What a good question!, why is recycling important?. Personally, I recycle as much of my waste as possible and encourage others to do the same. But, I tend to forget why I’m doing it in the first place.
I mean, I know there’s an importance to recycling and in a small way I’m helping to save the planet but there is much more to it then that.
Let’s look at a few reasons about the importance of recycling:
Recycling Reduces Landfill Waste
This one is pretty self explanatory. The more we recycle, the less waste will end up in the local landfill.
Landfill sites are limited to available space, size and location. No one wants to live close by a landfill. But with our growing population and consumerism, it is an ever growing problem to find a place to dispose of all of our waste.
Landfills smell, produce harmful greenhouse gases like methane and can be harmful to ground water. Not to mention that they look bad! Throwing our waste away is an end game. Recycling allows our waste to be made into another product over and over again.
Also, remember that recycling can go outside of the typical products like paper, cardboard, newspapers, plastic, glass and aluminum. There are now several additional options for recycling electronic waste such as ink cartridges, old computers and cell phones. You can also recycle batteries, paint, and other hazardous materials that were not available before.
Recycling Reduces Pollution & Greenhouse Gases
We already touched on the pollution and greenhouse gases coming from landfills. Making products out of virgin materials also creates more pollution and greenhouse gases than recycled products do. The processing of virgin materials is more intense of a process and emits more pollutants. Using recycled materials to create new products is a great method in helping reduce greenhouse gases and pollution from the manufacturing process.
Recycling Saves Energy
Extracting virgin materials to make new products is very energy intensive. Using recycled products instead requires less energy because the extraction process is not needed. That energy is already embodied in the product but instead of getting one use of that energy we are able to benefit from it again. It’s also good to take into consideration the amount of energy saved in the fight to mitigate pollution, greenhouse gases and landfill costs when using recycled materials . The total sum of these doesn’t go away but they are certainly reduced.
Recycling Creates Jobs
Since recycling has become more mainstream and markets have opened up to provide additional recycling resources it has also created jobs. Not only in the collection of the recycles but also in the manufacturing and processing of the products.
There are several companies that have emerged that use recycled materials to make luxury and sought after products like purses and shoes. Check out some cool bags here. This company make bags from post-industrial waste like Frito-Lay, Mars, Coca-Cola, Disney, Cliff Bar and more.
The more we recycle the more these types of products will be available to us.
So, the next time you go to throw something away think first about if you can reuse it in your own life and ask yourself that same question….”why is recycling important”. There are so many good positive results to recycling.
If there is no use for you there could be a use for another product in the recycling industry. Try to recycle as much as you can everyday to help the planet thrive.