Recycling is one of the most effective ways to reduce environmental pollution, but this process is not universally controlled across all U.S. states. An independent ecological consultancy, Eunomia, in collaboration with Ball Corporation, collected data and prepared the report about recycling rates and policies in all 50 states (Ball Corporation). This report was published on the 30th of March, 2021, on the Cision PR Newswire website. Eunomia and Ball Corporation generated the report based on 2018 statistics on recycling rates across the country to demonstrate the ranking of states with the most and least effective waste management and recycling. This report aimed to identify the current waste recycling quality and programs in the United States to start implementing better waste collection and reuse practices to achieve more effective recycling in the entire country.
The article claims that recycling should be focused on sorting litter with the highest reuse potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Ball Corporation). The authors of the report created the ranking of ten states with the highest and lowest recycling rates, the first in the list being Maine with 72%, and the bottom of the list is West Virginia with only a 2% recycling rate (Ball Corporation). As the article suggests, some states received higher ranking because they had better-reporting systems, data availability, and Deposit Return System for sorting waste (Ball Corporation). Moreover, the states with excellent recycling had established infrastructure for waste management (Ball Corporation).
The authors admit that the recycling network in the United States is broken. The survey conducted among four thousand adults from the 6th to the 15th of March showed that most U.S. citizens would recommend companies to consider reusable packaging (Ball Corporation). Overall, this article suggests that the data provided in this report will help develop universal regulations to improve recycling in America.
Waste collection and recycling are crucial in resolving environmental pollution that causes greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, affecting the global community. Ineffective recycling system in many U.S. states results in packaging pollution disaster. The current problem is that the lack of universal legislation about litter management created a situation when discarding the waste is cheaper and easier than sorting and recycling.
However, if the recycling system is not improved, the consequences for the environment and people will be severe. Society should be aware of this problem because carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere from burning waste results in global warming that can harm agriculture and people’s health. Therefore, data collection about waste recycling is necessary for developing strategies to improve the current situation in the United States. The solution for this problem is to create a universal waste sorting system and build recycling factories in all states in the future.
Overall, this article presented the report from Eunomia and Ball Corporation about recycling rates in every American state. The report demonstrated that only a small number of states have an efficacious recycling infrastructure. Therefore, the next step after obtaining this data should be developing policies by the government to build a unified waste management network in all states to prevent future environmental disasters that may result from continuous pollution.
After reading this article, I was surprised to learn that the American waste recycling network is still ineffective. This report convinced me to promote my family and friends to sort all waste and purchase products only in reusable packaging. Finally, I would recommend others read this article to learn about issues that result in environmental pollution and take active steps for improving recycling in their states.
Works Cited
Ball Corporation. “New Report Ranks U.S. States Based on Recycling Performance; Finds Data, Policy and Infrastructure Investment Critical to Improve Recycling Rates.” PR Newswire. 2021. Web.