Mandatory Recycling: Good Green Sense or Government Interference?

Starting in 2011, Cleveland Ohio will be joining the ranks of those cities not only requiring recycling, but also fining homeowners for not disposing of waste correctly, and leaving cans out too early or too long. Each recycling can will be fitted with RFIDs, a tiny micro chip that will transmit information about your trash such as the weight and pick up time and date. If you don't put out your recycle bin out to the curb an inspector may come to your home, inspect your waste contents and fine you for not recycling products. The hope is to have the plan in full force throughout the city within six years. But Cleveland is not the only city; San Francisco, San Diego, Pittsburgh, New York and Seattle also have mandatory recycling laws. We all know the importance of recycling, but are these extreme green measures good green sense or government interference?

The pros of mandatory recycling

Requires home to recycle would reduce the amount of space needed for landfills as well as stop some of what is going into them from being piled on. It could create new jobs, reduce air and water pollution and set an example for children teaching them not only the importance of recycling but how to do it properly. Recycling becomes mandatory; it will probably lead to other environmentally conscious actions. It is possible that if recycling becomes a habit, a process much like throwing away trash that maybe people will be more likely to become involved in other environmental efforts because they won't necessary see "recycling" as an "effort." Not everyone agrees on this point.

According to Chicago Reader columnist Cecil Adams, "Some early curbside recycling programs...waste resources due to bureaucratic overhead and duplicate trash pickups (for garbage and then again for recyclables). But the situation has improved as cities have gained experience."

The cons of mandatory recycling

In order for cities to have a successful mandatory recycling effort it could be very costly to institute and maintain. Some cities, like New York found their first efforts at a mandatory program to be too expensive to institute and implement. As a result New York stopped the program and is only now instituting additional recycling efforts some 8 years later.

Mandatory recycling may even hurt the environmental movement, causing people to do less towards reducing, reusing and repurposing thinking about the necessity of recycling and judging, incorrectly, that because they are recycling more that they need to do less in other areas.

Opponents of mandatory recycling may also feel that their civil liberties are being violated, that if they want to throw trash away they should be able to without government interference.

Money and Mandatory Recycling

Unfortunately, implementing a mandatory recycling program may not be all about the environment. In larger cities, it could be used to generate revenue through the imposition of fines. The plan in Cleveland is to impose a fine of $100.00 for "improperly disposing of discarded recyclables." Also with the additional services, whether it is additional pick up service or the costs of sorting recyclables at their final destination you can expect city budgets for waste management to need to increase.

Michael Shapiro, director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Solid Waste, says "A well-run curbside recycling program can cost anywhere from $50 to more than $150 per ton...trash collection and disposal programs, on the other hand, cost anywhere from $70 to more than $200 per ton. This demonstrates that, while there's still room for improvements, recycling can be cost-effective."

It could be that households decide to cut out the "middleman" and choose to do their own recycling programs such as turning in aluminum cans for cash, providing their own home with a little extra money. But mandatory recycling could also most affect the poor and low income who may have fines imposed, straining a budget already stretched to its limit.

What is needed to make a mandatory recycling program successful?

First it requires community involvement. Since many cities haven't yet instituted a "GPS" for your trash, it requires that households actually participate in recycling together as a family. I am proud to say the other day I handed my daughter a box while I was cooking and asked her to throw it away, she said, "You mean recycling mommy right?"

But possibly even more importantly it education and information. The mandatory recycling program ordinance in San Diego offers: 90 days before enforcement begins, signage on all receptacles, yearly education on recycling materials and locations and all new residents receive information and training programs. It is possible that people just don't know what to recycle and as a result it just ends up in the trash.

Sources

Personal experience

The Freeman, December 2010 issue

True Green

WKYC.com -Cleveland News

Sustainable Cities Institute

Straight Dope Chicago