Before Yoda — the force-sensitive and elderly cousin of Kermit the Frog — effervesced into the great beyond in 1980, he left us with this peerless wisdom: “Do or do not. There is no try.”
In application of this philosophy, I have done many things befitting of greatness in my life. This includes merging in heavy traffic, courting pretty women and writing “good.” But where I have always excelled is in matters pertaining to recycling.
For, despite being the absolute bare minimum I can do for this beautiful planet, it’s the one thing I know I can do to make a difference. It is also the one action that, just barely, keeps me involved with my community. Most importantly, when counting off my immoralities before the day’s end, remembering I recycled that bottle of Evan Williams helps me gambol off to the Land of Nod with slightly more ease.
I don’t know who invented recycling, but I’ll be the first to tell you it was a damn good idea. In this day and age of wasteful, unfettered consumerism, it’s practically a necessity.
Still, there are those who are quick to label it as a pointless endeavor. However, reviews by the Natural Resources Defense Council have found that municipal recycling programs reduce pollution, decrease the use of untapped resources and cut down on the need to expand landfill space. These are all objectively good things for planet Earth.
Reports from the Environmental Defense Fund, another environmental organization of great influence, assert that recycling is not a superfluous use of taxpayer's money, nor is it as ineffective as the lovers of the landfill would purport.
One prominent culture Gainesville prides itself on is environmental consciousness. This can be seen in our ongoing protection of Paynes Prairie and other city parks, as well as our thriving vegetarian subculture. Yet, for all the concerted efforts of these green-minded individuals, the municipality and its waste management system foil them by indifferently failing to provide adequate resources for recycling.
There are many Florida towns that do not have populations deemed significant enough to warrant recycling plants or, alternatively, lack the infrastructure.
However, our town has both. Why aren’t they being used to their fullest? What’s our excuse for not having a dumpster for reusables in every restaurant plaza or alley? As someone who works as a server, the amount of plastic and glass I see thrown away is astounding. And if the pain of seeing glass go from table to trash can wasn’t enough, I am often the one made to do it, reducing me to a goddamn sellout in the process.
We should be grateful that we live in a city that does recycle, but this should not render us complacent. Many cities, including our own, have decidedly plateaued on their recycling efforts, allowing inefficiencies in the system to hold fast and stagnate the effort.
According to professor Samantha MacBride of Columbia University, about one-third of recyclables on a national scale actually get processed. Much of the waste that finds itself in the recycling bin is treated as trash at the plant, subsequently leading many items that could have been recycled to end up in the landfill instead. Being that there are a huge range of plastics and hundreds of different resins, there need to be “markets and processes to route them back into production,” according to MacBride. In “Recycling Reconsidered,” MacBride goes on to emphasize the importance of manufacturer recycling. With that said, why should we as consumers leave it up to them?
It’s time we, as environmentally conscious people, push for and work toward generating an infrastructure for a more efficient and helpful recycling system.
We need to demand a difference in order to make a difference.
Justin Ford is a UF journalism junior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
