Wednesday 25 July 2012: Carotene or Stick?

The psychology of the matter is that any reward (feeling good about recycling) is remote in space-time, located elsewhere (supermarket or other facility) and requires effort, while the alternative course of action, namely flinging it out the car window, is readily accessible - more immediate. Put simply, people would prefer to be given $7 today than $10 next week. On these grounds, litter is understandable.

Options:
1) carrot: institute a reward system for returning plastic and glass to shops
2) stick: how about making it mandatory for bottle manufacturers to include some kind of "please recycle / dispose of me responsibly" graphic on the label, in a similar fashion to health warnings on cigarette packets?

Questions:
Are you aware of bottle-cap refund schemes? Would you say they, or an attitude of recycling, rated highly in your country's national consciousness? Do you think there's merit in option 2? Answers weighing-up the roles of individual and corporate responsibility will be particularly appreciated

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