“If recycling is the future, then we must focus our efforts on mitigating negative impacts to our community while protecting our environment.”
Tony Cardenas, Politician
All You Need To Know About Recycling
Recycling can be defined as converting waste items into new objects.
Compared to conventional waste disposal, our natural resources can be used more efficiently since less material has to be burned or disposed of into landfills.
Therefore, recycling can also be regarded as an important measure to reduce the total amount of waste.
In the following, the importance of recycling and actions regarding how you can recycle waste in your daily life are examined.
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Contents
Why is Recycling important?
- Reduction in air pollution
- Reduction in water pollution
- Reduction in soil pollution
- Reduce need for landfills
- Saving energy
- Cleaner environment
- Avoid a loss in biodiversity
- Improve public health
- Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
- Mitigation of resource depletion
- Mitigate littering
- Reduction in social costs
- Relief for developing countries
- New job opportunities
Reduction in air pollution
In the conventional waste disposal process, the was has either to be burned or is disposed of into landfills.
When a significant fraction of waste is burned, harmful gases, including greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, are released into our atmosphere.
This leads to significant particle pollution as well as to air pollution.
Air pollution can have several adverse effects on our environmental system, since it contributes to the formation of acid rain and also reduces the living quality for many people.
Reduction in water pollution
Recycling can also lead to an improvement in water quality.
In many developing countries, plenty of waste is disposed into rivers or lakes instead of bringing it to landfills.
As a result, significant water pollution occurs.
By giving people the opportunity to recycle their waste, people may have an incentive to recycle waste instead of dumping it illegally.
This may be especially true if there is a financial incentive to recycle waste.
Moreover, waste is often disposed into landfills that are not set up properly and the soil becomes polluted.
Due to heavy rainfalls, these pollutants are also washed into the groundwater, eventually resulting in groundwater pollution.
Therefore, if recycling processes and incentives are set up properly, recycling can significantly mitigate water pollution compared to traditional waste disposal methods.
Reduction in soil pollution
In many developing countries, waste is often disposed of illegally into rivers, lakes or also forests.
This behavior can lead to significant soil pollution, since pollutants can reach the soil and contaminate it.
Even if waste is dumped into official landfills, this may still lead to soil pollution since landfills often have leaks and therefore, harmful substances can reach the soil.
Reduce need for landfills
Since the world population is growing, so is the total amount of waste.
With more waste, we also need more landfills in order to get rid of it.
Through recycling, the total amount of waste can be reduced, which in turn also implies a reduction in the need for landfills.
This could be quite beneficial for people living nearby landfills since they often suffer from smell or visual pollution.
If these landfills can be closed down, there would be an improvement in living quality for these people.
Moreover, people who would suffer from new landfills will be quite happy if there is no need to build new landfills due to better recycling processes.
Saving energy
With the help of recycling processes, we can also save plenty of energy.
Although the recycling process also involves significant energy consumption, the energy needed for recycling purposes is usually much lower than the energy needed in the process of resource extraction.
Therefore, proper recycling methods can reduce our total demand for energy and can thus also slow down the global warming process.
Cleaner environment
Recycling can also lead to a cleaner environment.
If we are able to recycle a bigger fraction of our waste, the total amount of waste that has to be burned or disposed of into landfills can be reduced.
Moreover, in poor developing countries, waste is often illegally disposed of into rivers or lakes which in turn leads to many kinds of pollution.
The reduction in the total amount of waste also mitigates this problem.
Therefore, recycling can also lead to a cleaner environment and can thus improve the quality of life of humans as well as for many animals and plants.
Avoid a loss in biodiversity
The set up of landfills often involves the use of large areas of land, which in turn implies a loss of habitats for many animals and plants.
Moreover, burning waste leads to harmful emissions, which can lead to all kinds of pollution and in turn hurt the local fauna and flora.
Recycling can mitigate these issues since less waste has to be disposed of into landfills or burned and therefore, the adverse effects of this disposal techniques can be reduced.
Improve public health
Since a significant fraction of the produced waste is burned, this combustion of waste leads to significant air and particle pollution.
This pollution can in turn hurt the health of a significant number of people.
People living in areas with a high concentration of pollutants in the air may be at a higher risk of suffering from severe diseases like lung cancer.
Thus, recycling can lead to an improvement in public health since lower amounts of waste have to be burned and therefore, pollution levels are likely to decrease.
Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions are involved in the extraction process of resources, in the production process of goods as well as in the burning of waste.
Through recycling, the emissions can be reduced significantly since fewer resources have to be extracted out of our ground which can reduce overall energy consumption and less waste has to be burned which can further reduce the emission of harmful gases into the air.
Therefore, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced in an effective manner through profound recycling techniques and thus the process of global warming can be slowed down.
Mitigation of resource depletion
The depletion of natural resources can also be mitigated with the help of recycling.
