Recycling_Benifits

Literature 11 11 February 2011 Making Recycling Mandatory The major benefits of recycling can help our community in many ways. If we do not make recycling mandatory we could not only ruin our community, but also our planet. These days we see the words reduce, reuse, and recycle at most recycling places, but what do these three words actually mean' Reduce is to use fewer items. Reuse is to continue using things again after they have been previously used. Recycling is the processing of old or unused materials into new items or products. Anything can be recycled and these three words help keep our community in its best shape. The only problem is that many people ask the question, “why recycle'” “Many say recycling is a waste of money, and a waste of time” (Hutchinson 2). There actually are many reasons to recycle, which is why more and more people begin recycling each year. One reason why people are beginning to recycle is that it saves energy. Not only does recycling save more money than maintaining a landfill, but also recycling is also safer to work with compared to landfills full of our waste. Also, when we recycle, it helps our ozone layer by not releasing harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. One of the biggest reasons why people recycle is because they are concerned with our planets nonrenewable resources. When we recycle we cut down on the usage of these resources and they can be saved for later, or for a better use. Recycling is beneficial to our environment and to our economy. Recycling is beneficial to our economy by saving the government money in a variety of ways. Recycling cuts out the need for expensive landfills that require countless hours of maintenance. Another way recycling is economically friendly, is that our government can earn money by selling our e-wastes overseas to be properly disposed of. E-wastes are electronic wastes such as computers, televisions, and screens that cannot be broken down by the Earth. “We have to properly dispose of these electronics because they contain chemicals and toxins that are harmful to our environment when they are released in a wrong way” (Elgin 42). Recycling also provides more jobs for the unemployed. A recycling business provides more people with jobs, and puts more people to work than the average landfill will. With recycling rising more and more every year it helps reduce the amount of landfills in our community. Not only does recycling help improve our economy, but it also works as an industry as well as a lifestyle. Recycling needs investments just like other businesses and companies do. Our investments and money helps the American industry as a whole to flourish and prosper as well. As a part of recycling being helpful to the economy, it also helps our environment even better. While landfills require huge gas consuming garbage trucks to drive around town, recycling centers have the option of you bringing it yourself. Recycling businesses do not use big tractors that release toxins by wasting gas and pushing trash back and forth all day. Recycling plays an important role in saving energy as well as cutting back pollutants. It is more energy efficient to recycle any used item than to use up new materials to make a new product. “A light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pond of steel” (Pearson). Recycling prevents habitat destruction, and helps to save our forests and wildlife too. It doesn’t keep calling for the need of mining for resources, metals, or other minerals in the earth. “Nearly 80% of the worlds energy comes from oil, coal, or gas” (Revolution). It also doesn’t dump unwanted trash or other substances into our lakes or streams, which contaminate the aquatic wildlife and their ecosystems. Not only does recycling prevent pollution, it also helps conserve our natural resources. Due to the fact that resources are becoming limited we all need to start using them wisely. Everyday, our recycled items are made into a new product that can be used for something else. Every time you throw something away that could have been recycled, some of our resources are used to replace the item. Also, recycling is not hazardous to our planet. “They way we produce, consume, and dispose of our products and our food accounts from more than 42% of out planets greenhouse gas emissions” (Revolution). It is less harmful than landfills. Recycling is better for the ozone too. It reduces the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. “It does not release gases like incinerators that burn our trash do” (Levete 15). Recycling does not give off harmful gases or toxins that damage the ozone layer. If we do not recycle, the future of our planet will be devastating. If we do not recycle that would cause prices for everything to inflate. Prices would rise because we would use so much energy making everything because we didn’t recycle. Without recycling, the world would be a giant dumpster and we would be leaving it up to our kids and grandchildren to clean up. Another way our future would be affected is that all our wastes would contaminate the earth. Mostly e-wastes are the contributing factors of the release of dangerous chemicals and toxins. When we throw any item away it ruins our soil, atmosphere, plants, ozone, and our water. We surely do not want to be drinking unhealthy contaminated water because it is our own fault. With no recycling, the unwanted smelly landfills would become more common around the world. Everything would be trash without the start of recycling. The more trash we have, the more space we need to make landfills. Landfills filled with trash never go away, they last forever. The planet cannot decompose our thrown away items at the rate that we use and consume them. Some items that we throw away as trash can never be broken down or decomposed by the earth. For example “it takes anywhere around 3 years for a cigarette butt to be broken down by our planet” (Levete 11). For other products it can take one year to millions of years to decompose any piece of trash. Also in the future without recycling, our ozone layer will start to disappear because of the greenhouse gases that harm to ozone. This will result in global warming. E-wastes, or electronic wastes, can play a major role in the release of chemical toxins if we do not recycle them correctly. One other bad thing that would happen in the future if we do not recycle is disappearing of limited resources. One day our valuable resources will be used up, but when we do not start recycling it only makes the resources disappear faster. Recycling slows down the process and in that time we have more opportunities to look for other ways to use other products instead of our resources. Plus, recycling is a part of the industry. Without our cooperation of recycling the industry would start to fail. If recycling were not mandatory then people would choose not to do it. When we choose not to recycle then we are causing us to use more resources. Many industries and other companies depend on these resources too. With all the resources all used up, the companies can no longer make their products. “By recycling over 1 million tons of steel we helped save 1.3 million tons of iron ore, 718,000 tons of coal, and 62,000 tons of limestone” (Revolution). Without our necessary and essential products, we will suffer in many ways. Eventually we will die because we cannot receive the items that we need to survive. A big part of not recycling is the loss of habitats. The loss of habitats is happening partly because of the lack of natural resources. Without recycling to keep us from not using all our resources so fast, we would have to find new resources. It is hard to find new resources in our planet, because they are running out. Finding new resources requires human interaction with animal habitats. Usually we end up cutting down or destroying their habitats for the things that can be useful for us. With the lack of recycling that would occur more because we would have to keep producing new products. Habitats get destroyed for the finding of new resources. A big problem with habitat destruction is that it destroys the homes to many animals. With animals not having a place to live, they will die. When the animals die then we cannot get food. Without any food for us, we die from lack of nutrition or starvation. If you truly care about your community, economy, environment, or planet you would also want to make recycling a mandatory responsibility in our lives. “Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have thrown away 910 billion cans worth over $25 billion current dollars” (Revolution). With recycling we help out our economy, our environment, our planet, and ourselves in a big way. Recycling is a better alternative compared to throwing away trash. Recycling saves energy. Recycling helps prevent pollution. Recycling does not call for the need for habitat destruction. Recycling is good for the ozone layer. Recycling also saves money and it creates jobs. Why not make recycling mandatory and do something that is not hazardous to our planet' Every little bit helps so don’t be hesitant to start recycling for a better planet! Works Cited Elgin, Ben, Brian Grow, and Ellen Gibson. “The Dirty Secret Of Recycling Electronics,” Business Week, 4105, pp. 40-45, Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Jan 2011. Hutchinson, Alex. “Is Recycling Worth It'” Popular Mechanics, 158, 12, p. 68, MASTERFILE Premier, EBSCO. Web. 25 Jan 2011. Pearson, Chris. “What is Recycling'” 2006-2007. www.pacebutler.com/blog/what-is-recycling-7-reasons-why-we-should (NP). 26 Jan 2011. “Recycling Revolution.” 2007. www.recycling-revolution.com (NP) Jan 22 2011. Levete, Sarah. "ROT AND DECAY." Rot & Decay: Decomposing & Recycling” (2008): 1-48. Book Collection: Nonfiction. EBSCO. Web. 26 Jan 2011.