Recycling is one of the best ways to help the environment as it is part of the three R’s of ecology. The importance of recycling is increasing every year with the growth of the world’s population and the consumption of products that are becoming less durable. You can be part of the solution by talking to your acquaintances and explain the benefits of recycling.
1 – Recycling reduces consumption and waste.
We consume a lot and waste a lot, and consumption as much as waste is increasing with the growth and modernization of the world population
99% of the products we buy end up in the trash can in less than half a year.
Of all the resources consumed by the 7 billion people on the planet, 312 million people in the United States consume 25%.
On average, each person in the United States generates more than two kilos of garbage each day. Although 75% is recyclable, less than 35% is recycled. A large part of the waste that is not recycled ends up in the sea, causing problems for marine life and finally accumulating in our bodies when we consume seafood.
If all the wood used in the annual construction of new homes in the United States were put in a line, it would have an extension of nearly 5 million kilometers, enough to make six and a half trips from Earth to the moon.
2 – Recycling saves natural resources.
Every time you recycle a product, you save the same amount of material that would be needed to make a new one. This is very important because normally the processes used to obtain the virgin materials are very harmful to the environment and sometimes to people as well. For example, mines with different types of metals affect geological structures and often contaminate surrounding soils and bodies of water, which harm the health of people living and working in the area.
Every time you recycle an aluminum can, you save the amount of gasoline equivalent to half of the same can. As you read this sentence, 100,000 new 12-ounce cans (350 ml) are made. If we recycle all these cans, we avoid the waste of 18 thousand liters of gasoline.
In 2001, the energy required to replace all unrecycled aluminum cans in the United States was the equivalent of 16 million barrels of crude oil, sufficient to meet the energy needs of all homes in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, San Francisco and Seattle. And that aluminum cans represent only 1% of the total solid waste in the United States!
Each ton of recycled paper saves 17 ten-meter trees and saves 26,500 liters of water plus 1,440 liters of oil.
3 – Recycling reduces our dependence on oil.
Normally less energy is needed to make a product of recycled material than of a virgin material.
Making a recycled aluminum can requires 95% less energy than making a new can of bauxite, a mineral that is used to make
aluminum.
Each ton of recycled paper represents an energy saving of 4,100 kWh.
The amount of paper that is thrown every year in the United States is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
4 – Recycling reduces pollution.
The incineration and decomposition of material in the spillway creates greenhouse gas emissions.
The United States produces 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If everything were made up rather than thrown away, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be the equivalent of eliminating more than 2 million cars.
Each ton of recycled paper removes approximately 30 kilos of air pollutants.
5 – Recycling saves money and creates jobs.
Once the necessary infrastructure is in place, recycling is the most economical method of waste management for municipalities due to the large market that exists to sell recycled materials to wholesale.
Some recycling plants process 135 tons of material per hour.
Many materials such as aluminum and glass can be recycled several times, thus, multiplying the benefits of recycling..
