Recycling as a Mandatory Process Research Paper

Recycling as a Mandatory Process - Research Paper Example Among the top concerns in environmental pollution involve proper waste disposal and management among every citizen and the authorities that govern them since litter generated by humans is the primary cause of pollution (Ferrara and Missios 222-223). Every day, tons of garbage is being collected in every city all over the world. All kinds of wastes coming from household consumption and industrial by-products are dumped in landfills, segregated, incarcerated, recycled or worse, discarded anywhere. Emergent concerns for municipal waste generation and disposal are rapidly increasing mainly because of the public awareness in the effects of waste generation to the environment, specifically its contribution to climate change and water and air contamination. Government as well as its citizens is now hesitant in creating new landfills and incineration facilities for fear of ground water contagion brought by toxic chemicals in industrial and electronic wastes. Municipal wastes are also swellin g at a fast rate as a result of higher incomes, increase use of durable materials and packaging. Definitely the pollution that wastes carries to the environment is imminent and the impact to environmental pressures from household will probably build up in the following two decades (OECDa 82-83). Nevertheless, the issue of recycling or going green has been widely encouraged, from reusing glass and plastic bottles to utilizing old as cleaning materials in the house. In order to minimize trash, people are taught to reprocess, reuse, reutilize and recondition materials that can beneficial in saving the environment from pollutants. In 2005, household waste alone generated over 75% of municipal waste in key countries like Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic, Luxembourg, Denmark and Spain. Each household with one person accumulates two bags of mixed trash every week while households with three persons accrue an average of 3.2 bags. To a ddress the situation, local government units created policies that will lessen waste generation such as imposing fees based on volume of garbage and minimizing the frequency of collection. Studies show that households tend to lessen waste generation by 7.11% upon the implementation of volume-based fees. On the other hand, it has been observed that mixed waste generation decreases as the frequency of garbage collection also decreases. However, the figures gathered from these policies are not significant; consequently the need for recycling is also essential to resolve the issue (Ferrara and Missios 223-230). According to the Organisation of Economic Co-Operation and Development, Household consumption patterns and behavior have a profound effect on stocks of natural resources and the quality of the environment. As a consequence, governments have introduced a wide variety to encourage people to take environmental impacts into account in their purchases and practices. Recent initiatives include the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs, the introduction of energy performance labels for homes, and the provision of tax incentives to purchase alternative-fuelled vehicles (OECDa 15). In addition, the high volume of litter generated by the industrial sector is a huge concern for environmentalists. According to environmental policy analyst Linda Luther (1), the by-product