Cloth Diapers in the News
Why Don’t YOU Recycle?
While I was researching what was going on with cloth diapers in the news this weekend, I ran across a thought provoking article about Why People Don’t Recycle. The author, Ashley Schiller, interviewed five individuals as part of an investigation to “help proponents of recycling better understand the ‘how’ of what can be done to increase participation” in recycling programs.
The participants included a 20-something bachelor, a 30-something family guy, a sweet sixteen-ager, and two proud grandparents. Schiller concluded that “…the lack of convenience for those who do not have a curbside program” is a primary barrier. Then, she touched on “visibility of recycling campaigns (especially online)” for increased awareness – especially among teens. And finally, she suggested those who do recycle should check their personal behavior and judgments; more than one of the participants pointed out an attitude of superiority by those who do recycle despite the inconvenience.
The Convenience Argument
The 20-something bachelor, a recent business college graduate living in Utah, touched on convenience as his #1 reason not to recycle. “We don’t have a [curbside] recycling program where I live. You have to collect all of your items and then drive them to the middle of nowhere to drop them off. It takes too much extra effort.”
On one hand, I understand this argument; we are a culture of convenience. That said, there are a lot of worthwhile efforts we put into each day that are not convenient, but necessary. Showering? Inconvenient. Once, or sometimes twice a day if I work-out, I have to shower. Each time it is like starting from scratch all over again. Wash and condition the hair, cleanse the body, wash the face, towel off, lotion up, put on make-up, dry and style the hair. It is an inconvenience, but it has value. Instead of presenting a smelly, oily, somewhat offensive self, we put forth our best effort. Inconvenient, but valued.
Changing cloth diapers? Inconvenient. It would be so much easier to leave baby in a chemical-filled disposable diaper until it absorbed beyond its capacity and begins to burst.
The soft, absorbent cloth fibers are comfortable for baby – baby’s comfort, while inconvenient, has value – to the caregivers, and most certainly to baby.
I can think of several other things that are inconvenient, but valuable – and so, I do them.
The argument that one can only recycle if curbside recycling is available is, in my opinion, an easy “out”. We drive our children to soccer, drive ourselves to church or community activities, drive ourselves to work, drive to the movies, to cultural events, to the store, to school, to a restaurant…none of those any less convenient than driving to a local recycling center.
I find it interesting that the same 20-something bachelor who stated inconvenience as his #1 factor also admitted that in college he didn’t even recycle when he lived in an apartment complex with a designated dumpster for recyclables. His claim? He didn’t know “the rules”.
“I don’t know what I can recycle” Argument
This is an argument quickly remedied. Don’t know the rules, go to Earth 911 and get them. Our recycling center has a sheet you can post on your fridge or in the garage as a reminder.
Here are the basics to remember:
PAPER – Paper includes cardboard, newsprint, office paper, envelopes, junk mail, magazines. Nearly every recycling program takes paper. What to leave out? Anything with food stains (think pizza boxes), plastic coated paper plates and cups, and paperbacks (donate to the library).
METAL – Metal includes aluminum cans, pie tins and foil. Bottle caps, wire coat hangers, empty aerosol cans, and scrap metal. Pretty straightforward. This excludes batteries and electronics (though many recycling centers do have days you can drop off large electronics).
PLASTIC – The general rule of thumb goes like this, “If it’s a bottle that has a neck that’s smaller than the body (beverages, cleaning products, shampoo, and some food jars) and has a “alor2″ symbol on the bottom, nearly every program will accept it.” Remove the caps (a different type of plastic).
GLASS – Glass includes bottles and jars (rinse and throw away their caps first). It is true that some programs will not accept certain colors of glass or treated glass; just ask them and they’ll tell you.
The “No Incentive” Argument
One of the grandparents that participated in this program said, “Now I live in a state that doesn’t give you any incentive to recycle, so I don’t usually do it.”
Wow.
Read it again for the impact.
The same man goes on to say, “Without a good program that pays a nickel or dime per can, your only incentive is your guilty conscience.”
If this same logic was applied in our school systems we’d be sunk. Let’s look at our educational system. Teachers go to school for a minimum of 4 years to get a bachelor’s degree so they can teach. Most of them will go back to school in order to further their career. Even with 6 to 8 years under their belt, and even though we trust them with our children’s minds, they are still one of the worst paid professions.
What if they used this logic?
“There is just no incentive to be a good teacher, so I’m not gonna do it – I’m just gonna coast along and ruin the future generation.”
And really, that mindset is somewhat prevalent – and we’ve seen some long term effects of it.
But this isn’t about the educational system…
Responsibility is not about Convenience
The bottom line is that we NEED to have CONVICTION to do things that are RESPONSIBLE whether or not it is convenient, whether or not we might have to learn something, and whether or not there is no monetary gain for doing so.
