Justin Ramirez talks about how he recycles all the time and he feels good about himself for contributing his part to the environment. On the other hand, his brother Eddie says how he supports the e environment but finds it inconvenient to. actually recycle. He also mentions how he feels that even if he were to recycle as often as his brother, his part wouldn't actually affect the earth enough. His exact mindset, unfortunately, is a reason in why the environment is often left unprioritized in the increasingly busy minds of the average citizen. People feel as if their contributions don't make a difference therefore they don't bother. See, if one person were to feel this way then maybe the environment wouldn't feel so bad. But, if we have two hundred or so people in one city all thinking 'my actions won't make a difference' then there becomes a silent chaos in the environment.
This article reminds me of just how uniformed people really are of how their actions affect their environment and how every little step they can take really does help. Eddie needs to realize that he's one of so manual people that think they take no part in the well being of the environment.
I realize that this article covers so many more statistics of recycling but what really hit me was the more personal aspect of it. Yes, it is amazing that 'of the 250 million tons of trash thrown out of homes in 2010, 85 million was diverted from landfills.' Still, though, the fact that there is still so much trash thrown out in general is incredibly eye opening.
Citation:
Dover, Sara. "Is Recycling worth It?" CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2013.
It is hard to see the difference we can make because we only have numbers to look at. Not everyone lives with contaminated skies, polluted water, or trash filled streets so it's hard to see the problem. I do hope we can convince people that our actions really do help.
ReplyDeleteI was just reading in the book about how unaware people are of the affects of their actions on on the world. So many people don't think that they can make a change when small things can actually build up and do something.
ReplyDeleteThat amount of waste is insane! I do totally agree with you though. We can each make a difference, no matter how small. I think that what is holding back from the changes are the people that think that what they are doing won't make a difference, but by watching the landfill piles increase every year, it's prevalent that we cannot all sit around, thinking that our actions won't make a difference.
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