Question by Heidi H: Is paper recycling really a waste of time and energy?
My husband claims that recycling paper is pointless… My good friend says he is ignorant and I should not listen to him. I am not sure who to believe. I AM currently leaning toward my husband because at least he gave me some points that sound good. My friend’s only “point” is that my husband is ignorant. I am hoping for some more facts to support both sides of this argument so I can form a more educated opinion on the matter.
This is what he says: The work that goes into recycling the stuff causes more pollution than if we put it in the landfill… since it is 100% biodegradable and 100% renewable… Replanting trees causes no pollution. He says the only things we need bother recycle are things that are non-renuable resources that are not biodegradable… Like plastics for example. Using and disposing of paper is not depleting rainforests, because the countries that are doing that are not using the trees to make paper for us – that it is done for reasons such as creating more farm-land. All the paper we use here is from trees that are grown and replanted…
Best answer:
Answer by RomeoMike
Your husband is at least half right. The energy to recycle paper is a factor but taking up space in the landfills in this day and age is also a problem.
Newspaper should be composted or added to building materials like drywall and fiberboard. These are low input energy uses for the recycled paper and have a beneficial effect on the environment.
Add your own answer in the comments!
Yes…I think your husband is right. We can recycle some things…like coke cans, etc….but natural things like trees were created by God….we need to take care of the things He gave us and put us in charge of…not force people to obey one group in control because they are already controlling everyone….think about it…builders, planters, anyone who wants to do anything. It is total manipulation for power and money.
We need to wise up….and throw out the EPA!
I sell paper for a living….a lot of paper…about an 18 wheeler a day.
Almost every bit of that paper has some recycled content in it.
Most of the plastic bottles in this country are made, in part, out of recycled bottles.
Here is one basic concept to counter with or just believe in youself….make your own mind up!!!!
If it was so ineffecient then why are companies using them. In most sectors or the US economy business is tighter than ever. COmpanies are scaling back to the bare bones in ever way…don’t you think that if it wasn’t a responsible action they would find a way around it.
I guess thats one way I look at it!!! Its the responsible thing to do. You will always have people that choose to be lazy…find ways to justify it…and try to get others to agree.
Is it perfect…NO…nothing is….but is it…are you…a caring a responsible person…with regards to this subject!!! Only you know.
Good luck,
Since ALL the electric power used to do the recycling is dirty power, then anything recycled useing the dirty power is therefore dirty as well.
If you wish that power to be clean and support using clean power;
Go to http://www.uspto.gov and enter patent number 5,430,333.
There you will see pollution free electric power able to be built to be more than 1000 times that of our largest Nuclear Reactor!
Plant Vogtle, our last Nuclear Reactor makes only 930 megawatts.
The first generation “baby” power plants from this new technology makes 1000 megawatts.
Vogtle cost $10 billion, 30 years ago.
These new power plants cost $2.5 billion in today’s money.
Vogtle is about to be retired, as are all our other Nuclear plants.
All the fueled power plants only have about a 30 life span.
The power plant design you will see at patent office site live well 100 years.
They burn NO fuel what so ever!
It costs more to demolish a Nuclear plant than to build one new!
The spent Nuclear fuel has a 25,000 year storage problem with no solution yet, and a tremendous cost that defies accurate estimation due to the very long time frame.
Nuclear power has been estimated to cost more $50.00 per kilowatt hour when the demolition and storage costs are applied.
Guess who gets to foot that bill, the tax payer!
Being fuel-less the design you see at the patent office has a cost of about 3 cents per kilowatt hour.
Coal fired power plants make 8 lbs of air pollution to run 100 watt light bulb for an hour.
There are NO cost estimations for the clean up of all that pollution.
We keep seeing in the news about coal miners dieing in cave-ins.
With the high cost of electric power being hidden for so long by our politicians using their abysmally poor judgment to allow this to happen in the first place. Then compounding the problem with their constant lying about it to all of us, and the problem now coming to light despite their best efforts to lie and hide it. We are now stuck with the costs of their abysmally poor judgment after their being “paid” by big power to lie to us about the scope of this problem for decades.
Call all your elected official state, local, and federal. Tell them you want the pollution free electric power you saw at the patent office web site! Tell them to get off their assets and get moving on making pollution free and cheaper electric power happen ASAP!