For instance, I am raising my children. It is often inconvenient. I’m always having to learn new things, like how to use cloth diapers, and grow personally so I can be a better parent. My guidelines are not clearly defined, but I look for them anyway – without fail I define these guidelines daily. And yes, kiddos are a money-suck (to put it lightly), but it is my conviction to raise them, it is my responsibility to raise them – and while I’m not making a dime…it pays off in ways that cannot be measured.
And on a lesser level, so does recycling.
So what are your arguments? Why don’t you recycle? How do you really feel about your decision to recycle or not to recycle? Speak your peace…I’m all ears.
Tags: Cloth Diapers in the News, earth911, recycle, reduce, reuse, Why Don't You RecycleCloth Diaper Blog is published by www.diaperjunction.com.
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I recycle, and it’s inconvenient. As a matter of fact, my county is making it even MORE inconvenient as time goes on. There used to be collections every Saturday. Now it’s the first and third Saturday, and I have to drive 20 minutes to the center. AND they stopped taking any colored glass and any plastic they deem “too flimsy” even if it does have a #1 or #2 on the bottom. I still do it.
In addition, I discovered that Whole Foods takes #3-#7 plastics, including the caps off the milk jugs, etc., and they’ll take the “flimsy” stuff, so I take all the rest of my recycling and once a month or so, I drive a full hour to the next county over to take my other recyclables to Whole Foods. I was so happy, once the #5 bin was full so I took a huge bag of yogurt containers into the store to the desk and said “I’m sorry, but your bin is full.” and the guy at the desk THANKED me for bringing the stuff to their store to return.
I will admit it, I get SO MAD and, yes, judgmental when people don’t recycle. I have two little boys. It isn’t easy for me either, but it’s WORTH IT.
To preface this – I am not a green person. I feel like with recycling they get to reuse the materials and remake them and so it is benefiting the company. I will give them my stuff if they will come and get it. When I was growing up they used to collect the recycling on trash day. Then they started to charge us to collect it – when we were doing them a favor! That’s when we stopped recycling. I am getting ready to move to NYC and I know recycling is law there. So I will do it. It will be inconvenient – living in a small apartment, to find a place to separate and store recycling items. But I will do it. It’s not going to give me a superiority complex though!
We recycle. When we lived in an apt. with no centers nearby for 6 months, we nearly died with shame. Look at how full our landfills are. We need to start doing GOOD things instead of just whatever is easy. On average we have just as much recycling as we do trash each week. When my husband was in college, we finally got a flyer that listed the rules for recycling and did it from then on out. We moved to IA and found we got a nickel per can or bottle (paid up front through a charge at the store) back. We got a gift card from the store and always took the tickets and put the change back on the gift card and bought baby supplies for several months off of what we had saved up in 9 months of pregancy. We asked parents to save their cans and bottles and got tens of dollars that way “free” because they didnt pay the surcharge. We also discovered the landfill there took recyclables, and so we took them once a month. They also took tvs and whatnot, which is a nice service. Then the 6 month no recycling, which stunk. We’re now in another state (3 states in a year).. Now we are facing a crisis. We love recycling. We recycle every 2-3 weeks. We actually drove to the NEXT town/county to do the recycling. A lot of the ones in our area have people just DUMPING their regular trash at the sites instead of paying to have it hauled away, so they are considering closing them. We hate this. What if they stop the program? It’s heartbreaking. We want to do good in the world. It has nothing to do with being superior, it has everything in the world to do with loving others that you will never know enough to do the right thing NOW to save them from problems later.
I recycle a LOT more now that we have a curbside program. They come once per week and we do not have to sort recyclables.
Previously, we had to sort and have staks of icky stuff sitting around, put it in the car, leave two kids in the car while I tried to reach & open the bins & throw the stuff in the appropriate bins and many times, I would drive there and the bins would be full!
I’m not trying to make exuses, I’m just saying that it became a giant pain in the tushy to do it.
Actually, I’d be more likely still to recycle (we may be moving somewhere with no curbside service) if I had the money for bins to neatly separate the recycleables in between trips, a larger vehicle to be able to take it all at once (I can barely fit a stroller in my trunk) and a babysitter to watch my kids while I went and did it!
Whoops they do not come once per week they come once every other week.
Great article!
As far as electronics, Washington state has an e-cycle program for used electronics (TVs, computers, etc.). You do have to bring it to a designated collection site.
Great post! I’m lucky to live in an area that realizes the importance of recycling. I’m not sure I buy the logic that recycling benefits the companies and not the planet; perhaps both are true. Recycling is easy for us and is a normal way of life and we’re trying to focus on reducing our waste. Yes, items can be recycled and turned into new products but that process creates new waste too (think of the energy it takes to collect, process and recreate), so if we can cut back on packaging or repurpose something rather than recycling it, it seems like a better goal.
My son is temporarily in disposables while we clear up several bad looking sores where the diaper is chafing his poor little thighs and I’m dying from shame!!
In our county of Maryland they recently gave out HUGE rolling bins (bigger than my trash bin) to every single family residence. I was SO excited but a lot of people complained b/c we paid a large fee on our next tax bill. :)