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Ivonne Ramirez
Mrs. Chambers
British Literature
16 November 2012
“We live in a disposable society. It’s easier to throw things out than to fix them. We even
give it a name, we call it recycling” (Neil LaBute). Knowing the truth about recycling can
change a person’s point of view of the planet, not only environmentally but also socially and
economically. Something very well known about recycling is indeed its symbol. The recycling
symbol represents the three steps of the recycling process: recovery, reprocessing, and reusing.
For many years now from Native American tools to necessities of the World Wars societies have
used concepts of recycling. Recycling was not overly popular until the late 1960s, and that is due
to the fact that people became concerned with the wasted occupation of property by landfills and
how it really damaged the planet. Many think that recycling is a waste of time and money; it
does not help our environment. In reality, recycling has been hard to preserve, but it helps the
nation’s economy, stops the enlargement and future formation of landfills, and most importantly
it saves energy and pollution.
Economically speaking our country is at its worst time, but recycling can help by
producing more jobs, reducing the cost of production, and adding billions of dollars in annual
revenues. People disagree by saying that the process of recycling takes more money than
producing new materials. That is not necessarily true. Recycling paper, for example, saves
money because fewer trees need to be cut down in order to make paper (Recycling 1).
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Furthermore, recycling industries have increased rapidly over the last two decades and thanks to
that, more money has been injected into the nation’s economy. “Recycling produces income that
not only equalizes the cost of recycling facilities but also generates income through tax revenues
for local, state and federal governments” (Thumma). Additionally, the unemployment rate has
been higher than ever. What the nation does not know: recycling can change that percentage and
create more jobs. “Nationally, recycling is responsible for 850,000 U.S jobs and $86 billion in
gross annual sales” (Hutchinson). The reuse of things might be seen as unnecessary, but it is time
for people to realize how it can impact lives in many ways; in the long run, recycling will be one
of the most sustainable and profitable industries of the future” (Recycling 2). At the end of the
road is the people’s choice of how to live, but it would help if they knew that they can start
making a change by simply recycling.
The thought of having more landfills than new houses is overwhelming; recycling fights
against this issue and actually reduces the creation of upcoming landfills. Many people do not
acknowledge that all trash has to go somewhere and that ‘somewhere’ is called a landfill. These
are built in many areas where there were once trees or even neighborhoods. “Recycling doesn’t
only prevent future landfills, but it also prevents the destruction of forests and other natural
resources” (Recycling 1). Logically there are things that can not be recycled, and it is
understandable for them to go to a landfill, but what happens to those that can be reused?
“Recycling minimizes the materials going to the landfill, thereby slowing the growth of landfills
and preserving our land” (Thoughtful). If recycled items are taken away for remanufacturing,
more than half of a landfill can be used for things that really need to be there. “The amount of
trash sent to landfills nationwide averages nearly three pounds daily, per person, in contrast to
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about one pound of recycled materials” ( Thumma). Having this in mind, one can analyze what
should and what shouldn’t be recycled.
“From a green living perspective, the benefits of recycling compared to the drawbacks of land
filling makes recycling an easy decision” (Thumma). God gave the people this land full of nature
to pass on to future generations, but if the world continues with this rapid enlargement of
landfills the only thing that they are going to pass on will be enormous amounts of trash.
Energy is not a natural resource; therefore, it is only a matter of time for it to vanish.
Recycling saves energy by reducing the need to process new materials which requires more
energy than the recycling process. “In all cases products made from recycled materials require
less energy than those made from new” (Kazmeyer). Due to hygiene principles many people tend
to drink water out of plastic bottles. The average percentage of the disposal of plastic bottles is
over the roofs, but what people do not know is that they can recycle them and ultimately save
energy. “Recycled plastic bottles use 76% less energy than the production of new ones”
(Hutchinson, Alex). This statistic might not sound astonishing, but what if annually around 30
billion water bottles per person are recycled, and therefore use less energy to produce new ones.
