Question by kd5910: How does recycling help the environment?
What does recycling do to help?
Best answer:
Answer by callmemonu
by making less of the harmful stuff available (since its recycled)
or re use of stuff that is scanty, limited
Add your own answer in the comments!
Recycling helps in lots of ways that might surprise you. Aluminum cans for example, are made from ore that is mined in large open pit or strip mines. The overburden from the ore deposit is stripped off and stored so it can be replaced, but it still disturbs the hydrology, the biological organisms that lived there, and takes decades to recover even if restored properly.
Aluminum smelting is one of the most energy intensive refining operations that exists. Refining aluminum takes large quantities of energy, typically from fossil fuels.
Recycling aluminum saves or reduces these impacts, besides saving a non-biodregable material from filling up the landfill. Recycling all other metals has a similar benefit.
Recycling glass has a similar energy benefit. Each tonne of glass recycled saves about 315 kg of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere from refining operations.
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Glass.htm
Recycling paper saves forests, but it also saves electricity, water, and air pollution. Recycled paper takes between 28-70% less energy than making new paper. Contrary to what some believe, recycled paper is not re-bleached and when it is less hazardous forms of oxygen are used instead of chlorine, which reduces the amount of pollutants like dioxins created by paper manufacuture.
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/paper.htm
Plastic manufacturing uses about 8 percent of the world’s oil consumption. Recycling that reduces oil consumption, energy consumption, reduces landfill space, and reduces several air pollutants like sulphur dioxide. Recycled plastics can be used in clothing, construction materials, and various other applications.
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm
It doesn’t really help, actually. Penn and Teller’s show on Showtime called BULLSHIT! investigated it and it actually pollutes the atmosphere more and does more damage per item then starting from scratch. Only tin is worth recycling.
Two main ways: anything manufactured from recycled materials is therefore not being manufactured from new materials, some of which are non-renewable resources such as petroleum. Secondly, anything recycled is therefore not thrown into a land fill. The land fills get full way fast enough with things nobody can imagine recycling.
There are also important ways recycling helps the economy. When you find a creative use for something that would otherwise go to waste, you are creating wealth. The person who manufactures it makes money, the person who sells it wholesale makes money, the person who sells it at retail makes money. There’s a very good chance it is less expensive than a similar thing made from new materials, so the person who buys it pays less, and saves money. All that money then gets spent on other things, and the people who manufacture and sell those things make money, too. (The same goes for people who offer services which are paid for with this “new money.”)
We call this a win-win situation: nobody loses.
When you recycle (paper for instance) you are having old papers be used again (though they look new). When you do that you are making less trees be cut down. Which is making there be more oxygen on Earth (because trees take in Carbon dioxside and “breath” out oxygen and we do vise versa). So, it all ends up helping us and the environment.
It lowers the amount of waste. Also need less resources, aluminum comes to minds as well as glass.