• Question: what is the improtance of recycling and if we don\\\'t recycle what are the effects

    Asked by missxdonia to Jon, Sharon on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      hi missxdonia,
      Simply speaking, waste is anything discarded, rejected, surplused, abandoned, or otherwise released into the environment in a manner (or quantity) that could have an impact on that environment. There are several reasons why recycling are important…

      The first of them is, Recycling Saves Energy
      When we use things over and over, or find different uses for them, that is less manufacturing that needs to be done, that is less waste, and less of a problem to find out where to put that waste. Did you know electronics such as old computers, televisions, radios, speakers, make up the bulk of our waste.

      Technology is changing at such a rapid pace that we are contiuously buying the ” new product”, to stay ahead of the trend. And where do you think those old computers
      stereos, ipods go? Right to the rubbish, where there are piles and piles of peoples ” yesterday’s coolest gadgets”.

      Second, Recycling Saves Environmental Conditions and Reduces Pollution. How does it do this? Simple, Did you know when companies produce products, it takes energy, and what fuels that energy causes emissions into our air methane, sulphur dioxide, carbon-dioxide. Reducing the amount of emissions into our air, gives us a better environment to live in.

      Third, Recycling Saves Natural Resources. If we use our old products over and over again, it saves us from having to dip into our environmental resources. We only have so much of them. If we can be a bit frugal with our natural resources, and use what we have already made. This will allows us to stay rich in enviroment. Not to mention save you at home a few pennies in your pocket.

      Fourth are the economic benefits we get from recycling. When we recycle, it saves tons of money on production for new materials. If we can spend less money producing new products and spend more time taking care of what we already have. Our enviroment will thank us for it.

      Lastly, Recycling saves space. Have you ever driven by a land fill? It is unimaginable the amounts of garbage and waste we creat as a society. Most of the landfill sites are filled up with a lot of waste products that could have been recycled effectively. Some of these waste materials belong to non-biodegradable category which takes a long time to decompose.

      If we spent more time figuring out how to make our old products new again, we would create more space for schools, playgrounds and parks, and not have to use this space to create dumps. Not to mention how unheathly it is for the residence who live around these areas of landfills.

    • Photo: Jon Copley

      Jon Copley answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      Recyling is important because it can save energy – it usually takes less energy to recycle something, rather than make a new one from scratch. Using less energy means putting less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (because we make most of our energy from burning fossil fuels at the moment), so that would help to tackle global warming.

      But recycling is also important because if we didn’t recycle, we’d soon be buried under our own rubbish! Most of the rubbish that we don’t recycle goes to “land fill” sites – basically, a big pit where it is buried.

      Eventually, some of it breaks down (but it can take centuries for things like plastic to degrade), but the problem is, we’re still making even more rubbish in the meantime.

      And we’re running out of space for land-fill sites. So if we don’t recycle more, where are we going to put our rubbish? (And if anyone says “dump it in the oceans instead”, I will personally brain them – it would wreck the web of ocean life, on which we ourselves depend). So the smart thing to do is to make less waste in the first place – and recycling helps us do that.

Comments