I think that requiring people to recycle would make a huge positive impact on the environment and people’s lives. I believe recycling isn’t something people should just consider doing, I believe it is there duty to do it. There are many benefits to recycling including, the reduction in landfill sizes, less pollution occurring from the rotting products in the landfills, less energy consumption, and money saved. The refusal to recycle is not only hurting us as people, it’s hurting the earth, the place we call home.
One of the benefits of requiring people to recycle, is the reduction in the sizes, and numbers of landfills. “Recycling and composting diverted nearly 70 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2000, up from
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Take office paper, for example. Recycling 1 ton of it is 43 percent less energy intensive than starting from scratch, as is recovering steel, plastic and aluminum, at a 60 percent, 75 percent, and 96 percent reduction in energy consumption levels, respectively, per material”- Leigh, Elizah. "Effects of Recycling on Humans." SFGate. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015., with an energy crisis and revolution on our hands, this should be one of the first steps we take to reduce our energy consumption and become a more energy efficient nation. The proven numbers of the energy we save by recycling materials is staggering. Not only do we become more efficient, but we use less natural resources, allowing our environment to flourish. “Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees”- :." A Recycling Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. By allowing our environment to flourish we help ourselves prosper. Who wouldn’t want to make the place they live even more beautiful than it already is. Recycling goods will allow us to go from having a natural resource shortage, to having an abundance of these materials. It goes without saying also, that the less energy required to make a product, and the fewer materials that have to be gathered, the less money is spent on producing a final product. This means we …show more content…
One of the critic’s main arguing points is what they refer to as “downcycling”. They state, “The goods being collected for recycling are not always of the same quality and may not be sorted properly. For example, high-quality office paper may be mixed with the poor-quality fibers found in newsprint, or different glass containers may break and result in a mixed glass mixture. This may result in downcycling, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, leading to potential poor quality end results, unmarketability and a loss of public confidence in recycling”- Duvauchelle, Joshua. "Cons of Recycling." Livestrong. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. They also say that while recycling uses less energy and produces less pollution, that it still does produce pollution. I feel as if that is a moot point, while it does in fact produce some pollution and use some energy, facts have shown that it uses far less energy and produces far less pollution than not
In conclusion to this investigation one thing is clear and that is that recycling reeks benefits to the environment, Recycling material when compared to making material from raw material is a more efficient energy saving and more environmentally friendly way to reuse material that is usually consider as trash such as empty glass, and plastic bottles, or old newspapers. Recycling helps reduce the possible carbon emissions greatly and does reduce the human carbon footprint. But Recycling doesn’t resolve the pollution that is around the world today. Leading to new questions, questions like what about the landfills are they sustainable, and if so for how long. How long until the air becomes unbreathable? How long until Earth becomes its own furnace?
Barlaz says, “Recycling still causes some emissions” (62). However recycling starts at home with the consumer. When people go out to buy groceries, clothes, food or any other things they should think about the purchases before they buy them. Consumers buy groceries but they chose to use plastic or paper bags. Instead of using those they could use reusable cloth bags. Some people would rather use the plastic or paper bags. If they do then they should recycle those bags instead of just throwing them away in the garbage and hoping they get in the recycling area. Recycling cans and glass jars saves energy needed to make new ones. People can save energy by recycling other things like paper and plastic. Humes says, “Recycling aluminum cans saves ninety-six percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite ore” (260). Also, “recycling the glass jars and bottles saves twenty-one percent of the energy needed to make new glass” (260). So if everyone could start recycling their cans, glass, paper and plastic that would save us a lot of energy that would need to be used to make new ones. If we can start recycling at home that will make things much easier on the waste management plants and our world. If people don’t want to recycle at their homes and separate everything they can just put all their trash in the can and it will eventually be separated and recycled. As people become more educated about
‘Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle’ are what a person chants if someone mentions the word recycling. Nicks J defines recycling as ‘[T]he processing of waste materials in order to make them reusable” (11). Individuals who recycle are not just throwing papers in green bins, or cans in blue; in fact, they are helping the environment more than they can imagine. People who want to preserve and protect their planet take the initiative to recycle waste materials. Rather than throwing away old plastic or glass bottles, aluminum cans, and certain types of paper, one can simply recycle them, and they will go through a cleaning and the remanufacturing process to be remade into a new usable item. There are many benefits of recycling, but a lot of people will argue against it. As Bauer, Mary states, “[Recycling] is a messy process That uses caustic chemicals and produces harmful byproducts and emissions” (12). Regardless, recycling programs have been implemented in many places such as California and Georgia and have been successful. Hence, individual’s states in the United States should make recycling mandatory because recycling will reduce E-Waste pollution, reduce waste, and benefit the economy.