For the production of many goods, natural resources have to be extracted out of our ground which often involves significant amounts of energy.
Through recycling, we have to extract fewer resources since part of our resource demand can be met with recycled material.
Therefore, we can save natural resources and also reduce our energy demand which has a positive impact on the global warming issue.
Mitigate littering
Littering can be a significant environmental problem.
Many people just dispose of their trash in nearby forests instead of disposing it into landfills or other official waste disposal facilities.
If we give people a financial incentive to dispose of their trash at official sites, we would be able to reduce littering and the implied adverse environmental problems significantly.
Reduction in social costs
Waste and waste disposal not only impose private costs, they also impose significant social costs and negative externalities on other countries.
For instance, air pollution from waste combustion not only hurts the country in which the waste is burned, it also hurts other countries since global warming is an issue that will hit worldwide.
Thus, through recycling and an implied reduction in the amount of total waste, we can reduce these social costs.
Relief for developing countries
A significant fraction of our waste is shipped to developing countries where it is processed further.
However, many countries are not able to deal with large amounts of waste properly.
This can lead to several severe problems, including the spread of diseases.
With the help of recycling, less waste will be shipped to developing countries, which in turn can relieve the local population.
New job opportunities
There may also be potential new job opportunities for people living in areas where recycling facilities are constructed.
These areas will likely benefit from an economic upswing since more people can be employed in these areas and therefore will have more income to spend.
Thus, recycling can also create new job opportunities.
Which Materials can be recycled?
- Metal recycling
- Glass recycling
- Paper recycling
- Plastic recycling
- Battery recycling
- Organic waste recycling
- Textile recycling
- Recycling of electronics
- Recycling of consumer waste
- Recycling of industrial waste
Metal recycling
Metal recycling is quite important since metals have to be extracted out of the ground which involves plenty of energy and also the depletion of natural resources.
Metal waste includes items such as aluminum cans, steel cans, aluminum foil and many others.
Metal is used for the production of many goods and also for packaging purposes.
Big metal parts, for example from cars or buildings, are recycled with the help of big machines.
Small metal pieces from consumer trash are usually separated and are then treated in order to prepare them for the recycling process.
Glass recycling
Many cases used in our daily life are made out of glass.
This is especially true when it comes to groceries. For instance, your milk can often be bought in glass bottles.
Moreover, a significant fraction of preserved food is covered in glass.
Therefore, glass recycling is an efficient way to get rid of this glass waste and to lower the depletion of resources regarding the production of glass.
In many countries, there are different kinds of waste bins for the different glass colors.
This often includes the separation of brown glass, green glass and white glass.
Paper recycling
Paper waste can come in many different forms.
Paper waste includes waste from newspapers, office printouts, cardboards and many more.
In many countries, there is an obligation to supply trash bins specific to the disposal of paper, so that it can be separated from other waste items and thus will be suitable for recycling purposes.
Plastic recycling
Plastic recycling is another important part for an efficient use of our resources.
In many countries, there are facilities where you can return your used plastic bottles.
Often, there is also a bottle deposit for plastic bottles which gives people an incentive to return their plastic bottles instead of throwing them into the trash bin.
Battery recycling
Another form of recycling is battery recycling.
Batteries are used in several products in our daily life.
This implies an enormous amount of battery trash.
It is therefore crucial to recycle our batteries as efficiently as possible in order to reduce waste and to save our natural resources.
Organic waste recycling
Organic waste can also be recycled or used for the production of energy.
In many cities, there are trash bins specific to organic waste.
If people use these trash bins instead of disposing of their organic waste into conventional waste bins, they can contribute to a more efficient waste recycling process.
Textile recycling
Many people don’t know that textiles can also be recycled and reused in an efficient manner.
Therefore, it is crucial that people separate their textile waste.
There are many products that can be made out of textile waste, including new clothes but also energy or chemicals can be produced out of textile waste.
Recycling of electronics
The recycling of electronics is crucial since electronics often contain toxic substances but also precious materials like gold.
Therefore, on the one hand it is important to avoid the pollution of our environment with harmful substances.
On the other hand, we can extract precious materials out of electronics that can be reused for several new products.
Recycling of consumer waste
In our daily life, we produce large amounts of waste every day.
A big fraction of our waste can be recycled if we separate our waste properly.
Therefore, it is crucial that people use different trash bins regarding metal, glass, plastic, paper, organic and textile waste in order to ensure an efficient recycling process.
Recycling of industrial waste
Industrial waste is a big part of overall waste production.
It is crucial to dispose of and to process industrial waste properly in order to avoid several kinds of pollution and also to ensure efficient use of our natural resources.
How can you support effective Recycling in your Daily Life?
