Our Solution
Our project is based on the principle that recycling is a great method of stalling environmental degradation and climate change, that everyday people could practice easily. By introducing the idea of recycling to large amounts of people, we could easily cut down on unnecessary waste in all aspects of industry and society.
Therefore, we believe that the fedaral government should spurn efforts to spread the idea of recycling across the nation. Bills can be passed to mandate recycling in public areas such as schools, community centers, libraries. Grants can be provided to states to incentivize educational seminars on recycling, and beginning these programs in their schools.
Here are the facts, according to the EPA:
A mere 9% of all recoverable plastics were recycled in 2012. However, the rate was much higher for plastics found in bottles, jars, etc - at a 'staggering' ~30%. Imagine if we could bring that percentage higher.
Now, according to KAB:
The amount of CO2 emmission reduction from recycling in America was the equivalent to taking 33 million passenger vehicles off of the road. This number could easily be increased with more widespread participation.
Aluminum is almost always a recyclable metal. Of the 3.4 million tons generated in the US in 2009, only .69 million tons were recovered. To put this into perspective, throwing away a single aluminum can instead of recycling it wastes as much energy as pouring half of that can's volume in gasoline away. The more energy we use, the more carbon emmissions are produced.