John (for all of you newcomers, that's my fiance) and his roommate have been saving paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum for a little over a month, just to recycle it.
There is a local recycling company that will pay you for bringing your recycled goods. John was getting super excited, his main purpose for all of this was money.
He asked me, as a journalist, what is it that makes a story.
First, I told him he needs questions that he not only asks himself, but his viewers. His question was "Is recycling worth it?" I informed him that it is a good question but it needs to be more specific because for his viewers, how are they supposed to know what he means? Does he mean is it worth it when it comes to money or is it worth it in the sense that it is beneficial for the environment?
Well, we all have common sense (for the most part). We know that plastic bottles do not decompose so obviously it's helpful to recycle it. Anyways, that's a different story. Back to my point.
We took an adventure out to Try2Recycle today. John took all of his recyclables to his place and on our adventure, we took a video. He called and found out that he had to sort all of it otherwise they wouldn't accept it.
John had over 11 pounds of recycled goods. Because places like this are a HUGE deal in places like California, I was guessing he was going to get a decent amount. I was guessing $5 maybe, he was aiming more towards $10. He walked up to a lady at the front of the company, turned in his weight-in and guess what he got?
An amazing 63 cents.
Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BvbXYa9fh8
Eleven pounds of recycling! Sounds like a lot. How long did it take him to collect that amount? Did John think recycling was worth it after this experience?
ReplyDeleteIt took him over a month to collect it all. And no, he came to the conclusion that it is not worth it to collect recyclables for cash.
ReplyDeleteHey! This is John! That took us roughly one month. I do not think it was economically worth it after all - but I do support recycling for other reasons. This documentary shows that something needs to change to offer more motivation or the "Average Joes" will never participate.
ReplyDelete