It should not be taken for granted that recycling is more efficient than Chucking something away7. Compare all the costs, including collection, 1 Landfill, disposal, pollution and the value of new materials is difficult. And the signs are that recycling usually does make sense. A study by the 2 Technical University of Denmark looked at 55 products and compared the effects of buying, burning or recycling them. More than 80% of the time, the researchers found recycling was the more 3 efficient thing to do with household rubbish. Recycling aluminum requires 95% less energy than making it at the beginning; the figure is 4 70% for plastics and 40% for paper. So what is the best way to get more people recycle more? The first 5 step is to use new technologies that allow for a "single stream" of recyclable waste which is sorted on a conveyor belt use an arsenal of 6 hands, "spinning disc" screens and sorting machines. People are more inclined to recycle things even if they do not have to sort them into 7 different bins, The second step is to acknowledge that the best way of recycling waste may well be to sell them, often to emerging markets. What's 8 more, those who are prepared to buy waste are likely to make good use of it. The last step is to make people pay their non-recyclable waste and 9 reward them for what they recycle. There are limits to this approach: you do not want people to put non-recyclable rubbish into the recycling bin just to earn credits. But a system that relies less on self-interest 10 than on virtue should both increase recycling and decrease neighborly ill will.