No financial incentive to recycle

Here in San Diego we have free trash pickup (for single family residences) due to the People's Ordinance of 1919 which I believe came out of the city selling refuse to pig farmers and making money on it (hmmm, it would appear that the city leaders back then had some of the same issues of public trust as the current ones). With free trash pickup, what incentive do we have to recycle? We recycle as much as possible and just started a compost bin last week to reduce the amount we send to the dump. If the city wants to encourage more recycling, they should offer a financial incentive (don't take away the free trash pickup) to say lower property taxes or something like that. The city is already in hot water as state law requires it to recycle more, but it isn't meeting that. While people should just feel good about "going green", let's be realistic. Unless it positively or negatively affects people's wallets, it just isn't going to be adopted by everyone.

(I'm not new to "going green"; back in 1990, I started a paper recycling program for my Eagle Scout project. Times have changed, but I've tried to do my part to help.)

Comments

July 6th, 2008
Tyler

Here in my town, the trash is gone through by the garbage folks and stuff that can be recycled is pulled out and garbage only is sent to the dump.

August 6th, 2008
Jakob

Different countries take different approaches to this, which like you suggest are based on incentives or on penalties. Here in Germany, there is a mixture of approaches. In Germany, and I think in several countries in Europe, particularly Scandinavia, it is a matter of course to separate different types of refuse and we are supplied with separate wheelie-bins for organic refuse and normal household refuse. This is the only rubbish that is collected from households by the refuse department. Larger public containers for light packaging materials, paper, glass (“bottle banks”) and sometimes clothes are provided within a short walking distance of most homes and one is expected to carry one’s own rubbish there. When I moved here from GB (where at that time everything went into one bin) this felt rather strange but it’s not actually as hard as it sounds. Now when I’m back in GB it feels wasteful (even ‘wrong’) to chuck everything into one bin.

A lot of goods which come in re-usable (not just recyclable) bottles or jars, both glass and plastic, come at a surcharge (e.g. are artificially overpriced) which you are reimbursed with when you return the empty bottle. Similarly plastic bags in food shops are generally not free (they cost a few cents), so people do re-use plastic or cloth bags much more. In GB you seem to get a plastic bag with anything. Last year we spent several months back in London, and were mightily amused when one of the big supermarket chains gave out free re-usable bags and ‘half the nation’ walked around with “we’re doing our bit for recycling”-smiles on their faces.

In terms of penalties and incentives, in Germany you can be fined if caught willfully disposing of all rubbish in the wrong bins but it is rare. In some regions of Germany, though not where I live (it differs slightly from federal state to state), I’m told that refuse lorries even weigh the amount of household rubbish collected at each house and one pays one’s refuse rates according to the amount of rubbish one produces.