Some people claim that not enough of the waste from homes is recycled. They say that the only way to make people recycle more is to make it a legal requirement. To what extent do you think laws are needed to make people recycle more of their waste?

Recently, activists have become increasingly concerned that individuals are not doing enough to recycle their own waste and there should be laws to make

this

happen. In

this

essay, I argue that

this

is not necessary as there are sufficient other ways to encourage individuals to recycle. To start with, it is possible to change peoples habits without the law. The

first

method is through greed. Community councils or local governments could increase the price of collecting or throwing out rubbish by increasing the price of rubbish bags - and by only allowing official rubbish bags to be used.

This

is the approach taken by Taiwan. Another point is that generally, humans are competitive.

This

means it would be possible to turn to recycle into a game - ideally supported by an app - with l

eaderboards,

Suggestion

Leaderboards

scoring, and stickers. N

eighborhoods

Suggestion

Neighbourhoods

Neighbourhoods'

Neighbourhood's

could take photos of their recycling, share them, and receive scores stickers and other prizes. While

this

would not work for everyone, it would work for many. To sum up, eventually, whatever the motivation, a society could get into the habit of recycling through a variety of smart encouragements.

Finally

, it is possible that passing laws to require a certain amount of recycling would run into a number of problems. The

first

being that it is difficult to determine exactly how much a person has or has not recycled - unless someone actually goes through the trash. A related issue is how to enforce it. If it is impossible to know how much a particular person should have recycled in a particular situation, how would it be possible to know if they have recycled enough, some, or not all?

In other words

, the problem is the measurement. In conclusion, not only are there various ways to change people’s b

ehavior

manner of acting or controlling yourself

behaviour

through taking advantage of their greed, competitiveness, and desire to do good, using the law to force people to recycle may even be counterproductive.

Therefore

, I strongly disagree with the idea of using the law to force the issue.