In honor of Earth Day, here is a photo of the recycling spot on our street. Yes, our neighborhood is trashed! Yes, to accumulate this many bottles, some of the neighbors must have been trashed too!
It was shocking to see the recycling bins overflowing for so many days, but it also makes me smile. This photo represents where we are today in relation to environmental issues; awareness and good intentions! The demand for recycling obviously exceeds capacity at the moment and I believe programs will expand exponentially to meet the market demand!
Along with a group of my Business Students, I visited the largest factory of recycled plastic products in all of Europe yesterday and saw the innovative products they are making. While remarkable, the complexity and limitations of using recycled household plastics reinforced my belief that Reduce is the R that will soon come to the forefront and make the biggest environmental impact!
Will the willingness to recycle carry over into a desire among consumers to reduce waste? Perhaps the new economic climate and corporate cost cutting will drive some of the wasteful and environmentally unfriendly packaging out of our household products? Let’s hope big innovations in waste reduction are just around the corner…
Suzy Ogé is an American born business woman living in The Hague, The Netherlands. 