Discuss recycling policies in the typical US neighborhood

There are no laws that mandate recycling in the US but states and local governments have come up with their own measures to solve the issues. At present there is an EPA under the national banner that oversees some of these activities. In terms of state ot city regulation, the major elements are landfill bans and recycling goals. The landfill bans restrain people from dumpin waste in landfills. These are particularly done in the staes of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan etc.

Whereas states like California, Hawaii, Oregon, Connecticut, Delaware etc have focussed on laws to reduce the dumping of beverage containers and promote their reuse or recyling. Michigan has had a 10 cent deposit values on such units since 1976! Meanwhile Seattle, Conneticut etc have imposed laws which fine people who dump a certain percentage of recyclable materials as part of their takeout garbage.

However there are stillcertain issues that glare through these measures. One major example is batttery recycling. Battery recycling depends a lot on accessibility. One cannot recycle or reuse batteries unless there are proper centres to take care of them nearby. Hence a lot of battery waste is accumulated as recyclable units remain unattended due to accessibility issues. But we can see that curbiside recycling meanwhile has higher recycling rate but is limited to plastics, aluminum, glass and paper.

Hence to make such a provision more accessible the authorities should set up drop in location in every locality after analysing what kind of waste remains the most attended, and what is the reason for it being so. Also incentives for recycling can encourage people to use facilities for recycling that have been set up. For example, the issue of batteries can be solved if the individuals are incentivised through a coupon or voucher scheme.