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Alexis Blackmountain
July 23, 2008
Nathan Cole
Position Paper
Rethink, Recycle, Reuse
Pollution is destroying our earth and effecting our environment. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency each person creates about 4.7 pounds of waste every
single day. (EPA) In the U.S. 33.4% of solid waste is either recycled or composted,
12.6% is burned in combustion facilities or 54% makes its way into landfills. Pollution is
caused by material things that we use from earths natural resources to benefit our
productivity and profit. Although the human population is producing material things
needed for survival, they are not renewable from the earth’s standpoint, but can easily
be recycled. Many Americans have already practiced recycling, but pollution is still a
serious manner. Recycling will ensure less pollution, help the earth and effects the
future. Let’s start recycling today for less garbage to deal with tomorrow.
Tons of wastes are just thrown in the garbage cans everyday. These wastes
include household items such as paper, packaging, food scrapes, old toys, old chairs,
old microwaves, lamp shades, blue jeans and books. These wastes usually end up in a
landfill. If instead we were to recycle these household items we could have them
restored and reused. Other items such as plastic bottles, aluminum cans or glass
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bottles should be recycled. According to the National Recycling Coalition “ An
aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can five hundred years from now, but if
you were to recycle that same can it will be back on the grocery shelf as a new can in
as little as sixty days”. (Edwards, Ciele) Pollution becomes a hazard when chemicals
and other foreign substances leech into the ground, air and water. These pollutants will
affect the ecosystem and the living creatures that live around that area.
People contribute to pollution through throwing away there soda cans and other
materials. Although people have started collecting aluminum cans as a way to profit or
make money. According to the Environmental Protection Agency estimates “So many
aluminum cans account for less that 1% of the total U.S. waste stream. If people
recycled without trying to profit we can achieve the same results with other materials
such as plastic bottles, glass jars or grocery bags, etc. Recycling will save everyone
years in environmental harm from production of new materials, over crowded landfills
and the depletion of our natural resources. According to the National Recycling
Coalition ( NRC) an estimated eighty million Hershey’s kisses are wrapped each day,
using enough aluminum foil to cover over fifty acres of space, that’s almost forty football
fields. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it. Another fact that the NRC
shared is a single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to
two million gallons of fresh water. Also motor oil never wears out, it just gets dirty. Oil
can be recycled, re-refined and used again, reducing our reliance on imported oil. This
just goes to show how people imprint there carbon foot print. Carbon foot print is ones
imprint on the environment in the form of pollution and consumption. Some of these
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materials are non renewable from the earths standpoint, but can easily be recycled and
reused.
The numbers of landfills in the United States are decreasing while their size is
increasing. In 1998 there were eight thousand landfills, but only one thousand seven
hundred and fifty in 2007. Facts from the National Recycling Coalition (NRC) state this:
To produce each weeks Sunday newspaper, five hundred thousand trees must be cut
down. A comment made by Recycling Revolution stated that “If you had a fifteen year
old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you’d get about seven hundred of them. A
busy supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! In one year a supermarket
can go through over six million paper bags. Imagine how many supermarkets there are
just in the United States. The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood
and other products made from trees. This amounts to about two billion trees per year”
To ensure a clean safe environment, means being aware of what you are using.
If there is a recycling label on the plastic bottle recycle it, if you are not sure what can be
recycled there are sites such as google.com which can list numerous places to obtain
information. There are lots of ways to be “green” and reduce your carbon footprint. All
material things impact our pollution and consumption. Although some things are nonrenewable from our earth, they can easily be recycled and reused.
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References:
Edwards Ciele “Future effects of pollution” June 14, 2011
Environment green
Environmental Protection Agency
National Recycling Coalition