Advantages of Recycling
We have invented and developed technologies that were just fiction in the yesteryears. Our society and cultures have become so complex that writing about the ways on how a single country works would take an entire library of books to fill up.
Unfortunately, a crisis stems from this advancement. We have abused our environment to make way for our convenience. We have dumped hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide and airborne pollutants into the atmosphere. We have dumped toxic waste, acids, and other chemicals into the oceans. We have dumped our garbage and other refuse in once-grassy plains.
We are now suffering the consequences. We have a much warmer, more uncomfortable global climate. The ice shelves are melting, making the sea level rise. We have stronger hurricanes due, in turn, to global warming. Our forests have rapidly disappeared and with it, the flora and fauna that inhabit them. Ecosystems have been damaged, some beyond repair, due to our disruption.
However, many people have now begun to do something about this problem. Scientists, for example, are harnessing the power of the wind and the sun, both clean and renewable sources of energy. Car manufacturers are interested in making cars fueled by hydrogen, a clean type of gas.
As ordinary citizens, we can also do our share. One of the easiest ways to save the environment is through recycling.
Recycling is the reprocessing of old, used, or ready-to-throw items into new products for new uses. Governments all over the world and environmentally concerned entities have encouraged people to recycle their items and recognize the benefits of the endeavor through massive information campaign and even sanctions.
But recycling is not with its own critics. There are people who believe that recycling is not the right method to solve the world’s garbage problem. Some say that recycling actually causes environmental problems since the chemicals, processes, and techniques used also contribute to pollution. Some say that the world’s garbage problem is a perception and is exaggerated by environmentalists. The endeavor, according to more critics, gives people a false sense of security.
Also, recycling is quite expensive, making it an economic liability rather than an asset, a big blow against poorer nations. For recycling to work, a locality must have a consistent supply-and-demand flow; that is, a good supply of recyclables and a steady demand of recyclable products.
But advocates of the global cleanup drive disagree with the above points. According to them, these are some of the benefits in using a recycling container.
1. Through recycling, we lessen the quantity of garbage that is dumped to landfills. Americans dump almost 136 million metric tons of garbage, wherein landfill usage reached the top of the chart in the 1980s. With the recycling information campaign and legislation’s attempt to enforce the endeavor, dumping of garbage in landfills has lessened. Still, Americans still dump more than 90 million metric tons of the unwanted stuff.
Also, no one wants to have a huge stinky landfill around. Furthermore, space becomes a problem especially in heavily populated areas, such as a city.
But with recycling, 32 percent of the waste doesn’t end up in a landfill. That means 54 million metric tons of garbage are recycled or put to good use.
2. Another problem with regards to landfills aside from taking up space is pollution. Along with nonbiodegradables, chemicals are thrown into the landfills, and toxic substances leak from the garbage as it breaks down. This toxic soup, called leachate, drains out from the landfill, and the soil absorbs it. The leachate ends up in groundwater supplies, contaminating our precious drinking water. And even if impermeable clay caps and plastic sheeting are placed underneath the trash, leachate can still drain off the edges.
With recycling, we can lessen the trash and, in turn, the leachate.
3. Using your stackable recycling bin or any bin can also help in saving our natural resources. The manufacturing of brand-new or virgin products entails the use of natural resources. For example, for the production of paper, wood pulp is taken from trees. Manufacturing plastics requires using fossil fuel and natural gas.
But if we recycle these things, we would end up using fewer natural resources. After all, the raw materials are already there—from the recyclates themselves; they just need to be reprocessed.
4. Recycling uses less energy than the manufacture of brand-new, virgin products. For example, recycling steel uses less energy and effort when considering the energy used in mining, processing, refining, and forging steel ore into new steel.
Sometimes, though, this isn’t the case. For example, producing brand-new plastic is cheaper and easier than processing recyclates of the same material; furthermore, there are some kinds of plastic that are difficult and costly to recycle efficiently.
Therefore, energy use in recycling depends on the materials that are to be recycled.
5. Recycling can save a lot of money. Local governments pay a certain fee per ton of garbage that is to be disposed in landfills. Considering that these areas produce tons of garbage per day, recycling can be a financial relief. Recycling is also a major source of income for firms buy used good, reprocess them, and resell the new products.
Recycling can be a financial asset to a specified area. In fact, economic analysts conclude that this endeavor can engender thrice the revenue per ton as landfill disposal and almost six times as with certain jobs. For example, in St. Louis, a city in the United States, sixteen thousand jobs and four billion dollars in revenue were generated in a year due to the recycling business. Now isn’t that a good reason to use that recycling bin.
6. Recycling also reduces clutter in your own home, school, and office. Clutter is unpleasant and takes up a lot of space. Also, why would you need to keep garbage or unusable things in your home or edifice? By using that home or office recycling bin, you will be able to have breathing space.
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October 28th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Awesome post. very informative. thanks!