Is recycling really difficult?

Alright, today I need to let some steam go off in this blog post. For the past 3 month we (my girlfriend and I) have a big blue wheely bin outside our house for all our recycling and additionally, a small brown bin for all the food waste. Something I am used to since I am a small child. Apparently, not os for many of my house mates. But this is not the actual problem, the problem seems to be the ignorance and misinformation about recycling. When be first started to separate our glass, plastic and paper from the general waste, most of our flatmates did not join at all and just continued throwing everything into the general waste. When we talked to them about the issue they willingly listened and explained that they do not know how to recycle and what can be recycled. Therefore, we made some pictures and explained it all to them and put some instructions next to the bin. It was working maybe for a few days and then everything went back to normal and all rubbish was landing in the general waste bin. One comment we received was if we really believe that recycling will help the environment at all and that it all is just a big scam or hoax. Really????? I could not believe what I was hearing…!

Recycling by Nour El Refai

Anyway, we continue to get our hands dirty by getting plastic, paper, cans and other recyclable stuff out of our general waste bin. We will also continue reminding everybody in our house share what proper recycling looks like and why it is important.

Do you have similar stories? Please share them!