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Worldwide Concerns in the Way of Sustainable Recycling

Recycling Blockades

By Evie MillsPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Have you heard of the famous slogan, "Go Green"? Surely, you did. On various eco-events, conferences held around the world, and on social media, experts and Environmental scientists talk about hazardous waste elements to the environment and raise their concerns about recycling. It’s an environmentally friendly initiative for sustainable waste management.

NOTE: A special mention to Kings Skip Hire London for providing some useful bits of information for coming out with this post!

The UK has done a magnificent job in uplifting the recycling rate from 11.2 percent to 43.5 percent.

Refer to the chart below:

Credit: statista.com

While recycling is becoming the norm in places like Canada and the United States and has been in most of Europe for years, it has yet to become a routine practice globally. Why are some of the countries like England, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Sweden prepared to recycle so much of their waste material while other countries like Mexico, China, and Romania are not?

Here's a deep look at four possible reasons why recycling is still not played worldwide to its full extent.

Cross-Border Scavenging

The border between the US and Mexico is a long one, and it's not just commercial goods that move back and forth across it. Recycled material from the US makes its way to Mexico every day by way of trash scavengers who bring it south of the border for recycling there. New raw materials in Mexico often cost many times more than their recycled counterparts. This creates a high demand for recycled cardboard and aluminum there. Since Mexico lags decades behind the US in terms of waste management, obtaining these recycled materials from the US is an easy answer.

However, while it seems like scavenging is a harmless solution, it actually creates two problems. First, it robs US recycling centers of aluminum, which is one of the ways many centers make money. Second, it reduces pressure on the Mexican government to create their own recycling programs.

The Implemented Recycling Processes

The US allowing trash to go to Mexico is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a complicated recycling chain. Many people in America think that the items they leave for recycling collection are recycled in the US. However, much of the country's recycling is sent overseas, where it is subject to considerably less scrutiny than within US borders. Ghana, for example, has a huge market for e-waste (electronic waste), much of which comes from the United States.

As more and more tech appliances and gadgets are discarded, landfills in Ghana stretch for acres. Instead of being refurbished or recycled properly, electronic trash has become an enormous market for identity and information theft.

The Culture Problem

Some Asian countries, like India, have a cultural system that is not supportive of recycling. While India has some new initiatives for recycling, waste management has typically been the purview of lower-level socioeconomic groups in India's caste society. Many who have attempted scavenging to both make money and clean up their cities have been subject to police harassment.

Lack of Infrastructure

What many third world countries have in common is poor to no infrastructure for dealing with waste management, including recycling. Some governments are engrossed in war, famine, or other catastrophic conditions. Citizens of these nations are struggling to survive, and recycling is a nicety that doesn't even cross their minds due to the weight of other current issues.

If recycling is to be implemented in developing nations, the government must make it a priority. It can be done. Where recycling programs have been successful on a limited basis, non-profit organizations, private enterprise, and government ministries have offered financial incentives to citizens.

Lack of significant recycling is truly a global issue, even for countries like the US that have reasonably efficient recycling programs. Perhaps the best solution to global recycling hurdles is not to push more recycling mandates but to do what Germany has done; instead of focusing on recycling, it has made waste avoidance the center of its trash policies. By working further upstream, the issue of recycling is less of an issue. And when waste is produced in Germany, polluters are the ones who pay to clean it up, not consumers or bystanders.

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About the Creator

Evie Mills

Designing, Blogging, Relationships, Social Media, Lifestyle.

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