Plan B Forum

Men Don’t Recycle to Avoid Looking Gay, New Study Says

Is there anything toxic masculinity can’t do? Protect the ozone, apparently.

New research has found that one of the deterrents for going green among men is the fear of their sexual orientation coming under question, according to the journal Sex Roles.

Researchers found in a previous 2016 study that environmental consciousness fell into perceived ideas of masculinity and femininity, with eco-friendly behavior widely perceived as feminine. In this new study, 960 participants were asked to evaluate whether fictional characters felt “feminine” or “masculine,” based on several environmentally friendly activities such as paying bills online, turning off the air conditioner, caulking windows, recycling, or using reusable shopping bags. Participants were then made to give their impression based on a 10-point scale from heterosexual to homosexual. Kinsey is shaking!

Participants who learned that a male fictional character exhibited behaviors associated with women said that they were "uncertain of his heterosexual identity," the researchers write. In the example of the reusable shopping bag or recycling, men across the board deemed it as “feminine.” Therefore, those "perceived as being more likely to have positive feminine than positive masculine traits" were not associated with manliness.

Professor Janet K. Swim at Pennsylvania State University who led the research determined that some men might be put off behaving in a more eco-friendly manner because of these stereotypes.

The research suggested that if being seen as heterosexual is important to them, men will opt out of gender nonconforming behaviors, with a stigma by that association. A latter part of the study showed that “men were most likely to socially distance themselves” from gender nonconforming behavior — a social consequence to the construct of gender at large.

“People may avoid certain behaviors because they are managing the gendered impression they anticipate others will have of them,” Swim said.

I mean, the earth literally might be uninhabitable by 2040, but no homo.

Scooter wrote:That's not recycling. That's at best hoping that a homeless person will wander by at some point and collect it.

Joe Guy wrote:
On a serious note, here in the SF Bay Area they make recycling easy for people to do and I do a lot of it. I grunt, belch and fart a lot while I'm doing it to help reinforce my heterosexuality.

What we should have been doing all along, and desperately need to do now, is educate the American consumer so they will drastically reduce their consumption of plastic in all forms and demand that the companies whose products they use stop putting it in plastic, sometimes double and triple wrapped to boot.

RayThom wrote:Well, my neighborhood he-man identity remains intact. I only visit the recycle bin at night.

Crackpot wrote:

RayThom wrote:Well, my neighborhood he-man identity remains intact. I only visit the recycle bin at night.

Of course s you know night time visits to the recycle bin is what highway rest stops used to be.

ex-khobar Andy wrote: Less of the farting, please JG. That's mostly methane which is about 25 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

California's largest recycling business closes all 284 centers, lays off 750

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — California's largest operator of recycling redemption centers shut down Monday and laid off 750 employees.

RePlanet closed all 284 of its centers, and company president David Lawrence said the decision was driven by increased business costs and falling prices of recycled aluminum and PET plastic, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The move came three years after RePlanet closed 191 of its recycling centers and laid off 278 workers.

Now many San Francisco Bay Area residents have few or no options for redeeming their recyclables, which is especially concerning for those who live in poverty or experience homelessness and rely on recycling for income.

RePlanet had three locations in San Francisco: one on Bayview Blvd., one on Williams Ave., and one at Pacific Supermarket. There were also three centers in Alameda.

Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit that studies issues in California's recycling industry, estimated that more than 40% of all redemption centers have closed in the last five years. The closures result in consumers only getting back about half of their nickel and dime bottle and can deposits, according to a recent report from the nonprofit.

The closures also mean that more bottles made of aluminum and polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, will end up in landfills. People will either throw their recyclables directly into the garbage, or place them in curbside recycling bins, which are often filled with contaminated material that must be discarded. China, which has bought much of the U.S.'s recyclable material, has become stricter about what kinds of material it will accept.

Advocates are urging the state to reform how it subsidizes recycling centers to account for rising operating costs in the wake of continuously low aluminum and plastic prices.

Long Run wrote: