Has anyone ever thought of the fact that every time someone throws something away, it could be eminently affecting the environment around them? What could people do to prevent that from happening? Recycle. Recycling is to collect products that have no longer become useful to people and transform them into reusable secondary materials that can be fed back into the manufacturing process. Doing something as simple as recycling paper can entail 35% less water pollution and 74% less air pollution. Recycling is an easy step to take to immensely help the environment we live in and people should be making a greater effort to help.

There are many reasons for recycling. One of many reasons is that it ensures the best use of a product. Wouldn’t people want something they paid for to be used to its full potential again and again as opposed to just being thrown out when it can be used again? Recycling additionally saves infinite resources. It requires less energy to be used and is more suitable for our home, planet Earth. Landfill sites also don’t fill up as quickly because the products would be recycled instead of being wasted. Landfills are only temporary solutions for our waste, eventually the liners will leak or break and we would have to remove the waste before it leaks into the soil and water. Many resources are finite and renewable resources aren’t being managed in a sustainable manner. Basically things are becoming more and more scarce and it would be senseless to bury them when it is easy to recycle. Furthermore, of course the best thing to do is to reduce and reuse whenever possible and there would be less need to recycle.

There are as well as a few cons to recycling too. First off, convenience is an issue, who would want to sort out garbage when they can just throw it away? Another con is costly pickups, its using energy to save energy, just like putting a band aid on an infected wound. Mining and deforestation creates jobs, bringing money to the economy. Moreover, recycling some products would be more harmful to the environment then beneficiary. It takes harmful chemicals like bleach, acids, and organic solvents to process paper to pulp than it does working with raw materials. These chemicals could end up finding a way into our water systems and cause problems there. Due to the extra labor needed to process the materials, more energy is used than creating it from scratch.

Thus, how would people feel if they ended up living in a dump because of others constantly wasting products instead of taking the time to recycle and conserve resources? Do something to prevent this from happening, take a little effort and instead of just throwing everything away, try to reuse it. The effect can be found through a window if you open your eyes and take a look around. The garbage you throw away doesn’t exactly go “away”, there is no “away.” We are just burying ourselves in waste and running out of places to put it. Furthermore, ever think about where all the old electronics the big businesses have go? Thousands of outdated computers when flat screens got popular went into lakes, rivers, woods, and landfills. Imagine little kids sitting in the middle of dumps with their hands and feet burned from the acid, wouldn’t you want to do something to prevent that from happening?

Therefore, if something as simple and easy as recycling would vastly help the environment, everyone should make an effort to do it. Even if it was just a small can, it would be a great contribution. Reducing, reusing, and recycling are just three steps toward a healthier environment if everyone made an effort to help.

Bibliography
Chait, Jennifer. “Current United States Recycling Statistics.” Love to know.

<http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/United_States_Recycling_Statistics>
“Recycling Facts.” Oberlin. 2008. Oberlin College Recycling Program.


< http://www.oberlin.edu/recycle/facts.html>
“Recycling Facts and Benefits.” Environment-Green. 2008. Environment-Green.

<http://www.environment-green.com/>