Why Recycling is Important

Every day you produce, on average, 4.51 pounds of waste. You probably

provide garbage in more ways than you realize, and I believe that businesses are

partially to blame. While you may be a great recycler and your house may have an

efficient low garbage output, your workplace probably does not. The human population

is growing, and meanwhile, the earth is not. Our resources are not unlimited, and for a

sustainable future to remain possible, efficiency is key. Society as a whole must either

learn to recycle or learn to live without the things that we have wasted. That is why it is

essential for us to recycle so that our resources will continue to last into the future.

In the most basic sense, recycling is separating out useful materials from regular

garbage, then processing them back into raw material, which can be reused in new

products. Easily recyclable waste products consist mostly of disposables. Plastic

containers, paper, cardboard, glass, aluminum cans are just some of the general

categories. While the earth won’t run out of meatal any time soon, the crude oil used in

plastic is a different story. Crude oil used to make everything from jet fuel to plastic

forms deep in earth crust over millions of years, so once it’s gone, it’s gone. The trees

used in making cardboard and other paper products are a similar story. While wood for

paper is technically renewable because forests can grow back, this still takes in some

cases hundreds of years and is nowhere near fast enough for our current usage speed.

That is where recycling comes in. The total generation of municipal solid waste

(MSW) in 2017 was 267.8 million tons or 4.51 pounds per person per day. (The EPA,

2017) Of that waste, almost 50% was recyclable, meaning that up to 50% of our
standard everyday garbage could be constantly recirculated, essentially eliminating the

need for new resources to be used on those products. In 2017, about 139.6 million tons

of MSW were landfilled, and of that amount, “plastics accounted for about 19 percent

while paper and paperboard made up about 13 percent”. (The EPA, 2017) These are

easily recyclable materials that are being thrown away simply because people don’t

care. On top of that, processing recycled material is far more efficient energy-wise than

making a new product. For example, it takes 96% less energy to recycle aluminum,

21% less energy to recycle glass, and 76% less energy to recycle plastic. (Hutchinson,

2017)

Another way to preserve the planet for future generations is by minimizing CO2

emissions to reduce global warming. Recycling just so happens to help with that too. In

2017, recycling, composting, and combustion with energy recovery saved “over 184

million metric tons of carbon dioxide” from being released into the atmosphere. (The

EPA, 2017) This is comparable to the emissions that could be reduced from taking over

39 million cars off the road in a year.

Most people know about recycling and the saying Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but

the thought process rarely extends beyond that point. What many people forget about

are the waste products that don’t end up in their garbage can. For example, the

emissions you generate, the garbage you produce at work, and away from home, and

the waste you indirectly help produce by taking advantage of services provided by

others. Even the most devoted waste management at home cant make up for waste at

work. Most businesses produce orders of many times more garbage per person than a

household.
 I think some times too much responsibility is laid on the general consumer for

society’s garbage production. Some of the blame should be focused on businesses and

especially big businesses with the money to care less about their waste. At our current

garbage production rates, it would only take “another 20 years to run through the

landfills that the U.S. has already built”. (Hutchinson, 2017) We are producing garbage

so fast we can hardly figure out what to do with it.

The two main places that come to mind when discussing wasteful business

practices are fast food places and hospitals. The problem with hospitals is so much of

what they use is all one time use disposable products. I concede that there are some

good arguments for this, mainly sanitation, but there have to be better ways to do some

of this stuff. Like in some cases, even things like blankets are considered disposable

and are often thrown away. Surely with all of today’s modern technology, there is a way

to reduce some of this waste. I mean, there are people in the world who die every day

from exposure, yet American hospitals still throw away blankets instead of just washing

them.

