Recycling Facts and Benefits

Most of us have a basic idea about recycling used products like paper, plastic, steel, aluminum, glass and many other materials. Did you know that an average adult human produces around four pounds of trash in a single day? With the world population soaring at an alarming rate, there will be a proportional increase in the amount of trash produced by humans. What will happen, if all this trash accumulates in landfills. Most of the waste materials like plastic and glass, take hundreds of years for natural degradation. Apart from causing space constraint, such trash will also cause negative impact on the environment. Recycling is one of the most effective solutions for this problem.

Facts About Recycling

With the ever rising human population, there is an increase in trash production too. While in some regions, this trash is either burnt or buried, in some other parts, the waste materials are transported to the landfills, that have been overflowing for years. Either way, environmental and health problems caused by these trash are unavoidable. Is there any way out? Yes. Recycling can reduce the amount of trash drastically, thereby, reducing the environmental impact. Recycling involves the collection of waste materials that can be recycled and manufacturing new products out of these trash. Most of the non-biodegradable materials can be recycled to produce new products.

Recycling of biodegradable materials has its own benefits. While used paper is a biodegradable waste that may not cause any harm to the environment, recycling such paper can save thousands of trees. Studies show that around 500,000 trees are required to produce the Sunday newspapers for a single week. Recycling the Sunday newspapers (for one day) of a single newspaper can save around 75,000 trees. From this example, you might have understood the magnitude of the environmental impact caused by the massive production of materials like paper, plastic, glass and metals, and the trash generated once these materials are used and discarded.

Recycling Benefits

Now, you know that recycling is beneficial in tackling the increasing amount of trash. However, the real benefits lie in curbing the environmental impact and economic gains. One of the important benefits of recycling is its positive impact on environment. Apart from decreasing the space constraint in landfills, recycling non biodegradable materials reduces the problems caused by accumulation of waste on the Earth. Another benefit is that recycling saves a major part of energy required for manufacturing new materials. Even the raw materials required for this process can be saved.

For example, 40% of petroleum consumption can be reduced through plastic recycling, thereby reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by burning petroleum. You may get surprised to know that each ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees. The energy saved through recycling a plastic bottle is sufficient to light a bulb for three to four hours. 95% of energy required for making aluminum products from raw materials can be saved by recycling used aluminum. The percentage of energy conservation varies with other products. It is 40% for glass recycling, 60% for steel and 40% for newspaper. With the limited natural resources and increasing demand, recycling is one of the options that is worth a try.

Apart from the environmental benefits, recycling has various economic aspects too. You can also get paid to recycle. Most of the waste materials like glass bottles, steel, newspaper and plastic bottles, can be sold and you can earn some money. While you can earn profits by selling these materials, the manufacturer of recycled products can also enjoy some profits, as he can save the expenses that would have incurred for making original products. So, stop throwing recyclable materials as trash. Contribute to the global efforts towards recycling and thereby saving our environment.