Recycling and Opinon

Recycling is an ever growing and more commonly seen occurrence around the world as fossil fuel dependence consistently grows. Repurposing items such as plastic, rubber, paper, etc. is the main goal of recycling.

I interviewed 14 participants about their involvement with the recycling movement and how much they care about the environment. 7 of the participants were male and 7 of the participants were female and the interesting thing I found is that more of the female participants showed more of a positive opinion towards involvement in recycling behavior than the male participants.

Of the 14 participants, 5 of the female group and 3 of the male group had strong emotions about preserving the environment based on their scores from the 1 to 10 scale and said that they actually participate in recycling. However, they could not estimate at all how much water they use each day or how much waste they throw away every day.

Of the 8 participants that said they cared about the environment, all of them seemed to genuinely care for the environment. 3 of the 8 drive hybrid cars and only 1 drives a truck. Comparing the male and female participants, female respondents had a much higher instance of higher score on the 1 to 10 scale than male respondents. Also, female respondents had a much stronger opinion than male respondents on the act of recycling.

In the textbook, Macionis (2004) says that problems in the environment are caused by actions of human beings which makes these problems in the environment social problems. This allows sociologists to study environmental effects caused by human interaction with the environment in which they live.

Technology, a specific influence on nature that is made possible by human ingenuity, could cause air pollution and water pollution potentially harming the environment and indigenous wildlife. Also, such pollution could also influence a thing called environmental racism. Environmental racism is defined as exposing certain groups of people to environmental hazards knowingly endangering these groups (Macionis, 2014).

The National Resource Defense Council, or NRDC, is continuously fighting to promote water efficiency strategies and protect water from pollution by humanity’s industrial infrastructure ("Water", 2015). Clean water is a consistently troublesome problem in poor nations around the world. Laws affecting rights to water sources have been in place in many countries for centuries. Class conflict within sociology plays a major role in available drinking water, especially in poor countries. Within poor minorities inside these countries, clean drinking water is becoming increasingly harder to come by and rich law makers and upper echelons of these societies hold most of the legal rights to clean sources of drinking water.

Water, as a resource, also factors into the economic stability of many countries, especially those in the Middle East and Asia ("Water is Life - International Water Wars", 2004). Wars between countries and social classes are becoming more and more prevalent in such areas of the world as the Middle East and Asia where clean water is a very scarce resource and is becoming even rarer. These types of wars can be seen and defined by Class-Conflict theory in sociology.

In summary, environmental protection and awareness is vitally important. A majority of participants interviewed felt very strongly about participating in recycling and about preserving the environment. Social theories about class conflict are prevalent in wars over clean water sources and the ever increasing pollution of vital water sources in countries that can’t afford to lose these sources of drinking water.

References

Water. (2015). Retrieved May 1, 2015, from http://www.nrdc.org/water/

Water is Life - International Water Wars. (2004). Retrieved May 1, 2015, from http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/oforiaa/

Macionis, J. (2004). Society: The basics (7th ed., Annotated instructor's ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.