Recycling
Sustainability of the surroundings relies on our ability to reuse, reduce, and recycle our resources. The three processes, reuse, reduce, and recycle, may seem simple but significantly impact our present and future lives. Recycling and reusing waste materials is of both economic and environmental importance. Even though life is unpredictable, we all hope for a better and more sustainable environment that will support human life even in the coming centuries. For this reason, we must continue to recycle as much as we can. Even if it is just a little piece of plastic, it is still vital for our environment. The current misuse of resources, pollution, and the low recycling rate are harmful and not sustainable for the environment, hence the need for practical approaches such as technological discoveries in recycling, reducing, and reusing.
The argument about implementing mandatory recycling is complicated since different countries have different policies and economic interests. However, recycling should be taken more seriously to the point where the law must get involved. Various policies should be implemented to minimize the wastage of resources by recycling and reusing materials. Besides, there is a need to establish multiple manufacturing industries that primarily recycle used products. These industries will significantly reduce the current overreliance on new or natural resources. Recycling saves the planet in many ways, such as preventing global warming due to waste materials and ocean and sea pollution. The quote, “life of humans on Earth is barely beginning, so we still have a big challenge before us,” emphasizes the need to maximize recycling, reusing, and reducing for a better future (Frequent Questions On Recycling). Hence, we must start doing this because recycling will not be an option at some point. Also, we can prevent excessive disposal of waste materials on earth by reusing and reducing the wastage of resources.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, in 1997, 223 million tons of municipal trash were expected to grow by the year 2000. That happened in 3 years! Today there are 25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean floating around, with 18 billion pounds annually. This implies that manufacturing companies’ reliance on recycling, reducing, and reusing might not effectively manage waste and pollution. Instead, the three recycling, reusing, and reducing processes should begin at the individual level. Every person must take responsibility by utilizing available resources, reusing or donating used materials, and recycling materials by any possible means. Waste materials such as industrial waste and hazardous medical waste significantly impact the climate and sea creatures (“Frequent Questions on Recycling”). Knowledge of the effects of waste materials and the importance of recycling should be exclusively published on digital platforms to ensure total awareness. Also, there is a need to innovate additional ways, such as technological discoveries, that will increase the recycling rate, thus outweighing the amount of garbage created. Humankind can make this earth last longer or make it even healthy.
Before understanding the process of recycling, it’s essential to know its benefits. Recycling lowers waste in landfills, slows down global warming, reduces pollution, and converses energy. Most importantly, recycling leads to a conducive and sustainable environment. Reusing is defined as the process of using waste products for other purposes. The other concept is reducing, which refers to minimizing the use of natural resources by adopting renewable resources such as solar energy. In comparison, recycling is the process of converting waste materials into reusable forms. The three processes play a significant role in reducing pollution and minimizing the use of natural resources.
Basically, to reuse, you must reduce and recycle. This breaks it down to mostly reusing and reducing waste. Humans tend to ignore the processes of recycling and its importance to the environment. Besides, many people prefer new goods and would not think of reducing or reusing materials. Reusing a product benefit both the person involved and the environment. You can save money by using used things. For example, you can buy anything from building materials to even clothes. We all know used items will always be cheaper no matter what. For reducing, one can look at products with less packaging. Less packaging means less waste and more saving money. Instead of disposing of used materials, people are encouraged to donate to other people who may need the product. I’m sure some people may need what some people think is useless. For instance, instead of throwing away clothes, books, electronics, and unneeded things, you can donate to vulnerable families.
