The Sociological Imagination and Climate Change

Can We Recycle Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?

The Sociological Imagination and Climate Change

Most sociologists would answer no, we can not recycle our way out of the climate crisis. Think back to what C. Wright Mills (1959:3) wrote in The Sociological Imagination:

“Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both” (Mills 1959:3).

In the United States, recycling is mostly left to individual choice. There are few laws that require anyone to recycle. However, there are exceptions for some items in some states. For example, there are many states with laws that require automotive batteries to be recycled.

Moreover, as Norgaard (2018) points out, most of us fail to see how the larger social structure constrains our personal ecological choices. Norgaard (2018:172) writes:

“We are not only alienated from our ecological conditions—unaware for example of the relationship between personal automobile use and the changing precipitation in our local communities. We have also become alienated from our social conditions— seeing our dependence on automobiles as a function of poor choices rather than corporate lobbying by the auto industry, or how our ability to reduce our carbon footprint may be constrained by our nation’s foreign policy” (Norgaard 2018, p. 172).

Consider how research shows that the placement of a recycle bin relative to a trash bin affects the likelihood that an individual will put recyclables in the correct bin (Rosenthal & Linder, 2021) and that having to clean food packaging before recycling is a barrier to recycling (Klaiman, Ortega, & Garnache, 2017). Recycle and trash bin placement, however, focuses on changing individual behavior. Having to clean food packaging could be dealt with at the community-level rather than a personal level by investing in equipment better able to clean recyclables at scale.

Focus on Plastic Bottle Recycling

Plastic bottles are more easily recycled than other plastics; there is a market for this kind of recycled plastic, but only about a third of plastic is recycled. Unlike glass or aluminum, plastic can not be recycled indefinitately. A plastic bottle gets turned into a lower-quality plastic until it can no longer be recycled and eventually will end up in a landfill.

Moreover, plastic creation, consumption, and disposal rely on fossil fuels. According to the Center for International Environmental Law (2019), plastic production and incineration emits significant carbon emissions. Therefore, plastics contribute to climate change.

Annual Emission from the Plastic Lifecycle

As an individual, I can choose to recycle and use less plastic. But environmental harm from plastic is not an individual trouble (my problem). It is a public issue (a social problem) and requires something more than only changing individual behavior.

Social Solutions

For example, in 2015, the US Congress passed the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015. Before this act, companies added microbeads to cosmetics, toothpaste, and other products as an exfoliant.

These microbeads were tiny pieces of plastic. The pieces were so small that filters could not catch them, and they ended up in our water supply and fish and other wildlife mistook them for food.

In this case, the federal government stepped in to address this aspect of plastic use and disposal by banning microbeads in cosmetics.

Using the sociological imagination, it should be clear that recycling is an individual solution for a social problem.

Individuals need low barriers (e.g., curbside recycling), a market has to exist for recycled products, and consumers need to have options to choose products that are better for the environment (e.g., soda in an aluminum can instead of plastic bottle).

In other words, solving the climate crisis requires social solutions.

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