Question by Jay: Which materials are worthwhile to recycle and which are not?
I’ve discovered that certain things are indeed helpful to the environment when recycled, but there are also certain things that do more harm than good when recycled.
I read that aluminum cans are probably the best thing to recycle. But when it comes down to paper, for example, it’s probably a net loss for the environment (due to all the transporting, sorting, processing, bleaching, re-manufacturing, etc, that must be done to get it back to a usable state).
So basically I’m trying to figure out what items make sense to recycle and which don’t.
Thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by QT Pie
See, all the paper isn’t turned back into paper, sometimes, it’s shipped to china to be turned into clothing and toys. I mean it’s better to have paper recycled than thrown out, so if you wanna take care of the air, put up some more trees in your yard. That’ll take it some of the bad air and dischrage good air.
What do you think? Answer below!
It is worth recycling anything that your community tells you can be recycled. According to an analysis by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality(ODEQ) in 2008, the distance to market does not matter, even for heavy materials like glass. Recycling paper requires less energy to break down the paper fibers than manufacturing wood into paper fibers. It also creates 95% less air pollution because there is less energy and chemicals needed to produce the final product. ODEQ determined that newspaper can move up to 21,000 miles via truck (101,000 miles via freighter – that is more than 4 X around our planet) before the GHG emissions of transportation out-weight the GHG emissions of using virgin materials. SO RECYCLE EVERYTHING that you can!!!!
A very good question.
Yes paper recycling is a net loss for the environment, but it means more trees can be used for wood instead of paper.
Glass is an interesting thing to look at. It’s made from sand and people think sands not going to be in short supply so it must be a net loss. However, the sand is usually dredged from sand bars in the sea.Sand bars act to shelter coastal areas from powerful waves If too much of these sand bars are taken away they can collapse, destroying marine environments and opening up the coastline to erosion. Therefore it makes sense to recycle glass.
Plastic recycling makes sense because the oil it is made of is non-renewable. But it’s not that great for the environment because different types of plastic have to be sorted before they’re recycled, so they ship it off to china (where wages are low)to be sorted.