RECYCLING SAVES NATURAL RESOURCES
Our finite reserves of natural resources are being depleted rapidly, particularly with the increasing use of disposable products and packaging. Reprocessing used materials to make new products and packaging reduces the consumption of natural resources. Recycling often produces better products than those made of virgin materials; for instance, the tin in "tin" cans is more refined (thus more valuable) after being processed for recycling. Source reduction, preventing waste before it is generated, can further reduce the need for disposal and save more resources.
RECYCLING SAVES ENERGY
Energy savings are a very important environmental benefit of recycling, because using energy requires the consumption of scarce fossil fuels and involves emissions of numerous air and water pollutants. The steps in supplying recycled materials to industry (including collection, processing and transportation) typically use less energy than the steps in supplying virgin materials to industry (including extraction, refining, transportation and processing).
Additional energy savings associated with recycling accrue in the manufacturing process itself, since the materials have already undergone processing. Recycling paper cuts energy usage in half. Every pound of steel recycled saves 5,450 BTUs of energy, enough to light a 60-watt bulb for over 26 hours. Recycling a ton of glass saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil. Recycling used aluminum cans requires only about five percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite. Recycling just one can saves enough electricity to light a 100-wat bulb for 3 1/2 hours.
RECYCLING SAVES OUR ENVIRONMENT
By reducing the amount of energy used by industry, recycling also reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps prevent global climate change. This is because much of the energy used in industrial processes and in transportation involves burning fossil fuels like gasoline, diesel and coal, the most important sources of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. Additional benefits are derived from reduced emissions from incinerators and landfills and by slowing the harvest of trees, which are carbon sinks.
In addition to greenhouse gases, recycling can reduce a range of pollutants from entering the air and water. By decreasing the need to extract and process new raw materials from the earth, recycling can eliminate the pollution associated with the initial stages of a product's development: material extraction, refining and processing. These activities pollute the air, land and water with toxic materials, such as ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, and sulfur dioxides. further reductions are achieved as a result of energy saving, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants. In addition to the greenhouse gas reductions mentioned previously, additional reductions of air emissions due to recycling total 587,000 tons. Reduced water emissions total nearly 9,000 tons.
RECYCLING PROVIDES ECONOMIC BENEFITS
By converting waste into valuable products, recycling creates jobs, contributes feedstock to manufacturing, and adds significant value to the entire U.S. economy.
RECYCLING IS GOOD BUSINESS
Most people know that recycling plays an important role in managing the garbage generated in homes and businesses, and that it reduces the need for landfills and incinerators. However, recycling is far more than a local waste management strategy; it is also an important strategy for reducing the environmental impacts of industrial production. Supplying industry with recycled materials, rather tha virgin resources extracted from forests and mines, is environmentally preferable because it saves energy, reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, and other dangerous air and water pollutants, and because it conserves scarce natural resources. Recycling is a growth industry with many kinds of business opportunities, from collection and processing to manufacturing to inventing new technologies.
Why It Is Important
As stewards of the environment, we are responsible for preserving and protecting our resources for ourselves and for future generations.
Recycling is really just common sense, and until the modern era, it was a common household activity. Before the 1920s, 70% of U.S. cities ran programs to recycle certain materials. During World War II, industry recycled and reused about 25% of the waste stream. Because of concern for the environment, recycling is again on the upswing. The nation's composting and recycling rate rose from 7.7% of the waste stream in 1960 to 17% in 1990. It is currently up to around 30%.
The world has changed a lot in the past century. From individually packaged food servings to disposable diapers, more garbage is generated now than ever before. The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. This garbage, the solid waste stream, goes mostly to landfills, where it is compacted and buried. As the waste stream continues to grow, so will the pressures of our landfills, our resources, and our environment.
The more we recycle, the less garbage winds up in our landfills and incineration plants. By reusing aluminum, paper, glass, plastics, and other materials, we can save production and energy costs, and reduce the negative impacts that the extraction and processing of virgin materials has on the environment.
(Source: 2006 America Recycles Day, Inc.)