Question by wetasshit: Is recycling an environmentally and economically sound waste management strategy?
Best answer:
Answer by theace0804
No – its been shown to cost more, and to use more natural resources and energy that simply creating more products – at least aluminum.
What do you think? Answer below!
Yes combined with other strategies. Reuse may also be considered as part of recycling. For example, European countries such as Denmark have refillable bottles: in Denmark, 98% of bottles are refillable, and 98% of those are returned by consumers.
However, in New York, there have been claims that recycling waste is more expensive than landfill although it is obviously much better for the environment.
Recycling is the last thing to do if you cannot reuse your waste (the waste cycle, can’t remember all 5 steps just now)
It is much better than simply throwing your rubbish away and using new materials to create more products. It is definately more environmentally secure as it means less waste and les destruction to create new goods. The same argument applies to economically- with spaces to dump rubbish quickly running out, just disposing of waste costs a lot of money to find new sites etc. as well as the extra money used to cut down the rainforest etc to continue our rate of consumption.
Recycling makes more room in landfills for the stuff we don’t recycle.Oil,paint,house hold chemicals,battery’s etc.
Hell yeah! Most importantly recycling lowers the demand for virgin materials. For example, when a city implements a recycling program for paper this means that many companies buy paper from the city instead of cutting down trees. This is especially important because tons of ‘old growth’ trees are being destroyed in order create things such as writing paper, newspaper, kleenax and toilet paper. Additionally, when a city recycles they cut down on having to transport trees hundreds of miles (costing lots of money for gas) and instead can transport a city’s recyclables to a nearby facility.
Additionally recycling also creates lots of jobs. Furthermore, some companies (such as Abitibi) actually PAY groups (such as individual schools) for their recyclables.
Also, recycling things such as cell phones and other electronics prevents such items from leaking hazardous chemicals into the ground (aka, the groundwater).
Also, recycling prevents the need to use public land as landfill space. For example, many states with poor recycling programs send their trash to michigan to be landfilled.
Environmentally- recycling saves oil, energy, water and landfill space.
Note: A lot of picnic tables and benches are being created by using recycled plastic. Plastic comes from oil. Thus we can decrease our dependance on oil by utilizing recycled materials.
Recycling is one of the easiest things we, as individuals, can do, to help preserve the environment and strengthen the economy. Go for it. Recycle.
Not always. That’s why you hear the phrase, “Reduce, reuse, recycle” You should be focusing your efforts in that order, as that is the order of least to most resource intensive. Recycling is not the environmental cure-all, but it is usually better than simply disposing of certain wastes.
Most recycling activities would not be undertaken if they were not economically feasible. If recycling aluminum was not economically feasible, you would not get any money for cans. Some recycling activities that are not feasible, but are mandated are items such as used automotive components, like tires and batteries. While there are components that can be recycled, it is costly to recover these materials, making them difficult to be economically viable.