If you could take the human element out of the recycling process we would be much better at making a dent at saving our world. The problem is, as humans, we follow the same pathway as water does – the path of least resistance.

Here’s the scenario: my daytime job is the Business Manager of a local private school. Yesterday one of our teachers came to me expressing their distaste that our school didn’t – at the very least – offer a recycling bin for paper waste. Now I’ve been in this role for the past 11 years so I’ve seen a lot of advances in this area by some of the teaching staff – and even initiated my own.

A few years back we had a paper waste dump bin servicing our site. Due to our lack of space it sat next to our general dump bin and became the overflow waste receptacle once the general bin became full. After a few contaminated loads, the waste company began complaining loudly and not long after we realised that our efforts were fruitless.

Herein lies the problem: if recycling is going to REALLY have an effect it needs to start in schools. If we can educate children to think about their environment and the way in which their consumerism affects the planet, we may have a chance. Yet, schools are often mirrors of society rather than positive influencers – what goes on in the home is usually reflected in this micro-community.

I explained to this teacher that the issue with recycling was that the whole school – parents, staff, students – needed to see this as important. Getting recyclable waste from the classroom to the correct bins without contaminating the useful resources was going to be a mammoth task – bordering on impossible.

She assured me that this was definitely achievable, and I hate being the pessimist, but I’m not sure that it’s going to pan out in the long term. Sure, it may work for a while and everyone will get that gooey “We’re-saving -the-planet-feeling” for a few months, maybe even a few school terms. But the honest truth is that we are just such slobs and will always look for the easy way out.

Recycling is not part of the human psyche. For instance, I garden and recycle all my prunings and kitchen waste into useful compost. I wash out my recyclable containers and put them in the right bins at home. I even take home my shredded papers from work so they too can be composted. But, I’m just as guilty of using plastic disposable plates when we’re entertaining for a large group.

The issue with recycling is that it takes effort. Effort to change. Effort to continue to change and effort to involve others to change.

What are your thoughts and experiences with recycling? Similar? Vastly different? Would love to hear your comments.