Some people claim that not enough of the waste from homes is recycled. They say that the only way to increase recycling is for governments to make it a legal requirement. To what extent do you think laws are needed to make people recycle more of their waste? v.1

Recycling waste materials should help to tackle both the mountains of domestic rubbish produced each year and our depleting natural resources. However, recycling programmes need the full cooperation of residents if they are to be effective, and unfortunately, this is often lacking. Even though many countries already have sophisticated systems and processes for recycling used materials, far too many recyclables continue to be thrown away with the general waste. As a result, our growing rubbish dumps are having a devastating effect on the environment. Moreover, throwing paper, plastics, and glass into the general waste means losing the chance to extract precious raw materials so that they can be used again. This is a pressing problem that we must do our best to solve as quickly as possible. Many people say they do not recycle simply because it is too time-consuming, and, in spite of the many educational programmes about this, many say they are confused about what can be recycled. Given the information overload we are confronted with every day, it is perhaps unsurprising that adding even more information has little impact and is easily Ignored. Unfortunately, we humans are creatures of habit and tend to carry on as normal unless we are forced to change our ways. Thus, the only effective way to bring about a real change in our behaviour is to implement new laws governing our domestic waste. To sum up, increasing our recycling levels is imperative given the impact our waste is having on the planet, yet our busy lives mean that we are not paying enough attention to this. Thus, I completely agree that we will only achieve success through new laws and regulations.