Mar 29, 2018 - Friends of the Earth was behind the original drive to introduce kerbside recycling in the UK 15 years ago. So now we're really pleased to see. The Economic Benefits of Recycling. Not only is recycling a wonderful way to positively impact the environment, it also supports the local and national economy. Each year alone, recycling generates $200 billion in the United States’ economy. As the global population and international economies only continue to grow.
A common symbol that can be seen on garbage bags, dump trucks and trash cans is of recycling. The phrase ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ is taught to children all over the world in the hope of creating a clean environment. We all know that recycling is a simple way in which every person can contribute to making a better world. But surely there must be more benefits of recycling than just reducing the amount of trash we throw out. After all, it takes time and effort to collect, separate and send away the trash. But the fact is that there are many ways in which this process makes for a better and happier world.
Benefits of Recycling
Reduce the Size of Landfills: One of the biggest reasons why recycling has been promoted is that it does reduce the strain on our environment. By utilizing waste products in a constructive way, we can slowly decrease the size of our landfills. As the population grows, it will become difficult for the landfills to hold so much and trash. When this happens, our cities and beautiful landscapes will face pollution, poisoning and many health problems. The benefits of recycling are that it helps to keep the pollution in check and decrease it little by little.
Conserve Natural Resources: Scrap cars, old bottles, junk mail and used rubber tyres are becoming common features of our landfills. All of these may seem endless, but the resources required to make them are finishing off quickly. Recycling allows all of these junk items to be used over and over again so that new resources do not have to be exploited. It conserves natural resources such as water, minerals, coal, oil, gas and timber. Another one of the benefits of recycling is that it allows more emphasis to be put on creating technology to utilize what already exists. This is why a number of industries support programs where they can receive large quantities of recyclable material to convert into new items.
More Employment Opportunities: While you may feel that recycling is each person for himself, in reality it is a huge industry within itself. After you do the basic sorting out and deposit your trash for recycling, it has to be sorted and shipped off to the right places. This is done by thousands of workers, who are newly employed by the growing industry. Certainly, one of the major benefits of recycling is that it creates more jobs in the community and provides stability to the entire process. Throwing the trash away creates some six to seven jobs at best, where recycling can help create close to thirty jobs.
Offers Cash Benefits: Recycling is not all about being charitable and doing what is good for the environment. If it were so, everybody would recycle out of the goodness of their hearts. Most governments have policies in place which give financial benefits to those who recycle. People that take the aluminum cans or glass bottles to the recycling plant, get a cash benefit in return. In fact, many teenagers can pick up recycling as a way to make extra money on the side. Old newspapers, appliances, plastic, rubber, steel, copper and even beer cans can be sold for money.
Saves Money: An unexpected place where the benefits of recycling can be seen is our economy. A strong economy is one that is efficient in nature. What drags it down is having to pay for resources that are growing scarce in the country. Every bit of recycling counts when the economy does not have to pay for planting more forests, mining iron ore or purchasing fossil fuels from other countries. When the jobs increase, the economy gets a boost. As the cost of maintaining the current waste disposal system go down, all the money saved is diverted to where it is need the most.
Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: When you recycle products, you tend to save energy which results in less greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases are primarily responsible for increase in global warming. It helps to reduce air and water pollution by cutting down the number of pollutants that are released into the environment. A recycling rate of 30% can is almost equivalent of removing 30 million cars from the roads.
Saves Energy: When you recycle aluminum cans, you can save 95% of the energy required to produce those cans from raw materials, energy saved from recycling one glass bottle is enough to light a light bulb for four hours. This clearly shows how much energy can be saved if recycling is taken on a larger scale. With this, the reliance on foreign oil is reduced which also helps you to save money in long run.
Stimulate the Use of Greener Technologies: With use of more recycling products, it has pushed people towards more greener technologies. Use of renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal is on rise which has helped to conserve energy and reduce pollution.
