Everyone should, of course, strive to reduce the waste they produce, reuse items as much as possible before replacing them, and recycle whenever they can.
However, the most impactful thing we can do to make recycling and reuse programs truly effective is to halt the expansion of landfills, starting with the massive ones.
The reason for this is that permitting landfill expansions essentially normalizes wastefulness. It sends a message that we can continue discarding things without real consequences, which weakens efforts to reduce waste. When people know there’s always a place to send their trash, they are less motivated to recycle or reuse materials.
On the other hand, stopping landfill expansions forces individuals and industries to rethink the entire lifecycle of products and materials.
In a more literal sense, when you stop landfill expansions, you force the cost to landfill garbage (commonly referred to as a “tipping fees”) to increase, thereby making the cost of recycling and re-use programs comparitively more affordable and therefore more likely to succeed.
That’s why it’s imperative for people everywhere to stop landfill expansions.
The alternative is to rely on your elected local, state and federal government officials to do the right thing (in this case, make recycle and re-use programs a priority).
Makes sense, doesn’t it?