@Begin
@Participants:	NS008
@Age:	28
@Sex:	M
@L1:	AmE
@FatherL1:	AmE
@MotherL1:	AmE
@AcademicBakground:	PhD
@OtherLanguage:	French=8;Japanese=3
@Topic:	recycling
@Comments:	NoTitle(Del)
@Coder:	2006-10-19 DataInputBy MURAO Remi;
@Version:	2.0
*NS008:	In the past 20 years, people's knowledge and awareness about environmental problems and the world's limited resources have increased tremendously.
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*NS008:	One small step towards a solution is recycling, which has been put into practice in many regions of the world.
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*NS008:	Nevertheless, there are still many regions where recycling programs have not been implemented due to fiscal difficulties.
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*NS008:	Furthermore, in all regions there are people who do not recycle because it is simply too much trouble.
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*NS008:	As stated above, many areas of the world have not implemented recycling programs.
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*NS008:	Though in some cases there really are insufficient funds for recycling, in other cases such as the United States of America, recycling programs are being neglected because the government continues to be irresponsible in choosing its spending priorities.
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*NS008:	A specific example of this is New York City, which no longer has a full recycling program because of financial cutbacks.
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*NS008:	In the late 1990's, increasing awareness of the importance of recycling had resulted in the implementation of rigorous recycling programs, and the city, which is one of the leading waste producers in the country, appeared to be taking major strides towards cleaning up its act.
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*NS008:	Unfortunately, the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001 hurt the city's finances tremendously, and when difficult budget decisions had to be made, the recycling program was not deemed a high enough priority to keep.
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*NS008:	Since that time, the city has unveiled costly plans to build the world's largest structure at Ground Zero, and the country itself has fought two expensive and arguably unnecessary wars, and drastically increased its military spending.
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*NS008:	Although the country has long had easily the most powerful military in the world, politicians continue to put an increasing proportion of the country's resources into the military, at the expense of social and environmental programs.
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*NS008:	Instead, the government should be supporting the environmental efforts of cities such as New York to show its responsibility as a leader in the world.
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*NS008:	Even in cities where rigorous recycling programs have been implemented, there are still many people who do not cooperate.
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*NS008:	It is probably an unfortunate reality that there will always be people who are too lazy to fulfill these kinds of basic responsibilities.
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*NS008:	At present though, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that recycling is new to many people.
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*NS008:	If families begin to recycle correctly at home now, recycling will be another fact of life for the next generation of children.
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*NS008:	Consequently, most will continue to recycle when they themselves become adults.
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*NS008:	One step that cities can take to facilitate recycling is to try to make it easier for their residents.
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*NS008:	The city where I live in Japan only collects plastic bottles once a month, so residents are required to keep all of their plastic bottles at home until the collection day.
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*NS008:	This is a terrible hassle for the many people who live in cramped apartments, and it becomes even worse if one misses the recycling day and has to wait another month to dispose of their bottles.
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*NS008:	As a result, there are people who cannot be bothered to recycle their bottles, and will mix them with their burnable refuse.
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*NS008:	If the city collected the bottles more often or had collection points where they could be put until the collection day, then more people would make the effort to recycle.
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*NS008:	Although it is doubtful that anyone enjoys recycling, it is the responsibility of all of us as citizens of the world to pitch in.
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*NS008:	Furthermore, it is the responsibility of governments around the world to make recycling a priority by implementing programs which are both thorough and manageable for their citizens.
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@End