Where have all the blue bins gone?

It seems with the new trend being "Green" we would be high on the heels of residential recycling programs. Unfortunately this just isn't true. In my current residence, which lies within an HOA we have no recycling programs put in place. Maybe it is because the majority of the residents in my complex are well over 65 and are just not in the "know", or maybe their are other reasons that have not come to light.

In the early 1990's I was in my teens, I remember residential recycling being implemented across the state and country. I also remember how big of an impact this made on families. It was literally over night that my mother was washing out plastic coke bottles and collecting newspapers and had assigned my chore list with new duties, one of them being, bringing the blue bin out to the curb twice a week.

Well apparently people have just kind of "forgot" about this very important environmental decision. In the past 10 years, recycling programs have actually gone down in the amount of recyclables they are picking up, from both the curb in front of your house, and from the glass and aluminum depositories. It seems, even headed into this whole "green awareness" that we have forgotten the simple one. The one that should have never been forgotten. The blue bin.

Citing this PDF article from Pennsylvania and also citing this 2002 article from California, we are talking about massive amounts of recyclables that ended up in landfills. Now most people would ask "Why" well that is a great question. Some experts point to the rising Hispanic growth in the US, others point to lack of information being publicized by our government, and even more contribute it to sprawling urban areas outside of the city where recycling trucks just do not run routes. Which ever is the cause, it is time for a national awareness campaign to bring this age old tradition back into each and every home in this country. What will it take to make every single person recycle? Well at this point, it will take a lot of work. Aside from having a press conference with the President of the USA demanding everyone follow suit the most we can hope for is just simple awareness. Similar to the ones we saw when recycling was first implemented here in the states in the early 90's. We need one movement, one massive collective of people willing to take the time and effort to recycle properly.

My plan for this would be two fold. On one end each state would up the amount of awareness advertising they are doing. Obviously bus shelter ads and vinyl ads on dump trucks are not doing it. We need a massive campaign, one that would involve every person in the state to get a letter (printed on recycled paper of course) each letter would be double sided. One side in English, the other in Spanish. It would basically be the same information that was sent out across the nation in the 90's when this plan was first adopted. It would be informational and urge people to recycle and more importantly WHAT to recycle. Most people don't know this, but their are actual humans that pick through our recycled waste as it comes in to the plants, they hand pick out what is not considered "recyclable" and it is honestly a lot more then you would think. The money spent on this campaign would then be paid back by recycled glass and aluminum, and remember, we are talking about millions of dollars here in recycled materials.

The second part of this would be implementation. We would need a hotline number on the letter (and to even further reduce human waste, have it be automated) this phone number would basically allow you to enter in your name, address, phone number. When your information is received, you will get a brand new (or gently used) blue bin for your home. Having this hotline in both English and Spanish I think would be very useful and would get more people involved. Run this whole campaign with some commercials on both radio and television in both markets and you will see another "Green initiative" like we had in the 90's where every home literally took part. I don't know what it is about us as humans, but we tend to forget things quite easily. I think it is time for the sleeping giant to once again awaken and remind everyone just how important it is to recycle.

For information on finding recycling centers near you, I highly recommend checking out Earth 911's site, they have a wealth of information on both recycling and many other energy saving tips.