Quick question: Do you think recycling is good for the environment?
My guess is that your answer aligns with the answer we get from most people living in America: A whopping 95 percent of us think recycling helps the environment, and 75 percent of us believe recycling is the best thing we can do for the environment.
But would you agree with that? Is recycling the BEST thing we can do for the environment? Probably not. So why do our friends and neighbors think that?
Because that’s what we’ve told them to think.
All of us involved in sustainability communications regularly telegraph the message to the public at large that “recycling = good for the environment.” We put the chasing arrows everywhere we can. We add compelling messaging to packages to encourage recycling. We’ve even created a whole new series of images to teach folks how to recycle correctly. And there’s all the advertising encouraging us to do the right thing for the planet by recycling.
So, today, if you ask Americans, “What type of packaging would you be most likely to buy?”— and we have asked recently — they will tell you, “a package that is recyclable” followed by “a package that’s made from recyclable materials.” It’s the classic Henry Ford statement: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse.” Recycling is the system we’ve sold the public, and they’ve bought in. Read more…