Bring Different Groups and Communities Together: At the end of the day, recycling is an act that can bring a community together. Whether it is by picking up trash from the roads or collecting waste materials to raise money for schools and colleges. Many simple programs that make a community stronger can be built upon the many benefits of recycling. Many people have found that their collective efforts in proper waste disposal have made their towns cleaner and happier. Others have found friends and supporters in their mission to change the world. In fact, it is one the best ways to teach children about responsibility and taking an initiative.
Prevents Loss of Biodiversity: Less raw material is needed when you engage yourself in recycling products. The beauty of recycling is that it will help you to conserve resources and prevents loss of biodiversity, ecosystems and rainforests. Mining activities will reduce which is considered as dangerous for mine workers. Soil erosion and water pollution will be reduced which in turn will protect native plants and animals to survive in forests. Deforestation, which is on rise these days will significantly reduce if recycling is considered seriously by majority of people.
The benefits of recycling are simple, but the effect they can have are large. Which is why so many countries support the process and make sure that their citizens face no trouble at all when they want to take up recycling.
Image credit: andyarthur
Rinkesh
A true environmentalist by heart ❤️. Founded Conserve Energy Future with the sole motto of providing helpful information related to our rapidly depleting environment. Unless you strongly believe in Elon Musk‘s idea of making Mars as another habitable planet, do remember that there really is no 'Planet B' in this whole universe.
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Many of us feel overwhelmed by the term ‘recycling’. Recycling is a form of waste management that involves converting waste and other used materials into reusable products. Recycling helps to reduce energy usage, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce air pollution and water pollution (from land filling) by reducing the need for “conventional” waste disposal and also reduces greenhouse gases emissions. Before taking the bold step of recycling, it is crucial to understand the good and bad involved in this process.
Some of the wastes that can be recycled include:
Plastic: Which include water bottles, plastic bags, plastic wrappers and rubber bags.
Glass: Glass products that can be recycled include wine and beer bottles and broken glasses
Paper: Such as magazines, newspapers, books, envelopes and cardboard boxes
Metals: Like empty tomato, soda and fruit cans.
Other waste products that can be recycled include textiles, tires, and electronics.
The Recycling process
Collection of waste materials and processing
Waste materials are collected through drop-off centers, curbside collection, deposit or refund programs. The waste materials are then transported to a materials recovery facility or recycling centers where they are sorted out, cleaned and processed into ideal materials for manufacturing. The recyclable waste materials can be bought and sold the same way raw material would be. The prices fluctuate depending on demand and supply throughout the country.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is where the processed waste materials are converted into useful products. Many products in the modern day are manufactured using recycled waste materials. Common products manufactured using waste materials include paper towels, newspapers, steel cans, soft drink containers made of plastic glass and aluminum and plastic laundry detergents.
Dissemination of manufactured products to the market
The finished recycled product is then made available on the market. You can be part of waste reduction campaigns by purchasing products made from recycled materials. It’s pretty easy to pinpoint products of recyclable material because the words are plastered on the labels.
Recycling has a plethora of advantages to humans and environments. Surprisingly, the whole process of recycling comes along with some shocking impacts unknown to a lot of people. Let’s look at some advantages and disadvantages to recycling.
Advantages of Recycling
Recycling minimizes pollution
All forms of pollution in the modern world emanate from industrial waste. Recycling of these industrial wastes such as plastics, cans, and chemicals go a long way towards considerably cutting back on levels of pollution because these waste products are reused rather than just being thrown away recklessly.
Protects the environment
The great benefit of recycling waste material is that it plays a big part in protecting Mother Nature in the most balanced way. While many trees are felled every day, recycled paper manufactured from specific trees is continually utilized to reduce deforestation. This classical example demonstrates that other natural resources can be recycled and made useful this way to conserve the environment.
Recycling minimizes global warming
It is perfectly true that recycling minimizes global warming and its grave impacts. During waste disposal, huge amounts of waste are combusted that lead to emission of vast greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur, and nitrogen, which contribute to climate change and global warming.
Recycling process involves minimal combustion and waste is transformed into reusable materials with zero or minimal harmful impact on the environment. The whole process of processing and manufacturing products from waste materials emits few greenhouse gases because the very waste recycling industries burn little fossil fuels.
