Recycling: Is It for Better or Worse? | Teen Ink

Recycling: Is It for Better or Worse?

January 16, 2017
By Ph2245 BRONZE, Hartland Wi, Wisconsin
Ph2245 BRONZE, Hartland Wi, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Do you think recycling is good for the environment? Well kids across the country who will be learning about recycling and why it's good for the earth think it is. But would you believe how much more expensive it is then just throwing the recyclables into the trash and it also is not much better than you think?  


Recycling can be and is a very contested topic because many people have different opinions on the matter. For example, some people will argue that reducing and reusing make sense but recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America and waste to much money compared to just throwing it away. Recycling can also budget problems to the city or county you live in for example “Glass, metal and plastic recycling cost New York city $240 per ton, almost double what it cost just to throw it away.” (Page1) (Abc New Is Recycling Worth The Trouble, Cost?)


But someone might argue that recycling helps save the environment.  Well that may be true to some extent but in a ABC news article they state “it is also a myth that recycling is saving scarce commodities. Taylor alleges are we running out of sand to make glass he asks? no. For paper we create commercial tree farms” (Page 1) (Abc News Is Recycling Worth The Trouble Cost?). So recycling paper and windows is not helping what so ever this is only a few of the many products that don’t need to be recycled.    

            
The last and final reason recycling is not as good as you think is it does not pay in addition to it not paying it is an insufficient use of time money and scarce resources but some might say. What about single bin recycling the answer to that is although it has many benefits like increasing the rates of recycling in households and since you put your recycling in one bin and your garbage in another it all around saves cites money well that may be but it still is more expensive then sorting things before they got to the dump and they also can’t be recycled as well   
In conclusion, recycling is still and always will be a contested topic but if recycling were going to change for the better arguments from other sides should take more action and tell the city. Why single bin recycling is better than just throwing it away but to do this someone must figure out how to lower prices so that recycling plants can stay open so. Do you think you people will help or will it just be another topic that gets forgot about over the years?



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