Blue Box Blues

So . . . I recently moved into a new office (same job, better digs).  Unlike my previous space, this one has a recycle bin.  To say I was excited about this would be a vast overstatement, but still, I figured it's there so I might as well put my recyclables in it.  In my old office there was only a garbage bin, so I rarely recycled.  After all, that would have entailed walking my papers and plastics down the hall to the communal blue box, and that involves more effort than I was willing to expend.  Yes, I know, I'm ruining the planet for my grandchildren.

So imagine my dismay when I eventually realized that while my garbage gets emptied regularly, my little blue box in my office never gets emptied, at least by the custodial staff.  Unless they have contracted for twice-a-year pickup of recycling, I have no choice but to conclude that I am again responsible for my own recycling.  What a pain!  The net result of this will likely be that I will cease separating my trash and once again just throw out everything.

You may think I'm a terrible person, but this is just the way that things work with us humans.  Even a small barrier in the way of acting virtuously (and I'm not saying that recycling is necessarily virtuous, but many believe it to be and for sake of argument let's just go with that) causes us to take the easy way out.  For example, some researchers (Eric Johnson and Dan Goldstein) did a study where participants were either told they had just moved to a new state where you had to opt-in to be an organ donor, or one where you had to opt-out to not be one.  The opting itself was done by clicking a box on the web page that participants were already on.  Easy, right? 

Well, for those that had to opt-in to be an organ donor, 42% decided to do it.  For those that had to opt-out to avoid being an organ donor, 82% indicated they would donate.  In other words (and assuming that randomization had made the two groups equivalent in terms of their predisposition to organ donation, a fair assumption), 40% of people would donate their organs if there was absolutely no work, even clicking a box, involved; but they won't if there is even a small barrier in their way (there was also a baseline/neutral condition where a choice had to be made by clicking either opt-in or opt-out; donation rates were 79% in this condition, leading to the belief that this is the baseline rate).

So back to my blue box problem: I'm fine, if not enthusiastic, with the idea of recycling at work, but I ain't gonna do it if I actually have to do something.   Imagine if my employer made it so my recycling was emptied when my garbage was - I would feel much better about filling the blue bin. Now imagine if I had to go down the hall to empty my trash but my recycle bin was frequently emptied for me - assuming that the university wants to encourage recycling, that would be a decision leading to the desired outcome. 

While on the spirit of recycling, don't throw out this blog when you're done with it - reuse it, pass it on, share it with a friend.  The blog landfills are getting too full and we need to maximize our resources.