“Using recycled materials can lower energy costs for manufacturers” (Kazmeyer). Another
essential material that saves the most energy is indeed aluminum. Aluminum cans are the most
commonly recycled material in the nation, and because of that the most energy saver. “Recycling
aluminum saves 92% of the energy required to make the material from scratch” (Kazmeyer). On
the other side of the coin, there are some items that do require the same or even more energy to
recycle than producing raw materials; glass is one of them. According to the EPA, Recycling
glass only saves about 30% of the energy cost of producing new glass (Thomas). Glass may not
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save energy to remanufacture, but finding another use instead of letting it decompose in a landfill
for 1 million years seems like an ideal situation.
Global warming can be a controversial topic, but it is certainly a topic the world needs to
worry about. The production of raw materials releases gasses which create pollution. While
products made using recycling materials generate less toxic pollutants. “The Environmental
Protection Agency estimates that in 2008, recycling reduced carbon dioxide emissions by
approximately 182 million metric tons” (Didier). Chemicals and toxins damage the atmosphere;
therefore, people should be wiser and try to protect it as much as possible because it is part of
their home. Many of the daily-used materials end up in landfills which then take years and years
to break down. During those years, toxic gasses and pollutants are released into the atmosphere
damaging the o-zone layer and many other parts of mother earth. “Landfills produce gases that
hurt not only our environment but our health as well” (Thomas). Oxygen is what keeps humans
alive, and inhaling any other gasses can produce many diseases or other unwanted results.
Cutting trees in order to create landfills is particularly wrong, but letting those landfills release
toxins which damage not only the atmosphere, but also people’s lives seems unreasonable.
Plastic bottles take centuries to decompose, and if they are incinerated, toxic byproducts such as
chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals are released into the atmosphere (Didier). The
process of manufacturing recycled bottles may seem like an inefficient way of reducing the
amount of pollutants, but it is better than letting them decompose and release toxics for centuries.
Global warming has been present for many years, but that doesn’t mean it should be present in
our futures. A way to start reducing it is by recycling. Doing small things with string motivations
can make the difference.
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Overall, it is quite obvious that recycling can help the world in many ways: economically,
environmentally, and sanitarily. Many think it is unnecessary to recycle just because it takes time
and effort to separate trash from one bin to the other. They do not acknowledge that they can
make their own way of living better by doing the simple task of recycling. If the nation produced
more recycling industries, it would not only produce more annual revenues, but it would also
produce more jobs making the unemployment rate go down. Furthermore, it would stop the
construction of new landfills and thus prevent the destruction of many natural habitats that could
have been used as wildlife preserves or even houses for future generations. Past generations were
kind enough to leave the planet clean and healthy, now it is today’s generations turn to keep it
that way for the youth of tomorrow. Having more space for houses than landfills sounds good,
but what sounds even better is the decrease of pollutants being released into the atmosphere due
to the materials in landfills. Those pollutants not only damage the planet, but also damage the
human body and the entire species as well. Producing supplies from recycled items is the key to
everything: saving of energy, money, and reduction of pollution. What the world needs to do is
reinforce recycling and open the eyes of people that think recycling is not worth it, because it
certainly is. Having recycling bins at houses should be required, as well as in any department
store and even schools. There are many recycling corporations out there willing to start a new
future for our world by making it cleaner. It would be pleasurable to go out and smell a fresh air
and not worry about how trash can affect it. Recycling can take that doubt of anybody and start a
new stage in the planets history. Together anything is possible, and it is never too late to
contribute in something that can be beneficial to everyone. Someone needs to let the world know
that recycling could be the answer to many frequently asked questions.
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Works Cited
Didier, Suzanna. "Water Bottle Pollution Facts." National Geographic nod.: n. peg. Academic One File.
Web. 30 Oct. 2012.
Hutchinson, Alex. "Is Recycling worth It?" Science and Technology Collection (nod.): n. peg. Academic
One File. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.
Kazmeyer, Milton. "How Much Energy Does Recycling Save?" National Geographic nod.: n.
peg. Academic One File. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.
"Recycling." Gale Opposing Viewpoints. Gale, 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2012.
"Recycling." U*X*L Science*. N.d. Academic One File. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.
Thomas, Carson, and Mary Bonk, eds. "Recycling Programs." Academic One File. Gale, 1999. Web. 24
Oct. 2012.
"Thoughtful Design." Zero Waste. N.p., nod. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
Thumma, Dawn. "Recycling Instead of Landfills." National Geographic nod.: n. peg. Academic One
File. Web. 30 Oct. 2012