Earth Mothers…and Grandmothers

Matures practice recycling more faithfully than Echo Boomers.

Green may be the new black in Hollywood, what with its Oscars for Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” and hybrid vehicles whisking stars about Tinseltown; one would assume that everyone’s recycling these days, especially the kids. However, results from a Harris Interactive study examining American household recycling habits reveal otherwise.

While over three-quarters of Americans (77 percent) practice recycling in their households, a disappointing one-quarter (23 percent) recycle nothing at all, with youngest adults as the worst offenders, and the oldest demographic showing itself as the most environmentally-conscious.

With 81 percent of Matures (age 62 and over) recycling, they rate as the top earth-friendly cohort in the study. Generation X (ages 31 to 42) squeezes just behind them, at 80 percent stating that they recycle. Next comes Baby Boomers (ages 43 to 61) of whom 77 percent maintain that they recycle. Surprisingly, the youngest adult demographic, Echo Boomers (ages 18 to 30) is dragging its feet behind all the older cohorts; a mere 70 percent practice recycling, seven percentage points below the national average.  

There were also regional discrepancies between recyclers and non-recyclers. Most avid recyclers reside in the east and the west; the least live in the south. A respectable 88 percent of Americans living in the east maintain that they regularly recycle, compared with an impressive 86 percent of westerners. The Midwest falls behind at 70 percent, and the south trails at a mere 68 percent of respondents stating that they recycle.

Why don’t more Americans recycle? The reasons given depend upon the area in which the respondents live. Of those Southerners who do not recycle, one in five (20 percent) complain that recycling simply is not available in their area. Over a quarter (26 percent) of Easterners who do not recycle admit that their major excuse is that it “takes too much effort.” Nearly one quarter (23 percent) of Midwestern non-recyclers offer the vague excuse that they are “not sure” why they don’t recycle, as do 15 percent of western non-recyclers. Nationally, only 1 in 10 respondents (11 percent) who do not recycle claim that it’s because they “don’t believe that it will make an impact or difference.”

Two thirds of respondents (67 percent) stated that they recycle aluminum and metal cans, while 59 percent maintained that they recycle paper. Nearly the same number (57 percent) said that they recycle plastic, and just over half (54 percent) recycle glass.