Thanks.What is the American attitude to recycling and climate change?It differs depending on where you live in the US. Some places offer incentives (cash reward, tax breaks, etc.) for recycling. Some places (like the city I reside in) provide free receptacles and free pick up at your home. Some places, people are required to pay for the service or must find a drop off location on their own.
I'm sure just like it differs from area to area, the attitude differs from person to person. My mom really stressed the whole %26quot;green living%26quot; idea many years ago, so to me, recycling is just second nature. My inlaws on the other hand could not give two shits and continuously throw out plastic bottles, cans, etc. despite my suggestions to recycle/reuse.
Dubya was pretty bad. Period. I do believe Obama will help change the thought process on how we treat our environment. But we'll see...What is the American attitude to recycling and climate change?THEY ARE SELFISHWhat is the American attitude to recycling and climate change?The US are the world's best recyclers of drinks cansRecycling is a pain in the ***. I hope climate change is real because life is boring and it might make things more interesting.I USED to recycle until my wife started counting my beer cans.People don't really care to recycle because their lazy %26amp; a lot of americans don't believe in the whole global warming.in recycling ?
they are just making comments .
they are trying to make eastern developing countries the cause of globall warming and other such problems?American Recycling Habits
In the past forty years, recycling has been promoted as an integral part of waste management policy across the United States. Some recent statistics show that Americans have taken that waste management approach to heart and have adjusted their recycling habits accordingly.
The first set of figures show the top three types of garbage, in terms of percentage of total waste, that Americans generated between 1960 and 2000.
The note on the table said %26quot;Generation before materials recovery or combustion. Does not include construction %26amp; demolition debris, industrial process wastes, or certain other wastes.%26quot; These numbers are also before any recycling figures are counted.
Materials Generated in the Municipal Waste Stream 1960-2000
1960 Paper 34.0%, Yard Trimmings 22.7%, Food Scraps 13.8%, (70.5% of total MSW)
1970 Paper 36.6%, Yard Trimmings 19.2%, Metals 11.4% (67.2% of total MSW)
1980 Paper 36.4%, Yard Trimmings 18.1%, Metals 10.2% (64.7% of total MSW)
1990 Paper 35.4%, Yard Trimmings 17.1%, Food Scraps 10.1% (62.6% of total MSW)
2000 Paper 37.5%, Yard Trimmings 11.8%, Food Scraps 11.3%, (60.6% of total MSW)
Source: EPA. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2003.
The statistics show very little changes in American waste production habits over the course of a couple of generations. Between the years 1960 and 2000 the average amount of garbage generated by families and business consisted primarily of paper and paperboard products and yard trimmings. Food scraps and metals (ferrous and nonferrous metals including aluminum cans and iron, steel and other metals in goods like appliances) have waged a battle over the number three place in waste generation. Taken together, the top three categories constitute anywhere from 70.5% to 60.6% of the total waste stream.
While American waste generation habits have remained steady over time, American recycling habits have changed to keep pace with them. The next set of figures show the top three recycling categories over that same forty year time span. The note on how the term recovery is measured says, %26quot;Recovery of post consumer wastes; does not include converting/fabrication scrap.%26quot; The trends pretty much show that Americans have set their sights on improving their recycling rates for the categories that traditionally produce the highest amount of garbage.
Recovery of Municipal Solid Waste (1960-2000)
1960 Rubber and Leather 17.9%, Paper 16.9%, Textiles 2.8%
1970 Paper 15.3%, Rubber and Leather 8.4%, Metals 3.5%
1980 Paper 21.3%, Metals 7.9%, Textiles 6.3%
1990 Paper 27.8%, Metals 24.0%, Glass 20.1%
2000 Yard Trimmings 56.9%, Paper 42.8%, Metals 35.9%
Source: EPA. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2003.
Paper and paperboard has consistently generated the highest percentage of total garbage in the waste stream in the past forty years. During that same time, paper and paperboard recycling efforts have always occupied either the first or second place in American recycling habits. Between 1960 and 2000 paper and paperboard recycling rates have increased from 16.9% to 42.8%.
