Top 10 reasons why you should recycle

Despite the benefits of recycling being widely publicized in recent years, according to surveys, one quarter of Americans still don’t recycle anything at all. There is a first time for everything, of course, and most people, including myself, can remember when they were lazy and just threw everything in the trash can and let the trash men take it away.

If you are new to recycling, or are unsure about some of the issues involved, or are just wondering whether it is worth all the effort and - I have put together this list of the top 10 reasons why you should recycle. I hope that you find it useful. At the very least, I would hope that you will appreciate after reading it why people like myself believe that recycling is so important and better still, I would hope that would seriously consider recycling more yourself.

1. Trash that is thrown away and not recycled will end up either in a landfill, or incinerated, or will hurt the environment in some other way. The more waste that gets recycled, the less damage is done to the environment.

2. Everybody wins with recycling. It is not just beneficial to the environment and a way of tackling global warming, it is also good for businesses and industry because it conserves energy. That’s because it is cheaper to recover raw materials from recycled waste than go through the damaging and expensive process of extract them from scratch, or by going through the original manufacturing processes.

3. Recycling isn’t just an issue for one country, it is a problem for the entire human race and therefore a worldwide problem. If the human race carries on as it is, we will run out of places to bury the synthetic waste, or do the environment serious damage, as is happening with global warming.

4. Between about 2/3 and 3/4 of household waste is currently recyclable. The more people who get involved recycling, the more resources can be made available for recycling and the more pressure can be put on manufacturers and stores to use renewable materials.

5. Recycling is not just something that a handful of environmentalists should be involved with – it is something that everybody needs to be doing. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that synthetic waste that isn’t recycled is causing serious problems with health, the weather, and the eco-system generally. While it is true that just a few people recycling 50% of their waste wouldn’t make much difference, if the majority of people do it, then it can make a massive difference.

6. The more ordinary people who recycle, the stronger the message to the politicians and leaders that strong action is needed on a national and international level. Ordinary people taking responsibility for their waste makes a political difference, as well as a practical one.

7. Recycling is generally speaking, free. All it will cost you is a small amount of time, sorting your waste into the basic categories and washing out cans and bottles and maybe a minimal amount of fuel for the transport of your recycling boxes and bags to be recycled.

8. Trash pollutes the environment generally. It contaminates the sea and the soil, it can be hazardous for bird and animal life, and it undermines local eco-systems. Recycling is the most responsible way in which trash can be dealt with.

9. Many of the resources that are used to produce products and packaging in the modern world are finite. Plastic requires oil, for instance, and the oil will eventually run out. The sooner and more extensively we can use renewal fuels and materials and then recycle them, the better.

10. You can cut down on the amount of waste that you generate generally, regardless of whether it is recyclable or not, by thinking about the things that you buy. The less plastic packaging a product has, for instance, the less waste there is left over after you’ve used or consumed it.