(My other posts about recycling containers can now be found at www.recyclingcontainers.blogspot.com)
The string of posts below serve as critiques of a wide variety of recycling containers used in places frequented by the public. That many of them, including those that cost as much as $1000 each, fail to serve their intended purpose points to the need for this "course" in container design.
Containers matter because they are the first in a row of dominoes, helping determine whether a recycling system functions or collapses in a heap. If the trash is mixed with recyclables, custodians throw it all away, and use the contamination as an excuse to eventually not bother recycling at all. This "recycling in name only" in turn breeds cynicism, further eroding participation by the public. The dysfunctional containers remain long afterwards, in libraries, stadiums, on city streets--like gravestones to good intentions.
A functional recycling container 1) provides abundant visual cues to the user, and 2) is paired with a trash container. These two rules are very simple, but through indifference or some stubborn belief that people carefully read signs and behave rationally, they are frequently ignored.
Though recycling in concept has broad, perhaps almost universal support, most people are surprisingly oblivious about what they do with an item they wish to get rid of when out about town. Refuse or recyclable, it goes in the first trash-like container they encounter, regardless of labeling. As described in one of the posts, our big brains don't want to be preoccupied with small things. Unfortunately, countless small actions add up to large consequence, as we've seen over and over--in nonpoint source pollution, global warming, and the voting that serves as the foundation of democracy.
Most recycling container designs fail for lack of the right visual cues. People don't stop to take note of the nice recycling logo, but respond instead, in their state of distraction, to subliminal messages--the body language of the container.
2 comments:
I write this as news of failing recycling markets hits the news; nonetheless...
I think we must look at how public trash availability came to be. Only when public recycling containers become ubiquitous (yes, and paired with a trash can) will citizens who are currently inclined to use receptacles then, over time, get in the habit of depositing their item in the proper container.
Thanks for the reminder about the dramatic drop in market value of recyclables, due to the recession. I read the NY Times article, and noted that along the east coast, where the cost of landfilling waste is around $80/ton, recycling still saves money. The NY Times tends to run articles that emphasize the downside of environmental initiatives like recycling and compact fluorescent light bulbs, burying the good news deep in the articles.
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