Photo by Phoebe Lawson
Solo cups are made of plastic called polystyrene, and although polystyrene is not widely recycled, you can still recycle solo cups through various recycling programs. It is important to recycle these cups because polystyrene is made from petroleum products, therefore it is not biodegradable.
Globalized Recycling
What the U.S. does for recycling in comparison to other countries.
Americans learning how to recycle? Sounds like a miracle. Unfortunately, America is one of the countries that recycles the least. Why do you think this is? Well, simply because Americans are idle.
The reality of recycling is there is no law saying that you must recycle. If the problem isn’t directly affecting us, it must be okay. Even if people do decide to recycle, they’re most likely doing it wrong!
A study done by Rob Taylor with the State Recycling Program in the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality found out that the average market value of a ton of mixed recyclable that had gone to a facility in North Carolina dropped from $180.00 in 2011, to barely $80.00 in 2015. In 2013, Americans developed 254 million tons of garbage, with only 80 million tons of that trash being recycled.
Other countries have more efficient ways of recycling. Germany, with the highest recycling rate, recycles about 56.1% of their waste a year. Austria making a close second by 53.8% a year. These countries have strict government policies about recycling. There is good funding for recycling, their houses provide easy material to recycle. In Italy, if you live by a recycling center that’s half a kilometer or less, you can get fined up to 500 euros for not recycling. That’s $570.00 in American currency. Italy also has a mandatory separation law. In France, they have colored trash bins to separate the types of waste being used.
According to Yale University, “Americans only recycle 21.4 percent of discarded materials. The estimate challenges, and falls well below, the former U.S. recycling statistics of 34.5 percent, reported in 2012.” But according to the European Environment Agency, “European countries should be recycling 50% of their waste by 2020” with the results that we are seeing from those countries.
Overall, rates in the United States compared to other countries are fairly low. The United States should start to increase their strictness on recycling.