the example of the Inquiry Proposal

 Are U.S. Household Recycling Policies Effective?

BACKGROUND AND REASONS OF INTEREST

· Personally, I’m really interested in recycling because I’m aware of the impact waste can have on our environment. Once you begin recycling, it becomes a habit because you know the positive effects. It takes a small amount of time to recycle an item, but if you do not, it has a long-lasting impact on the Earth.

· People have to realize that planet Earth is our home and that we ourselves are destroying it. According to National Geographic journalist Laura Parker, “Plastic takes more than 400 years to degrade...” (Parker), when sometimes we use plastic for less than 5 minutes. It also produces a big impact for animals. As humans throw a lot of plastic in the ocean, animals get stuck in it. Also, sometimes animals eat plastic, which can lead to the disappearance of many animal species. If we do not turn recycling into an important part our our lives and culture, we will keep contaminating water, woods, and making animals die, until at some point  there will be no way to minimize the impact. 

· Conforming to Busch Systems Resource Center, during World War I the U.S. government encouraged people to recycle materials because of the shortage of raw materials the world produced. Years later in 1970, the U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day. As the author says, “The first Earth Day brings national attention to the problem of increasing waste and the importance of recycling.” (Bradbury). He continue to say that in the 1980s, New Jersey decided to decree mandatory recycling. Although the U.S. made many efforts throughout the 70s and 80s, in recent years, recycling laws are limited. China was the principal plastic buyer in the world. Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, New York Times journalist, says, “China announced last year that is no longer wanted to be the world’s garbages dump.” (Freytas-Tamura) Now, the challenge for the U.S. is to learn how to handle this recycled waste by themselves. 

RESEARCH

· Are U.S. Household Recycling Policies Effective?

· My first source is “How Effective Are Current Household Recycling Policies? Results from a National Survey of U.S. Households.” written by Jean Daniel M. Saphores and Hilary Nixon. In this article they talk about different predictors of recycling behavior, such as socio-economic characteristics, income, and environmental knowledge. They found that there are some important points beyond the predictors. In the U.S.,  household recycling policies are related to each state, so in the states where recycling is mandatory, it is more effective. That means that when recycling is mandatory people start to recycle different types of household materials, not just the required ones. This makes recycling a habit, as seen when Saphores and Nixon say, “...there is a direct link between knowledge related to recycling and recycling programs and behavior.” (Saphores and Nixon 9). We can see that recycling programs are a determinant key to the recycling behavior. If you don’t teach people the real impact of common household materials - glass, plastic, metals - on our environment, they will never understand why is so important to recycle. This in article helps me with my topic because it clears up false conceptions that I had about who recycles and who does not. 

My second resource is “Americans Are Really Bad at Recycling. But Only Because We’re Not Trying Very Hard.” written by Tracy Fernandez Rysavy. She is a journalist of the nonprofit organization Green America. The main idea about recycling in her article, is that recycling is all about education. Also, she talks about the change in price of mixed recyclable materials and the decrease in their demand, and that the contamination levels change by season. There are a lot of things that go into recycling effectively, as stated by Fernández when she says, “the success of this places shows that Americans can raise our recycling rates. But it will take a combination of government policy, corporate responsibility, community will, and individual effort.” (Fernández). In this quote, she is talking about the U.S. reaching the European Union’s recycling level. They’re trying to increase their recycling rates (up) to 50% by 2021. This source is important for my research question because it gives me a different perspective of recycling. In this source, we see that a citizen notices that recycling takes a big effort, and it is not actually working in the U.S. 

My last source is “Why No National Recycling Law in the U.S.?” by the Business Ethics Magazine. Mainly it explains that government leads the responsibility of waste management to each state. That means that recycling is a state issue. State actions differ as seen when the magazine says, “... less populous western states with lots of extra land for sitting landfills might not be as inclined to push for higher recycling rates as those crowded eastern states with less room to store their trash” (“Why No National Recycling Law in the U.S.?”). I decided to use this source because as the quote says, there are some states that are not involved in recycling, but all states need to contribute to make a difference.

· Personally, I would like to research more about U.S. recycling numbers, particularly, comparing the effectiveness of states policies. I want to know if it really helps to lead the responsibility to each state, and if the U.S. as a total is really making a difference in recycling behavior. 

AUDIENCE AND BENEFITS 

· I think that my audience will be people who understand the importance of recycling, and recycle, but are not really interested in leading others to follow the same recycling behavior. 

· I would really like people understand that the change is possible. I want them to teach their friends, their relatives, their colleagues, the importance of recycling and how to do it properly. Now, the change is in their hands, I want them to take action. 

Works Cited 

Bradbury, Matt. “A Brief Timeline of the History of Recycling.” Busch Systems Resource 

 Center, 14 Apr. 2016,  

www.buschsystems.com/resource-center/page/a-brief-timeline-of-the-history-of-recycling .  Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.

Fernandez, Tracy. “Americans Are Really Bad at Recycling. But Only Because We’re Not      

  Trying Very Hard. “ Green America. Green America members and Manaaki  

  Foundation.    

https://www.greenamerica.org/rethinking-recycling/americans-are-really-bad-recy cling-only-because-were-not-trying-very-hard . Accessed 27 Feb. 2019.  

Freytas-tamura, Kimiko De. “Plastics Pile Up as China Refuses to Take the West's Recycling.” 

The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Jan. 2018, 

www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/world/china-recyclables-ban.html . Accessed 1 Apr. 2019. 

Parker, Laura. “A Whopping 91% of Plastic Isn't Recycled.” National Geographic, National 

Geographic Society, 20 Dec 2018, 

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/ .Accesed 01 Apr. 2019. 

Saphores, Jean-Daniel M and Hilary Nixon. “How Effective are Household Recycling 

Policies? Results from a National Survey of U.S. Household.” Elsevier B.V., Science Direct, 2004. 

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344914001797 . Accessed 

25 Feb. 2019. 

“Why No National Recycling Law in the U.S.?” Business Ethics, 14 Nov. 2017, 

business-ethics.com/2010/11/21/why-no-national-recycling-law-in-the-u-s/.  Accessed 13 

Mar. 2019