We Need To Start Recycling!

 

“In the US 33.4% of solid waste is either recycled or composted, 12.6% is burned in combustion facilities and 54% makes its way into landfills”(“Welcome to Recycling Facts”, 2008). In this paper we will be looking into recycling and how human waste is affecting the earth in a negative way. More than 50% of the waste that Americans are creating is stored in landfills across the US, and sadly only a third of it is being recycled. What we’ll be looking into is the impact that landfills are having on America and how little recycling is being done to counteract these numbers. With the billions of American people in the United States many of them aren’t worried about pollution and recycling as much as they should be. Instead of recycling their plastics, aluminums, glass, paper and ect. they are simply trashing it all and having it sent to landfills. The truth of the matter is that if more people recycled the amount of energy we could save would be astonishing. In a quote from the website dosomething.org, “About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is only 28%”(“11 Facts About Recycling”, n.d.). These numbers reveal the fact that there are copious amounts of waste that can be recycled but Americans only recycle 28%. We could be saving energy by recycling but instead we are sending almost all of our waste to landfills. Recycling would be able to make a huge impact on America if more Americans made recycling a priority instead of using landfills as a lazy way out.

There are so many good reasons to recycle, and if we made recycling a habit we would be saving tons of trees and energy. What most Americans don’t realize, or care to admit, is that recycling is easy and doesn’t require much effort. It is quite simple to take your plastics and aluminums and put them in recycling bins instead of simply trashing them with the rest of their garbage. Landfills are like giant collections of trash and garbage that most Americans send all of their waste to daily. In an article by Craig Freudenrich, Ph. D., he states that, “American’s generate trash at an astonishing rate of 4.6 lbs (2.1 kilograms) per day per person, which translates to 251 million tons (228 million metric tons) per year”(“How Land Fills Work”, 1998-2010). That is a lot of trash, and more than half of it goes into landfills, and less than a third goes to recycling. Recycling saves energy by reusing materials instead of getting new materials to make things. The most common materials that can be recycled are aluminum, plastic, and paper products. “The average American uses 650 pounds of paper each year – 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was recycled”(“11 Facts About Recycling”, n.d.). Also, “Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil, 4,100 kilowatts of energy 3.2 cubic feet of landfill space, and 60 pounds of pollution,” and, “17 trees saved by recycling one ton of paper can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air each year”(“11 Facts About Recycling”, n.d.). Imagine all of the trees, oil, energy, space, and pollution that Americans could be saving if they recycled more paper and paper products. It would be exceptional better for the environment if Americans tried harder to recycle because less trees would be cut down to make paper.

Plastic products are also materials that are easily recyclable and research shows that, “American use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour”(“11 Facts About Recycling”, n.d.). If you multiple the amount of plastic bottles by the number of hours there are in a day, and then realize that out of those bottles less than a quarter of them are actually recycled it’s very upsetting. Sadly these astonishing amounts of plastics are being sent to the landfills where they are taking up 7.4 cubic yards of space. (2010) All of the waste that Americans are creating brings us to the sad fact that barely any of our waste is getting recycled. In a research done by Environment-Green it tells us that, “By recycling 1 plastic bottle not only saves anywhere from 100 to 1000 years in the landfill but also saves the environment from the emissions in producing new bottles as well as the oil used to produce that bottle”(“Recycling Facts and Benefits”, 2008). This study proves that recycling saves space, oil, and the energy required to create new plastic bottles and plastic products in general. “Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials”(“Why Recycle”, n.d.). Instead of having to acquire new materials, by using old ones you are actually uses far less energy by recycling those materials.

