Make the right choice the easy one: Most people will manage waste sustainably only if something pushes them. Societies can promote better choices with prices, rules, knowledge and good facilities.
The tools
- People and companies change when a better choice is cheaper, required, easier or normal.
- Taxes and incentives change prices; legislation changes the rules.
- Social policies (sorting rules, targets for councils) organise everyone's waste.
- Education and campaigns change what people know and value.
- Better access to bins, collections and recycling centres makes the right choice easy.
- Tools work best together: a charge plus free recycling plus a campaign.
Real example: around 1999 Wales recycled less than 5% of its household waste. With legal targets for councils, weekly food waste collections and funding, it now recycles about 65%, one of the highest rates in the world.
Reading a chart: Asked to identify a value? Give the number and its unit, read carefully from the scale: 'about 44%'.
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Money is a strong push. Economic tools make wasting more expensive and sustainable choices cheaper: the polluter pays principle.
Taxes and incentives
- Landfill tax: a charge per tonne buried, so councils and firms recycle or reduce instead.
- Pay-as-you-throw: households pay by the bag or the kilo, so wasting costs them money.
- Deposit-return: pay a little extra for a bottle, get it back when you return it.
- Subsidies: grants for compost bins, repair shops or recycling plants.
- Risk: charges can lead to illegal dumping and hit poorer households hardest.
Remember it as: Make waste cost money, and saving it pay.
Real example: since 2003 Germany has added a 25 cent deposit (Pfand) to single-use drinks bottles and cans. People get it back at the shop, and about 98% of them are returned.
Two sides to a charge: Charges cut waste, but some people may dump rubbish illegally to avoid them, and the cost hits poorer households hardest. Say both in an evaluation.
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Laws set rules everyone must follow. They can ban an item, make companies responsible for their waste, or require sorting.
Legislation and social policies
- Bans on single-use items: plastic bags, straws, cutlery, polystyrene boxes.
- Extended producer responsibility: makers pay to collect and recycle what they sell.
- Compulsory sorting at home and at work, and targets for councils.
- Packaging limits and rules on recycled content in new products.
- Laws work only if enforced, with fines and checks, and with cheap alternatives available.
Laws work when
- They are enforced with fines
- Cheap alternatives exist
- People understand why
Laws fail when
- Nobody checks
- Banned goods are smuggled in
- Alternatives cost too much
Real example: in 2017 Kenya banned plastic carrier bags, with fines of up to about US$40,000 or up to four years in prison. Streets and drains became much cleaner, though some bags are still smuggled in.
People cannot sort or reduce waste if they do not know how, or have nowhere to take it. Education, campaigns and good facilities remove those barriers.
Education, campaigns and access
- Campaigns and lessons show the impacts of waste and how to reduce, reuse and recycle.
- Clear labels and colour-coded bins make sorting easy.
- Access: enough bins, frequent collections and nearby recycling centres.
- Low recycling often means poor access (flats with no space for bins), not just attitudes.
- Values matter: more ecocentric societies tend to sort and reduce more.
Know
- Lessons in school
- Clear bin labels
Care
- Campaigns on impacts
- Local champions
Can
- Bins for every flat
- Recycling centres nearby
Real example: in Taiwan, rubbish lorries play music, such as Fur Elise, as they arrive, and residents hand their waste over in person, already sorted. Waste that is not recycled must go in paid bags, and over half of household waste is now recycled.
Do not blame the people: 'People refuse to recycle' or 'there are many people' does not explain a low rate. Give a cause: fewer bins, flats with no space, costly collection, or little education.
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Recycling and energy-from-waste rates change over time, and differ between places, because of the tools above.
Why the shares change
- Campaigns, laws and education promoting recycling and energy from waste.
- International targets (such as EU recycling and landfill targets) that must be met.
- Lack of space for new landfills, and a wish to avoid their leachate, gas and pests.
- New technology and facilities for recycling and for energy from waste.
- The need for cleaner energy, and money earned from selling it.
- Rates level off when the easy materials are already recycled and habits stop changing.
Real example: London recycles only about a third of its household waste, well below the rest of England. Many Londoners live in flats with little space for bins, people move home often, and collecting from crowded streets costs more.
Three reasons, three different ideas: When asked for reasons a share changed, give three different causes, such as a law, a lack of landfill space and new technology. The same reason for recycling and incineration counts once.
Recycling is the most promoted option, so you must be able to judge it: how far does it make waste management sustainable?
Evaluating recycling
- For: less waste to landfill or incineration, so less land, methane and leachate.
- For: fewer new resources extracted, smaller ecological footprint, and green jobs.
- Against: costly collection, sorting and plants; needs a market for the material.
- Against: not all waste can be recycled; the process uses energy and can pollute.
- Against: it is end-of-pipe: it does not cut consumption, and may give a false sense of doing enough.
Effective because
- Less land, methane and leachate
- Fewer new resources
- Jobs and awareness
Limited because
- Costs and needs markets
- Not everything recyclable
- Does not cut consumption
Real example: Germany recycles about two-thirds of its municipal waste, yet each person still makes more waste than the EU average. High recycling did not stop people throwing so much away.
Two traps: Recycling does not reduce the amount of waste produced, so never claim it does. And 'it reduces waste' alone is too vague: say what it saves, such as landfill space or new resources.
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How this comes up: Paper 1 or Paper 2: evaluate recycling as a strategy [3]: up to two points for, two against, and a balanced judgement.
England's household recycling rate has stayed at about 44% since 2013.
Evaluate the use of recycling as a solid domestic waste management strategy for England.
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