tv (or computer), birthday gifts, cards……you name it, I seem to be more conscious about the fact that if I buy something there are byproduct(s) of consumption/consumerism that have to be dealt with.
Byproducts of consumption/consumerism or where did all this stuff come from? There are plastic bags or cardboard boxes that enclose your items to make transport easier, there are product protection and preservation materials such as Styrofoam, rolled paper, plastic, air filled plastic, foam…there are enclosures such as paper, product packaging (mostly in the form of paperboard), aluminum, steel, other metals and glass to name a few. There is quite a lot that goes into delivering or shipping a product and quite a lot that packages or encases a product. All you want is that item(s) and you’re left with the byproduct of getting the item(s).
The latest information from the EPA and the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) report from 2007 (FYI, this report gets updated every 2 years; awaiting a ’09 updated) noted that the largest percentage of MSW by category was Containers and Packaging; accounting for 31% or 78 Million tons. The good news (link to the 12 page fact sheet PDF) is that the recycling of those Containers and Packaging materials was the highest by percentage to be recycled. Through recycling efforts, 43% or 24 Million of the 78 Million tons was recovered through recycling.
So my question is, with consumerism on the rise (or is it just a volume adjustment of normal purchasing behavior due to population increase) how can we increase the recovery percentage of Containers and Packaging along with the other categories? I assume some folks recycle some of the recyclable materials? Maybe not? What if the majority of people throw everything away? What are people’s habits in relation to handling these materials and thinking “I should recycle this” or “I need to throw this away”? Is it a convenience to just throw things away and not worry about it? Out of site, out of mind? These are some of the questions I ponder more and more and relate to why I started a recycling blog.
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