The “Cash for Containers” program is expected to cut down public litter by providing citizens with the exact incentive they want.
In order to encourage recycling, Sydney’s city council has provided people with kiosks which allow them to choose what they would like in return for their plastic bottles and soda cans.
With so much garbage being generated on daily basis, landfill sites and incineration plants are just not big enough to handle it all, and this is becoming more and more apparent. The sea is over-polluted, the beaches are over-polluted, even our streets are over polluted, yet many people still see recycling as a very scary thing and so few are making the effort to reduce the amount of rubbish they send to landfills.
Personally, I can’t understand why people would need incentives in order to recycle. I see clean surroundings, green areas and clean seas as the biggest incentive there is, but it seems not many people look at it in the same way. This is why governments have to come up with various strategies in order to almost “trick” people into recycling and reducing waste.
One such example comes from Australia’s city of Sydney. There, a new recycling program called “Cash for Containers” has been put into motion, where people are actually being rewarded for not throwing their plastic bottle or soda can on the street. Instead, they are encouraged to carry that “enormous weight” to a kiosk, where they can dispose of their beverage container and in return they can choose what to get- from cash to bus tickets. The recycling vending machines also offer prizes. People can win cinema tickets, food vouchers or donate money for green causes.
Do not get me wrong, I am a big supporter of any campaign that can encourage people to recycle. In fact, the more the merrier. But do people really need this sort of things in order to protect the environment by simply separating their garbage? I would think this is common sense, but hey, anything for a free movie.
Image (c) City of Sidney
