In the recent State of the State address, Gov. CL “Butch” Otter spent a great deal of time talking about education and new reforms that are being made. However, he did not talk one bit about recycling — something Idaho is not known for.
We have all heard we should recycle more and pollute less (pretty common sense). And we have all probably seen bags full of beer cans in the trash outside of many Moscow houses and social establishments. While this might seem like a minor infraction it is bigger than one might think.
If one person consumes enough soda or beer to produce four pounds of aluminum per month and doesn’t recycle the cans, then that is 48 pounds of aluminum they throw away annually — for one person. Imagine if 1,000 of those people live in Moscow. Our annual waste would be 4,800 pounds of non-renewable metal.
It is pretty common to think, “Well, I don’t have to recycle if everyone else does,” but that is exactly the problem. If every person passes responsibility to someone else without doing something themself then we end up with the collective action problem — everyone wants a healthier planet, but no one wants to work for it.
Especially in the case of metals — a non-renewable resource — the need to recycle is great. Because metals have to be mined they are expensive (in terms of energy and dollars) to acquire. So when you throw away metal like aluminum, sure you can say that more can be mined, but you are just hurting your future self.
By not recycling now you are driving up the cost of the goods you buy in the future. As aluminum becomes less abundant products containing aluminum will become more and more expensive, costing you more money for everything from an iPod to a can of soda.
In Moscow we are blessed. Although we live in a state that has one of the worst recycling cultures in the Northwest, we still have a great recycling facility — Moscow Recycling Center. It accepts everything from old cell phones and batteries, to metals and the paper you are holding right now. So stop making excuses and buy a recycling bin.