Recycling is just Too Damn Hard

We all know that recycling is good for the planet but the majority of the world thinks that it is just too hard. All we think about are a million separate bins and tree-huggers. The sad thing is recycling has become much easier. Through new inventions and simple ideas everyone can recycle in some way. 

Image courtesy of Twisted Sifter.

Although recycling can be difficult, I made the change with some of the ideas in this article to start recycling. I used to dislike recycling because my mother had multiple bins and everything had to be separated before I could throw something away. The task of separating all of the items is just too hard. I have recently started to recycle because I no longer have to differentiate between the different materials when I throw them away. 

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David T. Cypher has a current patent for a product that solves the problem of differentiating between the different types of materials. In the image to the left you can see that the trash can is departmentalized with a rotating lid (Cypher). The lid allows you to choose the type of product and then throw it in the specific department it belongs in (Cypher). This allows you to use one bin and let it do all of the compartmentalizing for you. 

If you still don’t like recycling and you don’t want to spend the money on the trash can, don’t worry because there are other ways you can recycle. An article from the Greener Living Ideas.com website lists and is titled, “10 Ways to Recycle with Ease”. The easiest and most commonly talked about items on this list are to “3.Drink Water from Containers” and “4.Reuse Grocery Bags” (GreenerLivingIdeas.com). These two ideas are simple enough for most people to do and contribute to recycling in a major way. 

Let’s start making a change with not drinking from plastic bottles. Greenwaste.com states on their website, “Although recycling is the most common method of plastic waste pollution prevention, less than one percent of all plastic products are recycled in the U.S. Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour” (Greenwaste.com). This statistic is shocking, but very easily fixed if people switched to re-washable bottle from the plastic one they are just going to throw away. 

Another simple thing to do is to use your grocery bags more than once. I remember my mom would always keep a bunch of them in the laundry room. They would come in handy for multiple other things. Whether you are picking up dog poop or putting your lunch inside a bag, reusing plastic bags is a smart and easy way to recycle.

 

We have to see that our waste is a problem because of the magnitude a single person can help or hurt. This is shown by a statistic on Greenwaste.com and it states, “the average person generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day – about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year” (Greenwaste.com). Now that you have heard how easy it is to recycle, how are you going to start today?  

Works Cited

Cypher, Daniel T. “Compartmented Trash Receptacle.” Patent 3,720,346. 30 November 2013. 

Recycling Stats. Greenwaste.com. Web. 30 November 2013.

10 Ways to Recycle With Ease. GreenerLivingIdeas.com. Web. 30 November 2013.