Aluminum Recycling

fshagan · Jun 15, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Drifter @ Jun 15 2006, 01:24 PM) [snapback]271820[/snapback]</div>

I'm not so sure that putting deposits on cans is the best way to approach recycling. I went to college in Michigan where the deposit is 10 cents per can. It is true that there were very few cans (at least local ones) lying around or thrown into the trash, but bringing cans to the store seemed to be as far as anyone would go to recycle. Sometimes I brought a case of soda from home and noone seemed to understand why I would go thru the trouble of bringing the cans to the store to recycle since I couldn't get any money back. Once I even had a store employee tell me they couldn't accept my cans even though I wasn't trying to get money for them. Not being able to recycle drove me crazy since I was used to curbside recycling at home. (Carrying my recyclables home on the train every couple months was not plausible)

I think curbside recycling (or convienient local drop off points) and maybe charging per bag for garbage pickup need to become more commonplace. There will always be people who go out of their way NOT to recycle, but I think a lot of people participate as long as its convenient. And once they start it just becomes a habit. Most houses in my neighborhood puts their recycle bins out regularly. Charging deposits may help in some instances if it isn't possible to make recycling convenient, but I think it makes people forget that things other than cans can be recycled.
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Unless I misunderstand you, I think you contradicted yourself. Did you say in Michigan, where there was a .10 per can deposit, that everyone recycled? But that "at home", where there is no deposit, not only is no one recycling, but there are barriers to recycling?

Get your home state to impose a .10 deposit, and require the retailers to set up recycling stations, and repeat what you evidently saw working in Michigan.

Drifter · Jun 16, 2006

You misunderstood me. In Michigan where they have the deposit the ONLY thing that got recycled seemed to be the cans marked for deposit. At home (no deposit) we have curbside recycling and most everyone I know participates to a much greater degree than anyone I knew in Michigan recycled. In Michigan I was constantly questioned why I would bother going out of my way to recycle anything I wouldn't get money back for.

Aluminum Recycling

fshagan Senior Member

Drifter Member

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Aluminum Recycling

fshagan Senior Member

Drifter Member