Let's Talk About Recycling

I came across this news article from IndyStar the other day about how Indianapolis falls behind other cities when it comes to recycling. According to this article, the recycling rate in Indianapolis is only 7% with 10% participation rate, while San Francisco has 80% recycling rate with 100% participation. It’s sad to see but this article does answer some of my long-time questions.

(Photo Credit: IndyStar News)

I remember how surprised I was when I learned that people here have to pay extra money if they want recycling truck to come to pick up their recycling stuff. I wonder what kind of concerns there are that led to the decision that the government would not make recycling friendly at all. For me, United States is a very advanced country in SO many ways. But when talking about environmental issues such as recycling, the government here gives me the feeling that they couldn’t care less.

From my experiences growing up in Taiwan, the policy from the government is to encourage people to recycle. Recycling truck comes to your neighborhood almost everyday, FOR FREE. The garbage truck comes everyday, too, but people can only use special trash bags which cost more money. In that way, everyone wants to recycle everything they can so as to minimize the amount of trash they create. There are always separate trash and recycling bins at the house, school buildings, sidewalks, anywhere in public… Recycling is easy and convenient to do.



I remember when I was in elementary and middle school, there are classes that taught me how to categorize recyclable items like cartons, aluminum, different types of plastics… And I also had to learn how to clean and fold cartons or juice boxes before throwing them to the recycling bins.



Besides recycling, I do everything that I can to reduce waste. It’s a way of living for me. I bring my own shopping bags, and I also carry utensils with me instead of using the plastic disposable ones. My mom even prepares her own take out containers when buying food.



Recycling might be an important issue for Taiwan since it’s a small island with huge population density. The incinerators or the landfill would be right next to someone’s neighborhood, and nobody likes that, so there have been tons of protests to force the politicians to take this issue seriously.



However, I do see other countries with bigger land take initiatives on recycling. I remember when I met some German visiting teachers, we were sharing our culture shock here, and the lack of recycling is the culture shock we all mentioned. (And also the big amount of food here in America haha.) Within United States, some other states are putting lots of efforts on increasing recycling rate, too.



I hope Indiana government would realize that if Indiana recycles more, not only the earth would feel happier, but also it’ll create some more economical opportunity. (See more details from this follow up news article.) Something here in Indiana needs to change. I’ll keep doing recycling on my own and I truly wish one day here in Indiana policies regarding recycling will be better. Recycling shouldn’t be such a hassle to do. This beautiful earth that we live on should not be taken for granted.