Creating Recycling Awareness

Benjamin Merran

Jess

CAS 100A

7/12/2011

Method of Recycling: Awareness versus Implementation

How can a group send people their messages concerning the recycling crisis? It’s critical that we solve the problem of recycling natural resources because there is a limit to what we can gather from the planet’s non-renewable resources, or the resources of “economic value that cannot be readily replaced by natural means on a level equal to its consumption” (Investopedia). It may be far, but at this rate with the exponential growth in population, the resources used to make the essentials can and will run out; however, as a society we have already come across two methods to help alert and provide motivation for people to recycle. One is to create awareness of the benefits and consequences through advertising and education. The other is implementing recycling methods directly to the consumer and companies reducing the materials used to make their products. The question is: which method is to be deemed more successful?

Advertising is usually a first step in setting the path for recycling, or for any message that needs to be heard for a first time. An issue does not enter someone’s mind unless he or she has been informed first, especially an issue or action that seems so trivial to the common eye, such as recycling cans and bottles. People would not know why to recycle or how to recycle unless instructed or told. But even before that, people have to be given a single message: recycle because you have to. The quickest way to convince people to do so is to make them believe that it’s crucial in doing so. Advertising experts would know how to do this because of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s five psychological stages of life include the second stage: Safety Needs, stating that “Safety needs are feeling safe and secure inside your home, feeling financially secure, and having safe relationships with friends and family members” (PEA). “The Inconvenient Truth” is a great...