It is not hard to place bottles into the recycling bins in the cafeteria; it requires no more effort to do so. The resistance to recycle at SJHS begs the question: What is so hard about placing one’s bottles in the designated recycling cans? What’s worse is that the school provides two recycling receptacles conveniently next to the trash cans, so one need not feel burdened by going out of their way when they have to dispose of their garbage.

When one fails to recycle, it is harmful to the environment, which should provide reason enough for one to do so. But just in case that does not get your green engine – or lack thereof – revved up, I’ll try to clear up a few reasons as to why recycling should become second nature.

For one, plastics should be recycled so that less petroleum, which is becoming more and more of a finite commodity, is used. Secondly, choosing not to recycle leads to the creation of more plastic bottles, i.e. more waste. In the process of manufacturing more plastic bottles, fossils fuels are burned, which releases harmful gases that many scientists say lead to global warming, which adds more fuel to the fire (pun intended).

One statistic states that 60 billion pounds of plastic waste are created each year, yet only 7 percent of that plastic waste is recycled. Why contribute to that absurd statistic? The menial task of placing one’s bottle in the recycling bin is certainly not imposing. The next time you throw out your garbage, take an infinitesimal amount of your time to reroute your bottle into the recycling can.