One of the first things you’ll notice in Denmark, and other European countries, are their highly organized recycling system. There are usually three bins you can find anywhere in the city: garbage, paper, and plastics; on block corners you can find large receptacles for metal, cardboard, composting, and glass.

People are also incentivized to return their bottles and cans to the grocery store to a refund slip they can use on groceries. The return amount is based on the size of the bottle, which you are taxed on at checkout and get back when you return the bottle. This also provides a way for disadvantaged groups to supplement their income by saving up bottles, there are even places to leave bottles at trash cans so they can easily be collected. At a community level, the simple installation of a place to leave bottles for others heavily destigmatizes people who need to collect bottles to feed themselves. Returning the bottles to a machine at a grocery store instead of to a clerk or recycling center makes it much easier to get the return, and potentially less embarrassing.

This sort of “feedback loop” has completely changed my way of thinking about recycling and litter. Instead of seeing a can on the ground outside and thinking nothing of it, I go and pick it up so I can get a discount on my groceries. A program like this could be really successful in student housing areas, like Oakland, where house parties are common. It is very common to find overflowing trash cans and bottles rolling down the street. I believe many students would take care to get grocery money back by taking extra time to clean up after parties, leading to a cleaner area and another avenue for students to pay for food. 

Around campus, you can usually find bins separated for garbage and plastic/recycling but more often than not it acts as “green-washing.” It feels great to recycle a water bottle as opposed to just throwing it out, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot of people are throwing garbage into the recycling bin as well. This is the main downside to single-stream recycling. When you place a variety of materials into one bin they often become contaminated; whether that is from liquid from cans leaking onto paper or broken glass embedding itself into cardboard. This makes the process of recycling more challenging, and expensive, for recycling centers. 

The United States is focused on convenience, making it easier for people to recycle while not always getting the best results (something is always better than nothing). Denmark is focused on making it easier for the process of recycling after it leaves the consumer, making it easier to recirculate materials. There is more individual agency in recycling in home, while it is less of a choice to not recycle in Denmark. Trash collectors will leave entire waste containers for improper sorting, leaving building owners to have to bring the items to a disposal center themselves or dig through and resort the items.