Albuquerque Still On The Recycling Struggle Bus

A recent article written by an Albuquerque reporter highlighted the sad fact that only 23% of waste generated by residents is recycled. Most major cities throughout the US are seeing percentages as high as 60-80%, which begs the question, “why is Albuquerque finding it so hard to get it’s residents to recycle?”

In my opinion it starts from the top down. Instead of talking about the benefits of recycling, our local government likes to talk about the challenges that they face when being tasked with offering recycling to it’s residents. Often we hear about curbside contamination, illegal dumping at recycling sites and the lack of financial gain in recycling materials such as glass. These are just excuses to offer sub par recycling services and not invest in outside the box thinking when it comes to recycling.

Many cities have invested in large scale glass crushers to reuse glass and by doing so, they have beautified medians with eye catching designs. Other large cities also invest in education about recycling and are happy to put fun and useful factoids on recycling stations that provide residents with the feel good vibes that go along with doing something good for the world. Instead of talking about the few people who don’t take recycling seriously, they should talk about how the mass majority of people can help make the world a better place by doing their part….which can start with placing a recyclable material in the correct bin.

Albuquerque, we as a whole can do better. We can do our part to leave the world better for future generations. We cannot rely on our elected officials to do it for us. One simple act….recycling a material that can be reused can be the change that the world needs!