Let 's take a look at the points from the article 10 ways recycling hurts the environment, by Andrew Handley. The number one point is that recycling gives false promises, but how? Andrew Handley says, “The biggest reason recycling hurts the environment doesn’t have anything to do with the technical process—it’s the mindset it gives people. Recycling’s main impact is to convince us that it’s okay to be wasteful in other areas, because we make up for it through recycling. It encourages consumption, rather than pointing out ways to reduce consumption overall.” Honestly, the biggest reason people don 't recycle is because they are plain lazy, there is no way to sugar-coat that. People don 't want to take the extra 10 seconds it would take to get another bag for the cans or bottles. They just don 't care.
Trash. Trash mostly comes from food products and is extremely common in our world. Some trash can be recycled where it will be reused instead of going into landfills, but some garbage just physically can't. Recycling helps prevent the amount of waste thrown into landfills and overall helps cleanse our earth. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) constantly urges the community to recycle as much as they can, but in the end it's the people's choice on whether recycling happens or not.
According to Gale opposing view points, “the cost of collecting, sorting, and proceeding recyclables can, for some materials, be higher than that of creating new raw materials” (Gale). This goes to show that even sometimes, recycling an item such as steel or paper or whatever, can cost more than actually make a new material from scratch, aka raw material. Not only that, but the places where the give mentioned provides a recyclable bin, they cost money also. A different type of trash machine comes to pick it up, more money there. The driver gets paid. The employees at raw recycling factor, which probably don’t do much, also get paid. All these unnecessary funds going to waste while the are people starving in the nation. While there are people around the world who don’t even have safe, clean water to drink; yet the government goes and spends on recycling
I am not a big earth first person but I do believe in recycling because I work at a local recycling center and I think recycling is a good thing. In fact I think everyone should recycle to make the earth a better place as a whole. A few good reasons why recycling is a good this is, the more people recycle, the less room is filled in landfills. Also, when people recycle they are reusing materials, therefore saving resources. Another good reason is that when you recycle often times you get paid back the C.R.V. that you already paid for in the grocery store.
Do you hate seeing litter on the streets, or seeing and smelling heaps of garbage sitting, and rotting away? Humans recycling more will help to reduce this. We throw many things that can be recycled. Recycling glass, plastics, paper, and metals will reduce solid waste dumped into the ecosystem daily. “96 percent of U.S. plastic, and 50 percent of its paper, goes into landfills. Mexico, not exactly a bastion of environmental awareness, recycles more glass than the U.S.” (Alice Horrigan 1). That’s 96 percent of the millions of tons of plastic, which will outlive most of us in a landfill that we could recycle and keep it out of our landfill. Paper is made from trees, if we recycle it, we can decrease our rate of ugly deforestation and the destruction of animal habitats. When paper gets to the landfill, it is guaranteed to get wet. The wetness and decomposition of paper atracts mold spores, which produce an odor and are potentially bad for your health. Also k...