Do you know what will happen to this earth if we do not recycle? People who do not recycle should be informed of this. Here are just a couple of situations that can and will happen if we do not reduce, reuse, and recycle. First, the most obvious one, landfill sites will become overcrowded with of course trash, plus everything we could have recycled. As much as we would like to believe that the landfills will contain our waste, according to Maureen Ridley, Environmental Chemist, they don’t. It even contaminates are groundwater, so imagine it with way more waste! This will cause it to be a too toxic environment from all the chemicals that come from Styrofoam, paper, and plastic, and many more. Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose. Natural habitats will be destroyed, which can cause extinction for many animals. Trees will be getting cut down faster than they are being grown. For example, the United Kingdom, uses at least 12.5 million tons of paper every year. Just to get one ton of newspaper, you will need 24 trees, which concludes that if you don’t recycle at some point trees that were growing may not grow anymore. Even though earth is all our homes, we wouldn’t like it if people destroyed our cities. It also goes into the water, the oceans which kills at least 1 million sea creatures and mammals every year. This is the main reason paper and wood must be recycled. According to Blackwood Productions, published in 2013, pollution will overpopulate the earth with either air, water, or land pollution. That leads to people not riding bikes, which will lead them to use tvtfnheir cars instead, which will cause a lot of carbon dioxide into the air. And that means the atmosphere will be very damaged and not healthy with all that carbon dioxide. Within only 200 years, humankind has increased the total amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 25% one of the main reasons of that is tearing down forests. Over time if we do not continue to ruse our energy, our non-renewable resources like oil, coal, and natural gases will take longer to form, which will cause us humans to not have what we need for many things. Did you know by just recycling one ton of paper we can save seventeen trees, six gallons of water, and helps produce less air pollution? One ton is not much for as many people as there is in the world. You may wonder, how does paper cause air pollution. Well, the paper that is not recycled is buried in a landfill site. Within time, the landfill rubbish rots, and while it is rotting it produces the dangerous greenhouse gas as we all know is called methane, which leads to our biggest fear, global warming. As you can tell, one problem can lead to basically the whole world dying slowly. Those are only some things that will occur to us, animals, and earth if we do not recycle!
Earth’s population is growing at least 83 million people per year. That means less recycling and more waste will occur. Action is needed now before it is too late. Based on some articles and comments I have been reading, I read that some people do not feel the need to recycle because they feel as if one piece, they will throw away in the trash wouldn’t matter. They basically tell themselves “It is just one bottle,” or anything that is recyclable. They don’t see it do any ‘benefit’ for recycling. Imagine how many people tell themselves that, not even that alone, they probably do it multiple of times. I am even guilty of it. One fact is that recycling one glass bottle could save at least 25% air pollution, and 50% less water. With, you can recycle way more stuff than just paper and plastic. We can recycle things like metal, electronics, and fabrics. It is a good idea to know what things recyclable are before throwing it away. One thing I didn’t know you can recycle before I did research is that garden waste and food can be recycled! Now that I realize it, it. Is the reason why people are asked to separate the waste from the trash so it can make it easier for the people who collect it.
Even though we were all educated on recycling when we were young, we thought nothing of it and still probably feel the same. If we ask ourselves, when will we finally care enough? When it is too late? With, when will we even notice when it is too late? Well, today there are signs and consequences that is happening because of not enough of reducing, reusing, and recycling. Now is the time we realize it before it is too late. Yes, unfortunately, there are consequences that are happening to the earth. Yes, there are many good people that take recycling very seriously, they are the ones who are trying to save this earth, to change the earth. I am afraid to say that is not going to be enough in a couple of hundred years. We need everyone to start helping, but being realistic, our society today is not really the type to do things drastically unless something bad were to happen. We can already notice how the weather is changing around the world. Even though we do not see it happening around us like in our own country, does not mean it is not happening around the world to other people.
It is difficult to state that we are not the cause of what is occurring on this earth. I mean if one is not convinced, all one must do is look around. Action is needed now. People today are trying to spread the word to the government to try to make it happen. Why? Because even us people ourselves are noticing how not reducing, reusing, and recycling is destroying our home. In the long term, we must start doing this because at some point recycling will not be an option. Even though we are mistreating the earth by putting trash on it, we can prevent way more waste not to be waste, reduce it, and reuse. So, what is going to be the result? We will have to find out. All we can do is hope earth is forgiving enough to let us survive it.
Work Cited
“Frequent Questions On Recycling.” United States Environmental Protection Agency. N.p., 1995. Web. 5 Apr. 2022.From. https://www.epa.gov/recycle/frequent-questions-recycling