What's the Best Way to Improve Recycling?

Most of the manufacturers I buy stuff from have spent many hours engineering their packaging. The ideal package will withstand shipping and handling by common carrier, withstand inventory handlers, misuse and abuse... and then fall apart right after the product is delivered to the final destination.

Some of the manufacturers have severely underestimated the amount of abuse that can be dished out by freight handlers, the products are sometimes delivered to us in a jumbled mess of collected material in an incorrect carton. A few manufacturers provide shipping cartons substantial enough for Stinky Pete to live in for two months after the product is used. This balance has proven difficult to find... there is some sort of problem here with these baby steps. Can we really start to run?

Single stream recycle only works well (it seems to me) in larger metropolitan areas.

Why don't they use re-usable containers of different sizes and shapes with fasteners which could be returned to transporters like DHL, Fedex etc.

Research has shown pretty conclusively that consumer paid (and reimbursed) deposits are very effective for the beverage packaging materials - it might be tough to implement on, say, toy packaging, but might work. A packaging fee would probably just be passed on to the consumer, who theoretically already has to pay to dispose of the packaging, but might be an effective incentive to reducing some of the crazy packaging scenarios and especially the oversized packaging which is designed not just to safely deliver the product to market, but to take up more shelf space...

Well, then, I suggest you go live in one of the states where the bottle bill exists. You'll change your tune in a hurry. It's the biggest pain in the butt or drain on the wallet there is. I just love storing empty beverage containers that attract insects and vermin and then carting them back to the store in pristine full volume shape because they won't accept them any other way. My time or effort apparently has no value and is of no concern to the turds who dream this crap up.

Good municipal recycling programs abound where it makes cents, i.e. high population density. Other than that, it makes no cents to recycle. It consumes more resources than it saves.

I used to live in Taxachusetts one of the first to adopt the "bottle bill" to ostensibly reduce litter back in the 70's before recycling became vogue. I soon learned to hate the whole business. At first, the bottlers fought it tooth and nail, then they learned they made a lot of money off of un-redeemed deposits. Funny how they changed their tune. It does tend to reduce litter though, because bums will turn over trash cans to retrieve those "nickels".

By the way, I recycle like crazy. In my county here in Maryland, they have single stream recycling. Most weeks, I only have half of a 13 gallon trash bag and my 40 gallon recycling can is full.

Cheers !!

If it doesn't put money on my pocket I wont recycle it.

If it costs me more to buy because someone expects that sill make me recycle it I find another alternative to it.

If I have to buy it and its packaging is flammable it goes in my boiler!

Thats my recycling system. Make money, avoid spending money, or make heat out of it.

The county I live in collects recyclables free of charge and it costs $2 per 35 gallon bag of trash. This has seemed to work well to reduce the amount of trash I place at the curb, since it is cheaper for me. I am at heart not recycle guy but it helps my wallet. I'm not sure what they do with it or how much it costs (tax dollar) but it does make me recycle.

If the manufacturers and/or vendors collect used items like beer cans, bottles, bulbs, electronics, paints, chemicals, etc. and recycle them a lot of problems could be solved.