Critical (of) Mass.

A recent article in the Boston Globe highlights a demoralizing study from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection that shows the diversion rate in the state largely stalled during the last decade. From 1997 to 2008, the residential recycling rate in Massachusetts hovered between 27 and 28 percent.

The article goes on to say that communities in the state are looking at pay-as-you-throw, single-stream, and continued education campaigns as ways to motivate residents to recycle. Indeed, Boston (13 percent recycling rate) recently conducted a very successful single-stream pilot program. But it's hard not to be a little dismayed by the statistics. In many Mass. communities, the recycling infrastructure already exists, and it's not like recycling's a big mystery at this point.

Do you agree with the article's general conclusion that it can all be chalked up to apathy?