• Question: How can we make recycling easier?

    Asked by beth5000 to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 26 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      Good question! Maybe we could make better signed product packaging telling people how to recycle it. There are a lot of different plastics for instance, and some can be recycled and other cannot. If they have clearer instructions that would make it easier for people I think… Some councils are more pro-active recyclers than others. Why not write to your local government and ask them the same question?

    • Photo: Robert Woolfson

      Robert Woolfson answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      I think part of the problem is that people don’t entirely understand what happens to stuff after it goes in the bin instead of recycling. For example, take a look at the answers here:

      http://ias.im/121.2181

      Making people aware of just how much rubbish we make and how bad it is to just dump it somewhere could maybe go a long way towards making people recycle more.

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      I just wish it was easier than having to go to the recycle depot (which is a little bit out of my way). Some places collect the recycling along with your regular rubbish – that is great!

      In South Africa, my mom leaves her plastic bottles outside once a week for a jobless guy to pick up. There are places in the city where you can exchange your plastic bottles, cans, glass and cardboard for a (very) small bit of money, and the entrepreneurial people there have turned it into a way of generating a bit of income that they otherwise wouldn’t have, which I think is great 🙂

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