Yard trimmings consistently comprise the second most generated type of waste across the United States between 1960 and 2000. A revolution of sorts in American yard care started happening in the 1990s. More people were recycling or composting their yard trimmings. By 2000, 56.9% of all the yard trimmings generated in the country were recycled, making it the top recycling category.
Finally, the metals category has consistently been a top waste producer in the United States. American recycling habits also followed that waste stream closely. Between 1970-2000, overall metal recycling rates increased from 3.5% to 35.9%.They drive big gas guzzlers and throw away up to half of their food. Their attitude isnt good. Nobody tells an American what to do, even if it means the planet diesamericans do not have to recycle, but that is why there are recycle centers established all over the place that pay you a small chunk of change for bringing in your recyclables. no doubt they make more from it than you do, but they share some with you :) but they do this to give people an initiative to do something instead of throwing it away or throwing it on the ground. some states even make you pay deposits on soda cans and glass and plastic beverage bottles. then when you take the items back to the store when you have finished the product, you get your money back. usually around 5 cents per can/bottle. but when you rack up alot and forget about them, it piles cash in your pocket. i've made $50 in one trip on soda cans at walmart in iowa. Anyways, no recycling isn't mandatory, and i think alot of americans just don't give a s**t what happens to the planet anyways.There are some recycling containers but not many people bother to use them. Th US produces an enormous amount of waste per capita. People love driving their huge gas guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs encouraged by ridiculously cheap gas (petrol) prices. Fuel efficient diesel cars as in Europe are basically unknown here and you have to drive miles to find a petrol station that actually sells diesel fuel. Obama's best advice would be to tell Americans to stop buying American cars and to buy fuel efficient European and Japanese cars. But of course he can't do that.Those Yanks don't give a stuff about anyone else but themselves !
They have the WORST record for recycling on the whole planet ! They STILL insist on using coal-fired power stations despite all that pollution being shoved into the atmosphere !
Somebody should take them down a peg or two - and make them realise that what THEY do affects the rest of the planet ! Selfish losers !No unless the US suddenly starts taking nuclear power seriously. I live in California were we have weird ideas about carbine like not building more nuclear power plants in our state to generate the power that we will need on cloudy days with no wind than be forced to buy coal generated power from other states. We also plan to make businesses change there diesel engines and emergency power generators to brand new ones with filters that use more fuel and have a bigger carbon footprint than before but at least we can cause many of the small businesses that are the backbone of our economy go out of business.
Even if President Obama listens to real environmentalist, it is likely that the emissions will go up in the short term as the infrastructure for solar, wind, nuclear power generation, trains, more efficient cars, etc are made that can effect the long term goals .
I am hoping since Obama is smart he will listen to the people who are knowledgeable and not the ones who can give money to he's reelection that only say they care about the environment.We here in America have been at the recycle game for many years, in California we have been at it since the early 90's, in the 80's I used to recycle newspapers to make money as a kid. I can only hope that Obama's election will change things drastically here. The materialism that Americans suffer from( I say this because I view it as a disease) is changing drastically. I see more and more people really cutting back on everything more out of necessity than anything else.most major cities do have a recycling program and pick up recyclable items every week from residences just like they pick up the trash. The overwhelming majority participate.almost all US cities have recycling programs and some are mandatory. Regardless of what you see in Yahoo Answers most Americans support action to deal with climate change. Americans are not selfish or wasteful people. We have been here supporting the world economy through our consumption habits. You should note the global economic upheaval that has occurred when we stopped spending in the past year.Recycling doesn't change the climate. Just because it is a leftist cause doesn't mean it is good for the climate. What about sequestering carbon in landfills. Your suggestion that the US has hugely contributed to this problem simply reveals your abysmal ignorance of science as well as an extreme bias. I challenge you to use your own mind for once and do the math. Calculate how much your recycling saves in space. What is the point. Leftists just love to pretend to belong to a group and aren't actually interested in the facts. If something is economical to recycle, it gets recycled.Americans are not going green.
They are ignoring the problem of global warming and hoping its going to go away, making all the world suffer.
I use to love america but i hate them due to this.da american attitude is
%26quot;BIG MAC%26quot;
%26quot;HAM BURGER%26quot;
%26quot;FRIES%26quot;
%26quot;DO U WANT FRIES WID DAT%26quot;