The thing with fast food places and restaurants, in general, is both food waste

and packaging waste. The waste that happens during commercial food preparation is

astounding, and the fancier the food, the more waste there is in the process of making

it. In 2017, about 139.6 million tons of MSW were landfilled. (The EPA, 2017) Food

was the largest component at about 22 percent. While food is obviously not recyclable,

it is still quite valuable and is a shame to throw away because it would be a luxury to

many. And then there’s the fast-food packaging. When I go order some chick-fil-a, I

almost end up with more paper product waste than I had actual food. When you get
your sandwich, it's in a paper wrap, in another paper wrap, in a box that is inside of a

bag, which is right next to your disposable paper cup, I mean how hard it could be to

just use re-useable materials. For takeout, you can have chain specific gear like the

giant souvenir cup you can get for cheap drinks at the movie theater. Then you could

even charge extra to people who forget their re-useable cup and need to get a

disposable one. Why hasn’t anybody developed systems like this?

The alternative to learning to recycle and manage waste is learning to change

how we live and function as a society. Should we choose to continue, not recycling the

earth will eventually run out of the materials to make plastic and many other things. For

example, construction and architecture as we know it will change forever once there are

no more forests to get wood from. Without plastic you cant have fancy cars or T.V.s or

shoes or even your toothbrush. A world with no more plastic would alter life as we know

it, and this is why I say recycling is necessary.

The current problem with our recycling system is its high levels of contamination.

That is when there is standard garbage, food, dirt, and other impurities mixed in with the

recycling that makes it unusable, and that is part of why so many people don’t believe in

it. One thing everyone agrees on is the importance of educating the public about how to

recycle cleaner” says Erica Evans from the Deseret News. (Evans, 2019) People would

be outraged if they knew that “more than 40 percent of what Wasatch Front residents

put in their recycling bins is being thrown away” because of contamination. (Evans,

2019) This is just one of the many challenges holding recycling back from what it could

be. Look where our society is with computers. Imagine if the computer scientists that

designed all these amazing machines let a few challenges get in their way.
 Often recycling is marketed like it’s this one fits all solution to our garbage

problems and as a feel-good cover-up for how wasteful we are. The part everyone

always forgets is the saying goes: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reducing and reusing

things you would normally throw away is the step that should always be taken before

recycling and people far to often skip that. For example, say you recycle an empty milk

jug on your way to buy your mother flower pots for Mother day. Instead, you could have

cut that milk jug in half and used it as a flowerpot. That’s how reusing and reducing your

waste works.

So, in conclusion, most people’s awareness of their own waste is remarkably

low, which is a major contributor to the problem. Another part of the problem is peoples

general unwillingness to change. Just based on the science and the numbers, it seems

clear that recycling must become common for things to continue as they are now. In the

coming future, society must adapt and evolve. Developing an industry of recycling is

the step toward the future that I would recommend.

References

Evans, E. (2019, May 30). Do you know where your paper and plastic go? How China

caused a recycling crisis in America. Retrieved from

https://www.deseret.com/2019/5/30/20674781/do-you-know-where-your-paper-and-

plastic-go-how-china-caused-a-recycling-crisis-in-america
Hutchinson, A. (2017, November 14). Is Recycling Worth It? PM Investigates its

Economic and Environmental Impact. Retrieved from

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a3752/4291566/

Jenkins, R. R., Martinez, S. A., Palmer, K., & Podolsky, M. J. (2003). The determinants

of household recycling: a material-specific analysis of recycling program features and

unit pricing. Journal of Environmental Economics & Management, 45(2), 294.

https://doi-org.hal.weber.edu/10.1016/S0095-0696(02)00054-2

National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling. (2020, March

13). Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-

recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials

Schrage, S. (n.d.). The new rules of recycling. Retrieved from

https://www.ksl.com/article/46360305/the-new-rules-of-recycling

Semuels, A. (2019, March 6). Is This the End of Recycling? Retrieved from

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/china-has-stopped-accepting-

our-trash/584131/

Talamo, L. (2020, Mar 10). Are you recycling or wish-cycling? Yakima recycling

volunteers share stories. TCA Regional News Retrieved from

https://hal.weber.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.hal.weber.edu/docview/2375501135?accountid=14940

Worrell, E., & Reuter, M. (n.d.). Handbook of Recycling. Retrieved from

https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/handbook-of-

recycling/9780123964595/XHTML/cover.xhtml