People need to think about the objects that they throw away, those items can affect the animals around the world. For example, when people throw away the plastic rings that go around pop cans, can kill animals by being stuck around their little necks. So, before people throw those plastic rings out, they need to make sure that they cut a slit into each ring so in case an animal does get stuck in one of them, then they can get out safely. Recycling does not just have to be about plastic, but when the plastic is recycled, Americans can use it for many different things. For example, the plastic can make park benches, plastic crates, and wire tubing. Many people do not understand where all of the recycled objects go, but the objects do not go anywhere they are just recycled to make other things, recycled objects also help reduce the price of the objects that they make. The best part about recycling is the fact that people can recycle almost anything and turn it into something completely different. For example, Keen’s Harvest makes bags, wallets, and totes from recycled airbags that come from automobiles. Another example is Looptworks uses cotton jersey, nylon, vinyl, and recycled polyester to make their upcycled leather iPad cases. Skateback is another company that uses recycled material to make iPhone backs; they use the discarded post-industrial skateboard materials. Vinylux
Lots of recycled products are less expensive than brand new ones. Buying cans, bottles, paper, and some clothing items made from recycled goods are all potential ways to save you money. People can use their recycled items. People can use their recycled paper to make pencil which saves money. When people make paper it cost $25,000 dollars a month. If people use recycled paper, then it won't even cost about $100. The benefit in cost per can in terms of savings is so low that it's quite insignificant. On another level, the savings in terms of energy required in making a new can from scratch as compared to making it from an existing can is tremendous. The cost of aluminum would be high if people did not recycle it. Metals like copper, iron, and steel can also be recycled. Scrap bits of metal can be brought to a scrap dealer who will pay cash for the metal. Automobile manufacturers get good money for scrap metal too. Some people think that recycling is a great way to save
Our world is getting to the point to where we will be surrounded by trash. There are hazards happening because of the excess trash, which could have been recycled. Although the government is not doing their best to make these hazards stop, surprisingly it is the non-governed organizations that are trying to make the difference. Proven studies and facts have been made about these issues, so people should take this into consideration and start recycling more. Recycling is a beneficial process that is not required globally like it should be because citizens are uneducated on the process and what it can do. People who are not recycling do not know the hazards they are causing everywhere.
One reason is that recycling can help save the earth from waste and trash build-up. For example, fifty percent of roofing and construction on houses is made from recycled aluminum cans. Using recycled materials to produce new products costs less money and less energy than new materials. It can also save valuable landfill space. People have trash everyday. Pretty much anything is recyclable. If you throw them away, it?s a waste of natural resources, a waste of energy, and a waste of money. Instead people should take the time collect these things and put some effort into helping in the world we live in.
One huge aspect of recycling is that it gives the recycler the fulfillment of helping the environment. W. Kip Viscusi a professor at Vanderbilt University said, “The warm glow environmental benefit that a person receives from recycling will be greater for those who place a higher value on the environment .” Therefore, the benefit of helping our environment is the greatest benefit of all. Although it might seem as if plastic is thrown away than it can not harm the environment, however, that is incorrect. Plastic is not biodegradable, therefore, it will never be able to completely decompose into the earth. With plastic not being able to decompose it takes up a large amount of space while also being capable of traveling through the air. Sati Manrich, the author of Plastic Recycling said, “The mounting volume of plastic residues, coupled with their extremely low biodegradability, generated a serious problem regarding the amount of space they took up.” Therefore, when plastic is thrown away it will last for at least four-hundred and fifty years before degrading in the landfills; thus allowing all the plastic that was thrown away in the last four-hundred and fifty years to start a stockpile in the landfills or even travel somewhere else.(Manrich
While walking through the park last Sunday, I observed a shocking scene. There are two cans: one for recycling and one for trash. The recycling receptacle had only an empty Dr. Pepper can and a few used Ozarka water bottles. On the other hand, the trash can had a plethora of half eaten meals, wrappers, banana peels and disgustingly even bottles, cans, newspapers and plastics that could have been recycled. Because people do not understand or do not care to understand about conserving our resources, many reusable items are being put in landfills when recycling these items could help save the environment.
On the other hand, some people feel that recycling should not be mandatory. Some people feel as if recycling is not always cost effective. Sometimes, there may be a need for new factories to process reusable materials. This could even create more pollution because of the cleaning, storage and transportation that takes place. Also, some people feel that recycled products may not last for long. Recycled materials are not always a reliable quality. The materials are mostly made up of trashed waste, which is why the products are cheap and last for a shorter period of time. Another reason why some people think it is not necessary to recycle is because there are unsafe and unhygienic recycling sites. Places like landfills, where all sorts of waste is dumped contribute to the spread of different diseases and other dangers caused by harmful chemicals and waste. People also think that r...