Conserves natural resources
If the process of recycling used and old materials was not there, it means new products will be manufactured by extraction of fresh raw materials underneath the earth through the process of mining and extraction. Recycling is a surefire way of conserving existing raw materials and protecting them for future use. Taking steps to conserve natural resources like minerals, water and wood ensures sustainable and optimal use.
Recycling cuts down amount of waste in landfill sites
Recycling old and used materials into reusable products enormously reduces the possibility of choking of landfill sites. This is beneficial because it helps minimize land and water pollution since landfills contribute mightily to environmental degradation.
Recycling ensures sustainable use of resources
Recycling guarantees that existing resources will be used sensibly and sustainably. The recycling process alleviates the possibility of discriminate use of raw materials when they are obtainable in huge supply. Governments these days have stepped in to encourage recycling from lower levels, for instance, schools, small-sized organizations and also at global levels. This means that manufacturing industries can leave existing natural resources for exploitation by our children in the future without affecting current production.
Recycling contributes to creation of jobs
To add to the benefits it brings to the environment; recycling opens up job opportunities. Recycling means many recycling plants will be set up, thus, leading to a long chain of collection and delivery. All these activities are performed by humans, so this will trigger an explosion of opportunities.
Reduces energy consumption
A lot of energy is used to process raw materials in the course of manufacture. Recycling plays a big role in reducing energy consumption, which is vital for large-scale production, for instance, mining and refining. Recycling also renders the whole process of production less expensive, which is a great victory for manufacturers.
Disadvantages of Recycling
High upfront capital costs
Recycling is not always cost-effective. Building up a new waste recycling unit takes up a lot of capital. The accompanying costs include buying different kinds of utility vehicles, upgrading the recycling unit, waste, and chemical disposal and schooling the locals by initiating useful programs and seminars.
Recycling sites are always unhygienic, unsafe and unsightly
Go to any waste recycling site, and you will almost always stumble upon unhygienic, unhealthy and unsightly conditions. Locations where every manner of waste is piled provides a nice ground for the formation of debris and spread of infectious diseases. The harmful chemicals from these wastes can also be dangerous.
On top of causing massive pollution, the whole recycling process poses health risks for dedicated individuals responsible for recycling these waste products. Also, if such waste products come into contact with water, results in the formation of leachate that ends up polluting water bodies, not to mention drinking water.
Products from recycled waste may not be durable.
The quality of products manufactured from recycled waste may not be on par regarding quality. These kinds of products are almost always made of trashed waste material collected from mountains of other waste materials that have been overly utilized and fragile. This makes products of recycled waste less durable and low priced.
Recycling might not be inexpensive
Sometimes, recycling waste may not be less costly as most people think. At times, a need arises to establish another waste recycling unit for processing. This will only drive up the costs related setting up the new unit or upgrading the processing facility, collection of waste materials, acquiring different utility vehicles, educating residents by organizing seminars and other programs etc.
Recycling is not widespread on large scale
Although recycling plays a bigger role in reducing the rate of pollution, the process has not been widely embraced and developed. Unfortunately recycling still is just a small part of long-term success. Recycling is mostly common in schools and homes and has not hit a bigger milestone, for example, it has not been wholly used at local industries or holistically at a global stage. Conservation of trees at school is incomparable to the massive destruction of trees and oil spills happening at industrial levels.
After juggling the advantages and disadvantages of recycling, an individual can wisely take significant steps involved in recycling process. Knowing the effects of recycling is vital to a larger degree that if carried out effectively, can bring immeasurable benefits to the environment and humans
Reference:Reduce Reuse Recycle
Image credit: imeleven , U.S. Army
Rinkesh
A true environmentalist by heart ❤️. Founded Conserve Energy Future with the sole motto of providing helpful information related to our rapidly depleting environment. Unless you strongly believe in Elon Musk‘s idea of making Mars as another habitable planet, do remember that there really is no 'Planet B' in this whole universe.
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