- Inform yourself about the recycling opportunities
- Educate yourself on your local curbside pickups
- Separate your waste
- Recycle your electronics
- Donate your clothes
- Donate your old stuff
- List your old things on internet platforms
- Improve your recycling behavior in your daily life
- Create awareness regarding recycling at your job
- Join recycling programs
- Educate people
- Convince others
Inform yourself about the recycling opportunities
Recycling opportunities differ across countries and even across cities.
It is important that you inform yourself about the recycling opportunities in your region.
For example, it would be practical to dispose of your metal waste in specific metal waste processing facilities if there are some nearby.
Moreover, you should also inform yourself about the waste separation behavior of your neighborhood in order to make sure that you separate your waste as efficiently as possible.
Educate yourself on your local curbside pickups
You should also inform yourself about local curbside pickups and what kind of waste these curbside pickups accept.
For example, it would make no sense if you separate your organic waste but there is no pickup for organic waste.
Thus, make sure that your recycling behavior matches the local curbside pickup behavior.
Separate your waste
As mentioned earlier, efficient separation of waste is crucial in order to ensure the efficient recyclability of all kinds of waste.
Make sure that you use different trash bins for different kinds of waste.
For example, you can have one trash bin for paper, one for metal, one for glass, one for organic and one for conventional waste.
Moreover, if there are waste disposal stations that are specific to certain waste types like textile waste, you can further separate your waste in order to make it suitable for recycling purposes.
Recycle your electronics
Electronics often contain harmful substances that can pollute our environment in a significant way if they are not disposed of properly. Electronics also often contain precious materials.
For example, in every conventional computer, some amounts of gold are used.
Thus, it is quite important that you recycle your electronics in order to ensure the recycling of precious metals and also to avoid environmental pollution.
Donate your clothes
In many cities, there are stations where you can donate your old clothes.
These clothes are distributed to poor people or in case no one needs them are used for recycling purposes.
In both ways, giving your clothes away to those kinds of stations is better than disposing them into conventional waste.
Donate your old stuff
In the course of your life, you will gather many material things that you actually do not need anymore.
Instead of dumping them into the trash bin, you can donate your old but still working items to poor people and therefore increase the happiness level of those people.
You can also increase your own happiness since you know you made a good deed and also avoided waste production.
List your old things on internet platforms
There are some free internet platforms where you can list your old stuff.
You would be surprised how many people are glad to get things for free.
Instead of disposing of your old stuff into the trash bin, list them on those free platforms and make other people happy.
By doing so, you can reduce your waste production and make the use of natural resources more efficiently.
Improve your recycling behavior in your daily life
In many cases, you know that your behavior can be quite harmful to our environmental system, yet you are tired from work or from other stuff and therefore lack the will to separate and recycle your waste.
It is crucial to overcome this behavior and to acknowledge the importance of waste recycling.
You should try to motivate yourself every day to recycle waste as efficiently as possible.
Create awareness regarding recycling at your job
In many firms, recycling processes are quite inefficient. In many cases, there is no proper separation of waste since simply nobody cares about it.
Thus, it is crucial that you point out the importance of waste separation and recycling at your work in order to change the mind of people.
Join recycling programs
There are some initiatives that strive to recycle waste in an efficient way.
You can join these programs in order to learn more about recycling and how you can integrate and improve your recycling behavior in your daily life.
Educate people
The education of people regarding effective waste management and recycling is crucial in order to reduce waste and to improve recycling behavior.
This education should start quite early in school since children are usually more willing to change their behavior than adults.
Moreover, if we teach children that waste separation and recycling are important, these children are likely to also convince their parents which in turn become more likely to also improve their recycling behavior.
Convince others
Although your efforts matter, it is also crucial that you convince people about the importance of recycling whenever possible.
In the last decade, people became more aware of how important it really is to recycle our waste in order to reduce the adverse effects of conventional waste processing methods.
However, there is still plenty of work to do in this regard.
Many people do not even know how our waste is processed and what adverse effects are implied by that.
A fraction of people may also not care enough about this topic since they have other things to worry about that they think are more important than recycling.
Many people may not be aware of how important effective recycling really is for our planet.
If we show them how easy it is to improve their recycling behavior, people are more willing to do so.
Moreover, these convinced people may further convince other people.
Thus, you can multiply your positive effect on the recycling behavior of people by convincing as many people as possible.
Conclusion
Enormous amounts of waste are produced worldwide on a daily basis.
In order to be able to deal with these amounts of waste and to avoid resource depletion, it is crucial to recycle our waste in the most efficient manner possible.
There are several recycling measures that you can take on a daily basis in order to improve your recycling behavior.
If everyone contributes his or her part, we can significantly improve our recycling behavior and therefore ensure a livable future for the next generations.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrap
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/recycling.htm
https://recyclingsimplified.com/recycling-basics/
About the author
My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.
As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.
After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.
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