Should You Get Paid to Recycle?

The fact is, there are many benefits to recycling beyond reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills. Recycling saves energy and reduces pollution. It even creates jobs. A 2016 EPA report found that recycling accounted for nearly 700,000 jobs! The more we recycle, the cleaner and better off our communities—and our planet—will be.

Now, some people believe we shouldn’t need a reward for doing things that help the environment. And I agree. In a perfect world, we would all recycle simply because it’s the right thing to do.

But we don’t live in a perfect world. So why not provide an extra incentive for people to recycle? What matters is that we all recycle as much as possible. The reason we do it is less important.

Here’s something else to consider: Bottle bills help communities. For example, in Connecticut, people can donate bottles and cans to a group called “Cans for Kids.” The group returns the recyclables and donates most of the money it gets to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. So far, the group has donated more than $500,000.

Helping others while also helping our environment seems like a win-win to me.

^{* Environmental Protection Agency 2018
** Clean Virginia Waterways of Longwood University}

It’s true that states with bottle bills have higher recycling rates for bottles and cans, but those are not the only items that should be recycled. What about paper? Paper makes up about one-quarter of trash in the U.S.

Besides, recycling costs money. Having bottle bills and universal recycling programs is a waste of money. It makes more sense to have one system that makes it easy to recycle everything at once.

But the real issue with bottle bills isn’t cost or convenience. It’s that rewarding people for recycling sends the message that taking care of the environment is an option—when in fact, it’s an obligation. Earth is the only home we’ve got. It’s our responsibility to take care of it.

The fact is, we have a garbage problem that we can’t recycle our way out of. What we really need to do is stop buying so much stuff that gets thrown out. Instead of plastic water bottles, we should choose reusable ones, for instance. Remember that slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”? Those words are listed in that order for a reason.

Think of it this way: We get to live on a planet that has everything we need to survive. But only if we take care of it will we get to keep breathing its air, growing food in its soil, and drinking its water. Keeping Earth healthy should be the only reward we need.

This article was originally published in the March 2021 issue.