People don’t have time. They’re too busy. They have to ………..
What are people so busy doing? Many people drive like they’re always late. They don’t stop at stop signs. They’re always in a hurry. How would they ever find time to recycle? Its hard enough to find time just to take out the trash let alone separate it into components. I work in a building where they collect aluminum cans to raise money for projects for kids. I still end up pulling aluminum cans out of the trash.

I have been an advocate for recycling for many years. Recently the complex I moved into I discovered has no recycling program, and seems to have no urge to get one. Of course living in a ghetto as I do, I would probably be the only person recycling. I wish I drove, as it is rather difficult to take ones recyclables via the bus.
I recently started washing out my Ziplock bags, and hanging them over a glass or jar to dry, and reusing them as long as they will last.
Though I am unable to recycle currently, I actually use very little resources. Almost everything I buy is used, and I gather over half of my food by wild crafting, thereby eliminating packaging.

Americans are lazy!

We’d rather throw recyclables in the trash and then complain that we are losing resources.

We drive like we’re in a hurry, speeding here, zipping there; and then have the nerve to complain about the cost of filling a gas tank.

We want, what we want, when we want it, how we want for as cheap as possible with as little expense of personal energy as possible.

When will the majority of US population get with the program and Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle?

Shadowmyth, not sure if you are still on here but anyone for that matter should NOT use the method of reusing plastic bags. Nor should anyone be using plastic bags period to eat food from. The Johns Hopkins University medical system just released some pretty negative info about plastic. Plastics contains dioxins that can be released into food and water which can then be ingested into the body increasing the risk of getting cancer. This can be exacerbated by microwaving the food/liquid or storage by freezing. Using these methods increase the load of dioxins from the plastic.

Plastic is evil. But, I realize sometimes it can’t be avoided. We wash the plastic and recycle at a local recycle drop-off center. We have almost totally switched to glass and metal to store everything. We also switched to corn-based biodegradable bags which degrade in landfills in two weeks! So, no need to recycle those bags.

Hopefully someday organic based plastics will be common place, and antiquated, chemically harmful, petroleum-based plastic will be a thing of the past. Just have to wait for “certain” evil empires to be overthrown.

Eric Lombardi, president of the Grassroots Recycling Network was recently quoted in a smithsonian article:

“We need a convenient, creative collection system with three bins: one for biodegradables, which we’ll compost, one for recycling, and one for whatever’s left.”

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/plastic.html