Or swallow their lies so more until our nation is so polluted our children die younger than ever before. Cancer is running rampant everywhere, it comes from all the pollution our elected officials are allowing to be spewed into “our” environment every day. It time to put pollution into it’s proper place, “THE PAST”!
We now have the technology, we can build it, it’s 100% clean, and the electric power is cheaper than ANY fueled power plant.
Husband’s right. It’s a waste of time and BAD for the environment.
Although the raw material for making paper is predominantly trees, it is a common misconception that recycling waste paper saves trees. Trees are grown for commercial use and harvested as a long term crop with new trees planted to replace those cut down. In addition, papermakers are able to use the parts of the trees that cannot be used in other industries such as construction and furniture making. Different species of trees provide fibers that are used in different types of paper. Coniferous softwoods such as spruce, pine birch and cedar produce fibers which are long (average fiber length is 3mm) and are used to make papers which have a lot of strength. Hardwoods such as birch and aspen do not grow as fast as softwoods and produce short fibers (average fiber length 1mm) which are used for bulky papers such as writing paper and fluting, which is the middle part of cardboard. Nearly all paper is made from wood grown in these “sustainable” forests.
So imagine if you will that we no longer need trees, for anything. What happens to the trees we farm for paper, wood, etc? Well, they get cut down so the owner can do something with the land to make a profit, that’s what. Only the most naïve person believes that owner will just walk away from valuable land and leave it as forest. No, they could grow other crops if possible; build a housing development, a factory something.
As far as landfill, with a few exceptions, we have plenty of landfill space, New York has a problem, but most states don’t have any landfill space issues.
Recycling paper isn’t really environmentally friendly when you consider all the chemicals used to clean, bleach and then reconstruct the paper. True most paper today is printed with environmentally friendly inks, generally soy based, but the paper still needs to be bleached, cleaned, and then put through the process of becoming paper again. Not counting the extra transportation costs.
Try this, get a few tons of paper and call around and see how much you’ll get for it. I wouldn’t bother gathering up the paper I’d just call the recycling center and ask. In New York, the city PAYS $40 a ton to get rid of paper.
In most cases, except for most metals, the paper, glass, etc what you recycle winds up in the same landfill as the rest of the garbage you throw out.
Recycling for the most part is bad for the environment. We have to make special trips to gather up the things to be recycled. Extra trucks on the road, extra people working, and I know of only ONE recycle plan that a city or state has put in place that has made money they only accepted cans, nothing else. In every other recycling plan I’ve ever seen it had lost a lot of money. You only need to look at New York’s recycle department to see that, it has never made any money, nor has it come close to breaking even.
Not only has it not come close to breaking even, but most of the stuff winds up in a landfill. New York could shut down their recycling program and save their taxpayers a lot of money or they could only accept cans, and make money.
But if it makes you feel good go ahead and recycle, just don’t think it’s the best thing for the environment.
Your husband is wrong. Too many variables to explain why. But one small point recycling a ton of paper saves 17 trees. Trees take a long time to grow and offset Global warming to some small degree.
Your husband is neglecting a few critical points.
1) It takes a long time for trees to grow. The more paper we recycle, the fewer trees need to be cut down to make new paper, and this gives newly planted trees more time to grow and replace the cut down trees.
2) Making new paper from recycled paper uses 30-50% less energy than making paper from trees and it reduces contributions to air pollution by 95%.
http://www.buyrecycled.com/questions.htm
So no, recycling paper is certainly not a waste of time and energy. In fact, it saves energy.
There’s a whole lot more pollution emitted from logging trucks than recycling paper. So if your worried about the environment than recycling anything that’s recyclable is the better choice. Plus it cost a lot of money to replant trees and where do you think that comes from? Yep TAXES!!!!
It takes more energy to make new paper, than it does to recycle paper. In many parts of the USA, landfills are full and there is no room for more paper. In a perfect environment, paper degrades quickly, but landfills are not the perfect environment. There are newspapers in the NYC dump that are still readable after 100 years.
Recycling is a patriotic imperitive. If you support our troops and don’t want them fighting unnecessary wars, you will recycle. If you love your children, you will recycle. Besides, it lowers your taxes.