Aluminum recycling is another material that is recyclable, but instead sits in landfills and takes us space. The amazing truth about aluminum is that you can recycle it again and again and again. It is a material that can be broken down and recycled repeatedly because it is a versatile metal, easily melted down, with little chemical output and barely any energy. Incredibly enough aluminum cans will retain their shape for at least 500 years. “Recycling 1 ton of aluminum cans conserves the equivalent of 1,665 gallons of gasoline”(“Welcome to Recycling Facts”, 2008). Plus, aluminum takes up to 400 years to break down naturally which means really bad news for landfills because aluminum is simply going to sit there and decades to come; it will not decompose or deteriorate naturally, it’ll just take up space. Americans use over, “80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year”(“Aluminum Recycling Facts”, n.d.). That data also reveals that out of those billions of cans used every year less than half is actually recycled when in fact every single aluminum can is 100% recyclable. In reality aluminum is one of the easiest materials to recycle and the easiest to re-use and breakdown in recycling factories.

“It takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill”(“Why Recycle?”, n.d.). Glass is a much smaller percentage of human waste that is sent to landfills since glass is easier to recycle and takes 1 million years to break down naturally. Another amazing thing about glass is that glass is able to be recycled an infinity amount of times. “Recycling glass reduces air pollution by 14-20% and saves 25-32% more energy than making glass from virgin raw materials”(“Glass Facts”, 2008-2010). Yet again research shows that recycling saves energy, and reduces pollution. A reoccurring theme to recycling is that it takes far less energy, oil, and materials to re-use recycled materials then it does to use new materials. Glass is one of the only materials that hardly every ends up in landfills because there is such a need for it to be recycled because of safety and the complexity of makes it.

 

There is a lot that Americans need to do to increase recycling, and the good news is that there is data that is showing this increase as the years go on. In a study done by Earth911.com they stated that, “In recent years, the number of U.S. plastics recycling business has nearly tripled”(“Plastic Recycling Facts”, 2010). Although, the most unfortunate facts about plastic is that there are many different types of plastics and they range in their toxicity level. Plastics types range in their capability of being recycled cleanly and safely, to being chemically hazardous in the break down process of recycling. For this reason plastic recycling is slightly less environmentally safe than other materials that are recycled such as papers and aluminum. The fact of the matter is that, when it comes to plastic, Americans need to stop making these hazardous types of plastics and focus more on the safer plastic types so that they can be more recyclable and cleaner for the environment. On the more positive side, “Approximately 8,660 curbside recycling programs exist in the United States”, and, “Disposal of waste to landfills has decreased from 89% in 1990 to 54% in 2007”(“Welcome to Recycling Facts”, 2008). Some good news about glass recycling is that, “Americans recycle nearly 13 million glass jars and bottles every day”(“Facts About Glass Recycling”, 2010). Plus, almost all of the recycled glass that is taken to recycling facilities and is used in creating brand new glass containers. Still, paper is the easiest to recyclable material and is used in creating so many different things that paper recycling is very important. Also, recycling paper saves trees because if Americans re-use paper then there would be no need to chop down more tress. So recycling is getting slightly better and prominent as the years go on. More Americans are realizing that recycling is saving the environment and helping cut down on the use of “newer” materials and instead pushing for re-use of old materials. 

References:

Welcome to Recycling Facts. 2008. September 27, 2010, http://www.recyclingfacts.org/ 

          11 Facts About Recycling. "(n.d.)." September 27, 2010, http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandt

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Earth911.com. 2010. Plastic Recycling Facts. September 27, 2010, http://earth911.com/recyclin

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Earth911.com. 2010. Facts About Glass Recycling. September 27,2010, http://earth911.com/

recycling/glass/facts-about-glass-recycling/

Craig Freudenrich, Ph. D. 1998-2010. How Landfills Work. September 27, 2010, http://www.scie

            nce.howstuffworks.com/environment/green-science/landfill.htm

Recycling Facts – A Recycling Revolution: Aluminum Recycling Facts. “(n.d.).” September

27,2010, http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html

Recycling Facts and Benefits. 2008. September 27,2010, http://www.environment-green.com/ 

Why Recycling? “(n.d.).” September 27, 2010, http://www.headwatersrecycle.com/why.html 

Lehigh County Office of Information Technology. 2008-2010. Glass Facts. September 27,2010, 

http://www.lehighcounty.org/Departments/SolidWasteManagement/RecyclingFacts/Glass/tabid/521/Default.aspx