Five reasons we should all Recycle
Everyone should recycle when possible, but not everyone does. Recycling programs and participation have clearly been on the rise the last few years and this is a wonderful turn of events. The American public is becoming more green aware, but we must continue making strides as we still send far too much to the landfills that could be recycled. Here are five great reasons we should all recycle!
1. Recycling Helps Conserve Limited Resources
To put this benefit in proper perspective, let's consider this statement from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection: "By recycling over 1 million tons of steel in 2004, Pennsylvanians saved 1.3 million tons of iron ore, 718,000 tons of coal, and 62,000 tons of limestone. Through recycling newsprint, office paper and mixed paper, we saved nearly over 8.2 million trees."
Resources like oil and precious metals are all finite resources that will be exhausted, sooner or later. Cell phone and computer manufacturers, like Dell and Apple, recognize the need for a steady supply of raw materials - most are active in buy-back programs to recycle materials from used products.
2. Recycling Promotes Energy Efficiency
Recycling is far more efficient, in terms of energy consumption, than producing something out of fresh raw material. Done on a nationwide scale, this could lead to significant reduction in our energy costs. The energy required to extract , process, and transport metal from a mine to a refinery is obviously much greater than what's required to recycle metal from used products - it costs more energy to manufacture a brand new aluminum can from fresh material than to make 20 cans out of recycled materials!
3. Recycling Helps Protect The Environment
Recycling sharply reduces the amount of waste that gets deposited in our landfills or burned in incinerator plants. Engineered landfills in most cities are designed to contain toxic chemicals leaking from decaying solid waste from reaching our water systems. But, for how long? Already, we're getting reports of dangerous chemicals contaminating water supplies in some cities. Burning solid waste for electricity may be efficient, but we pay the price in terms of increased carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
4. Recycling Helps Build A Strong Economy
Every cost-reduction, energy efficiency, materials conservation, and job generation benefit of recycling adds up to help build a strong economy for our country. Recycling, done on a countrywide scale, has a huge positive impact on the economy. There was dip in the price of recyclables last year when the financial crisis started, but it is testimony to the resiliency of this industry that prices are now back to pre-crisis levels - a recovery that's well ahead than most other industries. Jobs are being generated and city and town governments are enjoying huge savings in electricity, garbage collection, and landfilling costs.
5. Recycling Creates Jobs
Recycling generates more jobs than landfilling or incinerating waste. That's a benefit we can't lose sight of, in this time of recession and high unemployment rate. Let's consider the disposal of 10,000 tons of solid waste: burning it for electricity will create 1 job; collecting and dumping this on a landfill will create 6 jobs; processing the waste for recyling will generate 36 jobs!
We have all heard environmentalists harping on the good of biodegradable products for years now. New research is beginning to show that these products just might not live up to their green billing.
Most of us believe that recycling is ethically the right thing to do. But sadly, we all seem to have friends, family, and acquaintances that do not recycle.
Everyone should recycle when possible, but not everyone does. Here are the five best reasons we should all recycle!
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Here are some interesting facts on the benefits of recycling.