Daniel McQuade: The challenge of recycling in Philly

I can't do The New York Times crossword puzzle. Not even early in the week, when the clues are easier. The NYT crossword might as well be written in Aramaic.

Truth is, I really can't do any crossword puzzle, except maybe one in Highlights for Children. I'm not really sure why I'm so terrible at them, but they baffle me. Any time I try one, I get about two or three clues done before I give up and move on to the horoscopes.

I was delighted, then, to see that the paid supplement to this newspaper on Monday, the Green Times, had a word search! Here was something I could do. I hadn't done a word search in about 10 years, but I was sure I could pick it up.

I ended up struggling, naturally. I found "biodegradable" and "pollutant" but got stuck when I thought I had found "environment" only to be thwarted, learning I had only found "environmen" instead. At this point, I noticed that there was even a number (two) in the middle of the puzzle. Clearly, I was outclassed again. I put away my newspaper and moved on.

Much like this word search, environmentalism is something that seems easy to do yet is somehow challenging for most people.

Take recycling. It's pretty simple, right? You'd have to be a pretty big trash mogul -- maybe the owner of a trash truck company, or Oscar the Grouch -- to dislike recycling. It's not really that hard to do, and it's good for the environment. I know we humans are a lazy bunch, but it seems like a pretty simple thing.

Of course, when I was an editor here at The Daily Pennsylvanian, frequently there'd be paper tossed in a trash can or cans thrown in the garbage. The offices of any periodical naturally produce a lot of waste paper, and so recycling is a pretty standard procedure at most such offices.

But at every place I've ever worked or interned at, it's been the same story as it was here: paper in the garbage. Can't get up from my desk and recycle these printouts -- that'd be too much work.

Trust me, I'm no saint here, except that I might be the patron saint of laziness. I've thrown away paper and cans and bottles.

Look, most Americans know that recycling is good, and that they should do it. (And, in some cases, it's the law.) But according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania only has a 20 to 29 percent recycling rate. Only 42 percent of paper products nationwide are recycled. Even if this data's a little off, shouldn't the rates be higher?

Clearly, not many things have been accomplished in, well, history simply by relying on the goodness of people. Even when mandated by law, sometimes the city doesn't pick up recycling -- the residents of my house on Chestnut Street gave up on curbside recycling after it wasn't picked up either collection day the first month of school -- or people simply throw their bottles into the trash.

There doesn't seem to be much the government or advocacy groups can do to increase recycling rates. The cops aren't going to bust down doors and arrest vigilantes who throw their newspapers in the trash, and it's a safe bet that most people who throw their recyclable materials in the trash know what they're doing. (Education and awareness is, of course, always good. But sometimes you have to wonder if, say, this DP column is going to do any thing.)

Too often, environmental groups tend to focus on issues that are only somewhat related to "saving the planet." Instead of reminding people to turn off light bulbs and recycle, people rant about how you shouldn't eat meat, shouldn't go to the circus and shouldn't drive your car. Those are all noble thoughts, but you have to wonder where those arguments lead sometimes.

I don't think Earth Day or anything else is going to change people's laziness in recycling. And I don't think that there's an easy way to get people to do simple things that help the Earth. But I do think that you should try and be a little more conscious in recycling. Maybe that's oversimplifying it a little, but it's a start, right?

Note: To the kid who is about to throw this paper in the trash to be funny, it's an old joke, and it's not funny. And you're only hurting the "environmen" by doing so.

Daniel McQuade is a senior English major from Philadelphia, Pa., and former 34th Street managing editor. Lone Wolf McQuade appears on Thursdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.