Why are some people so resistant to reducing waste? (ie. recycling, compost, etc.)?

Resistance to effort is a part of it. It takes effort to recycle and do these things. All one need do is look in the modern grocery store to see how little people 'do the extra' anymore.

Take a hunk of meat, cut up a few carrots, onions and potatoes. Put all of that into a crock pot. Crack open a can of cream of mushroom soup, or maybe a can of broth (or homemade stuff) and voila!

You've got a crock pot classic.

They also sell it in the bag for about $5-$6. You get FAR less food for the money, but hey, all you have to do is rip open the bag and turn on the crock pot.

It's lack of effort, plain and simple. Might I add, most of us (including myself) are guilty of it as well on some level.

First & foremost, and sorry to say.. we tend to be an apathetic, and rather lazy society. That is, most of us want to leave the dirty work up to someone else, and we're also great at finger-pointing as well.. the old "I didn't make the mess, so why should I clean it up!?" is just another excuse for relenquishing responsibility onto others. Also, we're always hearing about how our society truly 'cares' about future generations, but do they ..really?

~ On the other end of the pendulum, maybe more people would recycle, etc., if waste disposal was more convenient than it is.. after all we're a nation of convenience lovers.

For some people, the effort to do these things is more than they are willing to invest. They don't see any immediate benefit to it, so they think "why bother"? For others, its a matter of lifestyle issues.

I live at an apartment complex so composting isn't practical. And since there are no recycling facilities nearby, we don't do nearly as much as we could.

I would guess that to a lot of people it is not something they think about much, low priority. Some people don't think it does much good.(I tend to think that if I had to take my stuff to a recycle center, it would probably use more resources(gas etc. ) than would be saved.) for city people things like composting tend to impractical and unless you know what you are doing will probably attract undesirable critters. Some people are probably just too lazy.

Oh yes, sometimes it is hard to find out how to recycle items, such as electronics.

I think a lot of people are well meaning but just don't get around to finding out what they need to do.

Recycling in the household is fairly straightforward as many councils make it easy for residents to recycle glass, some plastics and paper by providing recycling containers that are put out for collection with the general household rubbish.

Composting is a little more complex. Many people begin but find they don't get the results they want and give up or put it in the too hard basket. It is such a pity as compost is such a valuable nutrient for the garden.In recent years there has been a huge swing towards growing vegetables at home.

This can be attributed to a number of reasons. It is a cost saving growing vegetables at home and combining this with using compost, the results can be far superior to vegetables bought at the supermarket. Often supermarket fruit and vegetables have been in cold storage and this can means months and months of cold storage.

How much nicer is it to be able to go out to the garden and pick produce for the family meal. Even if it just fresh herbs, the end result is a flavorsome meal from using fresh ingredients not chemically enhanced flavors.

Many people like organic produce, which can be purchased but once again produce grown at home is under total control of the grower so only organic products can be used on the crop.

Composting, aerobic or anaerobic is a valuable resource that is well within the reaches of the home gardener.

Read my hub about the Bokashi method of composting.

The reason waste is such a big problem is that there are simply too many people. Religious beliefs and just plain stupidity cause most people to "breed without heed" of the consequences.

So now we have a tremendous overpopulation problem. Remember, everyone's sh#t has to go somewhere. And the more sh#t, the bigger the problem of conveniently disposing of it.

I can't speak for most people, since they are ignorant illiterates, but for me, my reasoning is simple: "I didn't contribute to overpopulation and the resultant pollution and waste disposal problems. YOU did. So YOU deal with it.

One example, batteries: Yeah, sure, they and a lot of other things contain chemicals "harmful to the environment". But for me to spend a lot of time and/or gasoline money to "safely" recycle -- fuggedaboudit.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.