60% waste recycling rate! Seattle ultra-green targets difficult to achieve

Fourteen years ago, Seattle developed an ambitious “Super Green Life” program that will bring the recycling rate of trash to 60% by 2008! However, as of today, the city that has been extremely concerned about the environment has achieved remarkable results, but at the same time it began to worry about whether this goal can be achieved on time, or to achieve a goal, and what additional measures should be taken.
Seattle has a reputation as a “green city” in the United States. However, in recent years, despite the efforts of various parties, the city’s garbage recycling rate has only reached about 40%. A few days ago, the city’s environmental officials believe that the plan to achieve 60% utilization of garbage recycling in Seattle now looks a little too optimistic.
Tim Crowe, the director of Seattle’s public service for social services, admits that they are reassessing the previously established goals and then submit a report to the mayor or the city council recommending the time for the director to achieve this goal, or make some adjustments, or It is to revise the final deadline.
Seattle's garbage recycling utilization rate has been far higher than the average US city average of 30%. Residents of the city have a very good sense of environmental protection and have provided strong support for this work of the municipal government. They placed glass bottles, cans, paper and plastic bags in different categories to facilitate their reuse. They also actively broke down some of the dissolvable household waste and buried it in the garden as fertilizer instead of piled on the roadside and paid for the money. People get away.
However, to reach 60% of the recycling rate requires further work on food waste (food waste accounts for 20% of the total amount of garbage). It is necessary to send trucks to remove them or provide free recycling services. Increasing waste recycling efforts means increased expenses. But Crowe believes that money is not a major issue. He denied that the plan may have been affected by the government budget. Seattle is much better than other cities like New York. Last year, the Mayor of New York City, Michael Blumberg, announced that it would suspend the recycling of glass and plastics, saying that it would reduce the city's fiscal deficit. When the economy fell, the waste recycling costs in Seattle increased. It reduced the price of paper recycling, but there was still a surplus in the recycling program.
Residents of Seattle pay only a small monthly cleaning fee (the larger the trash cans they use, the more money they pay), plus some uncertain household waste disposal fees. The garbage collection system in Seattle has been supported by 560,000 residents. The city offers incentives for residents who classify waste, while some cities in the east use fines for those who mix waste. Therefore, it is not surprising that the recycling rate of many households in Seattle has reached 60% or even higher.
The U.S. economy has slowed down in recent years, and cities have begun to re-evaluate waste recycling programs. Because the waste disposal costs are reduced and the funds saved are used for other purposes, the effect will be immediately apparent, but the funds will be put into use to make air The benefits of clearing the river and clearing the river are not immediately obvious.
In Rocky Mountain, land prices are relatively cheap and sparsely populated. In 2001, only 11% of solid waste was recovered in several states. However, in the densely populated eastern region, garbage recycling utilization reached 40%, and Delaware even reached 59%. The waste recovery rates of the Midwest and West Coast and New England are also between 34% and 35%. In the densely populated state of Connecticut, it is said that 100% of residents participate in roadside garbage recycling programs. Behind Delaware is Alaska, with a 45% recovery rate, followed closely by Minnesota, New York, California, and Maine, all over 40%.
Although it is difficult for Seattle to achieve the set target of 60% recovery, its efforts have won wide appreciation. "40% of Seattle's performance is already quite good. If people only care about the immediate interests instead of paying attention to the future, they may pay a higher price," said Preston Redd, environmental affairs director of the American Soft Drink Federation. . Beverage manufacturers support roadside waste recycling programs. When people sell drinks, they need to add 5 cents as a deposit for bottles to encourage people to recycle; they reduce the weight and material of plastic bottles and cans, and also reduce costs.
With the general awareness of environmental protection in the United States generally increasing and the demand for reusable materials increasing, the managers of the soft drink industry hope that manufacturers of reusable materials will keep pace with the times, increase scientific research, and further reduce costs for humans. benefit.