For my Issue Exploration Essay I chose to write about recycling and global warming and
how the two kind of go hand in hand. Our earth is not what it used to be anymore and the
human population is taking its toll. We need to take care of the earth if we plan on staying here
a while because the earth can only take so much, and it has about had enough.
The earth two hundred years ago was a completely different place. The air was fresh
and clean and you could go outside without worrying on what you were breathing in. Two
hundred years ago there were plenty of resources to go around with what seemed to be an
endless supply. Animals could live in their natural habitat and they did not have to worry about
coming across plastic bottles overtaking their homes. That is not the case today. Today there
are always air quality advisories and you have to be careful on how much time you spend
outside. Another concern for today is that there are not as many resources as there once was.
There are several ways we can take care of the earth and make a brighter future.
Have you ever thought about how much stuff you throw away, to just carelessly throw a
piece of paper or an empty water bottle in the bin closest to you so you don’t have to get up?
All of those pieces of paper and plastic bottles add up. The EPA (Environmental Protection
Agency) estimates that between 1980 and 2005 the amount of garbage being thrown away has
increased nearly 60 percent. Between 2007 and 2009 the amount of trash has decreased from
255 million to 243 million tons of trash, however since 2009 the amount of garbage has started
to increase again (greenliving.lovetoknow.com).
When it comes to recycling, Americans are not too keen on throwing things in a
different bin, to take the time to sort it out and separate it is too much of a hassle for most.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there was only 82 million tons of trash
recycled in 2009. This included things like office paper, metals, plastics and yard trimmings
(http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com).
It is extremely important to recycle. The things that aren’t recycled can stay on the
earth for years and it effects the environment in different ways. Birds and other small animals
can get stuck in the plastic and small animals eat little pieces of plastic that look like food to
them and it kills them or makes them sick, and all of this garbage that isn’t biodegrading has to
go somewhere. Located in the central North Pacific Ocean is a place known as “Garbage Island.”
This is a huge mass of floating material, mostly compiled of plastic. It is a toxic pile because the
plastic contains a chemical called Bisphenol A, this chemical gets into the water and pollutes
everything around it (cnn.com). This is really scary to think about because this chemical is in
the ocean and can get into our bodies through various ways and the plastic stays in the water
basically forever because it won’t biodegrade, it only breaks down into its original form of little
pellets of plastic. If more people would recycle, there would not be a huge floating island of
garbage in the middle of the ocean that’s larger than the state of Texas.
Some people argue that recycling isn’t worth it. Some say that it takes more energy to
recycle, than it does to just start over fresh. When it comes to recycling there are things that
need to be taken into consideration. There are numbers at the bottom of plastic material for a
reason. Some numbers cannot be mixed or it makes them weaker and is no longer recyclable.
This can ruin a whole batch of plastic being recycled; therefor it was a waste of energy to make
those plastic bottles to have them just be thrown away than to just make new ones (Mills,
Miranda).
A lot of people do not recycle for several reasons. They know that it is good for the
environment but they don’t really care enough to do something about it. Recycling takes too
much “effort”. The cans and plastics need to be separated, it is an extra bin taking up space in
the garage, the things being recycled usually need to be rinsed out before being thrown in the
bin and sometimes there isn’t curb side pickup and the recycling needs to be taken somewhere
to be recycled and some people don’t care enough about the environment to take these steps
in preserving it. They think “Oh it is ok if I don’t recycle this time, because everyone else will
and my one little bottle will not make a difference.” If everyone who thought that recycled that
“one little bottle” there would be a huge difference.
Another big concern in today’s society is global warming. Recycling can help reduce the
amount of greenhouse gasses being produced so therefor it can help lower the rates of global
warming. Recycling 7 million tons of metals reduces greenhouse gas emissions at equivalent of
removing 5 million cars from the road for one year. It is kind of a lot of metal to recycle for a
little difference but it does more than not recycling at all and if all the metal was recycled then
it would start to make a big difference.
A different view on this is that it uses more energy and emits more greenhouse gasses
to recycle than it does to just start over fresh. This is where it tends to get into the
controversial part of the topic. When we just throw away things, a truck comes and picks it up
and it is taken to a landfill and that is the end of it. However when we recycle, an additional
truck has to come pick it up, take it to a factory where time, energy and money is spent there
go through the waste and to run the factory. So therefore, recycling just causes more of a
hassle and uses more energy in the process (empowernetwork.com).
Another point of view is that recycling just doesn’t make a difference at all. Energy still
needs to be used to recycle material, and energy will still be used to make things from scratch,
so either way energy will still be used and recycling won’t make a difference. Recycling kind of
contradicts itself. Products advertise recycling and how important it is so it makes all of these
new labels, but it is just for business. They want consumers to buy more of their product
because of the fact that they will recycle those plastic bottles. Therefore, consumers justify
themselves for drinking more of the product because they’ll recycle it. No one on either end
really cares about recycling for environmental reasons.
I think that there needs to be more recycling and that we need to do more to take care
of our planet. I personally think that global warming would be occurring whether people were
on the earth or not because it goes in cycles. However I do believe that people are causing the
process to speed up and throw everything out of balance and it can cause serious
consequences. I also believe that recycling and global warming are tied together because
recycling reduces the use of energy and reduces how much greenhouse gases are being put into
the atmosphere.