RECYCLE & SAVE WORLD

Recycling is one of the best ways for you to have a positive impact on the world in which we live. Recycling is important to both the natural environment and us. We must act fast as the amount of waste we create is increasing all the time.

The amount of rubbish we create is constantly increasing because:

• Increasing wealth means that people are buying more products and ultimately creating more waste.
• Increasing population means that there are more people on the planet to create waste.
• New packaging and technological products are being developed, much of these products contain materials that are not biodegradable.
• New lifestyle changes, such as eating fast food, means that we create additional waste that isn’t biodegradable.

Environmental Importance

Recycling is very important as waste has a huge negative impact on the natural environment.

• Harmful chemicals and greenhouse gasses are released from rubbish in landfill sites. Recycling helps to reduce the pollution caused by waste.
• Habitat destruction and global warming are some the affects caused by deforestation. Recycling reduces the need for raw materials so that the rainforests can be preserved.
• Huge amounts of energy are used when making products from raw materials. Recycling requires much less energy and therefore helps to preserve natural resources

Importance To People

Recycling is essential to cities around the world and to the people living in them

• No space for waste. Our landfill sites are filling up fast, by 2010, almost all landfills in the UK will be full.
• Reduce financial expenditure in the economy. Making products from raw materials costs much more than if they were made from recycled products.
• Preserve natural resources for future generations. Recycling reduces the need for raw materials; it also uses less energy, therefore preserving natural resources for the future.

Reduce Material Consumption

One of the largest benefits of recycling is the ability to preserve more virgin materials for later use. While some materials have a limited amount of times that they can be recycled, many others can theoretically be recycled an infinite number of times. This is true of most metals, particularly aluminum and steel.

Reduce Energy Consumption

Often the energy required to recycle materials is far less than the energy required to make a product out of new materials. Recycled aluminum, for example, saves 95 percent of the amount of energy it takes to create it from virgin materials. Other materials save amounts that are more modest. Recycled glass, for example, only saves about 40 percent of the initial energy investment.

Reduce the Size of Landfills

Landfill size can be drastically reduced with an aggressive recycling program. Reducing landfill size not only leaves more land for other uses, but also minimizes the amount of energy required to remove and eventually relocate trash.

When considering the size of landfills, also take into account the wasted area around the landfill. Land adjacent to landfills is often only for industrial sites. Air pollution makes it even less likely that nearby land can be used for other purposes.

Reduce Pollution

Waste often creates water pollution by leaching chemicals into the soil. While some of these chemicals are filtered out by the soil, other pollutants go on to damage ground water sources. Air pollution is also a great concern. Methane and other gases released in landfills contribute to global warming problems as well as air quality concerns.

Creates Jobs

Recycling is more labor intensive than landfill management, requiring more workers to sort and process recyclable waste. This can revitalize rural areas where landfills are often located, bringing needed jobs to the region. These manual skill jobs are particularly beneficial in areas that were once manufacturing centers.

Critics of Recycling

While most people believe in the benefits of recycling, others question the merits of many recycling programs. These critics argue that the market protects the people and the environment better than mandatory recycling programs, which are often inefficient and counterintuitive.

Poor Working Conditions

Although recycling may create jobs, critics note that these jobs have low salaries with questionable working conditions. Ironically, many jobs in recycling have few environmental regulations in place to protect workers. These concerns are particularly valid for industrial recycling programs such as ship scrapping and metal reclamation.

Questionable Cost Analysis

Recycling programs can be more costly than disposing of trash in a landfill. The validity of this argument varies wildly depending on the material that is being recycled. Recycled glass may be twice the cost of silica, but recycled aluminum is a fraction of the cost of mining and refining ore bauxite. Critics who use the cost analysis approach also often avoid placing a monetary value on reducing water and air pollution.

Minimal Energy and Pollution Savings

Collection methods for recyclable waste require separate trucks, bins, and processing plants. All of these items use energy, which diminishes the overall energy savings of recycling. Recycling also uses water and creates pollution during the process to refine the materials collected before they can be reused.

Importance of Recycling: The Bottom Line

Recycling is one of many tools to reduce the pollution and consumption of our society. While some criticisms of recycling have merit, these arguments should help refine current recycling processes, not discard this method of reducing waste. Consider advocating for better recycling methods while ceding the importance of recycling your used materials.