Do a little research on FLOATING GARBAGE DUMPS the size of TEXAS no less .. there's one in the Pacific Ocean. Becoming aware of this ONE thing was what finally turned me into a recycler of ALL plastic and metal and MOST glass and cardboard. I was in my 40's when I started .. better late than never. I just didn't think it would really make a difference before that.
It's horrifying to say the least .. WHO actually thought dumping garbage into the ocean was a good solution?????
Think of what YOU throw away in a week and multiply that by the millions of people in this country alone.
If no one in the world ever recycled, the world would be in great danger. Without recycling, there is the risk that our homes and habitats could be destroyed, we may not have any more everyday resources, and people could die of toxic gases and even the horrible stink of trash.
Experts warn that by the year 2018 at the latest, the United Kingdom will have run out of space to bury its waste. Recycling is a method of reusing materials already created in the world. The effects of not recycling are detrimental to our environment and our health.
Products that are not recycled are redirected to landfills where they are kept in the hopes that they will disintegrate back into the earth.
As an excess of garbage develops in landfills, the smell of the trash can be toxic which can be dangerous to the lungs of humans, eventually causing death. Scientists also think the waste in landfill sites are responsible for releasing 700 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air.
If people don’t recycle, the earth’s water will be dirty with all the garbage, leaving people with nothing to drink.
The most important reason to recycle is most probably because if people don’t recycle, everyday resources will soon disappear. If everyday resources become scarce, prices for the products would go up.
Since the waste going to landfills emits greenhouse gases, the greenhouse gas emission would increase, which would pollute the environment.
Another issue is that when people don’t recycle they incinerate, which means that it is burned to ashes. The ashes produce a toxic gas, which pollutes the air.
The ozone layer is another problem in not recycling. The ozone layer protects the environment from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. The fumes that are released from the trash go into the ozone layer, which can diminish it. Without the ozone layer, the ultraviolet rays can cause lung damage to humans and can even destroy the environment.
The effects of not recycling can be very dangerous to the eco system and to the health of all living things. That’s why it is very important to recycle. :) :)
Hi Nancy,
It is not at all waste of time. In fact it is very important to recycle to save our ecosystem. The practice of not recycling badly effects our environment. If people don't recycle ;
1- The earth’s water will be dirty with all the garbage, leaving people with nothing to drink.
2- Everyday resources will soon disappear and thus prices for the products would go up.
3- Waste going to landfills emits greenhouse gases which pollutes the environment.
4- When people don’t recycle waste is burned to ashes. The ashes produce a toxic gas, which also pollutes the air.
5- The fumes that are released from the trash go into the ozone layer, which can diminish it and destroy the environment.
Lots of interesting answers. Recycling in and of itself doesn't really help the environment. Erosion, weather, water tables, etcetera will go unfazed by recycling habits. Most recycling happens so that materials can go right back into the materials stream. Aluminum is the most recyclable material on earth. Once it has been extracted and processed, it is very easy to reuse over and over again. The hardest part has already been completed and it is better to have it reused than to sit in a landfill doing nothing and requiring more of the initial investment to go back to the beginning. It isn't good business to always go back to cutting down trees or constantly producing more plastics. Lots of things are very recyclable and might as well be used and used until all usefulness has been sucked out.
There are some things, like glass on occasion that ends up back in the landfill after recycling. But big business knows the advantage to reusing existing materials and is doing it more and more each year.
What happens if we cut down every tree on the face of the earth? No oxygen. No air means no people.
It isn't a waste of time. It is a good practice.
A reporter for the New York Times reported that it was simply filling up a different landfill, but companies for the most part found it was cheaper to just use new metal and wood than to use recycled, and so what we're really doing is just separating our garbage with one pile of stuff we might never use as technologies make that obsolete.
Have you ever followed the recycle truck to see where it goes?
It goes to the same place the other truck of non-recycle place goes...into the landfill. Ha.
Recycling has five main purposes:
1. Reduce raw material use. To mine for more steel or aluminium cans, to drill for more plastic bottles, to log for more paper, it all requires destroying some natural area.
2. Reduce energy use. Now that you have iron ores, cut trees, and drilled oil, you need to transport it, refine it, and process it so that it can be used to melt into a can, pulped into paper, or formed into a bottle. From sourcing to producing to transporting, it all uses water and energy, and releases pollutants.
3. Reduce landfill use. For every newspaper, can, or bottle tossed, it goes into an incinerator helping produce wonderful asthma and emphysema, or goes into a pit in the ground where it will lie for a couple thousand years, surrounded by toxic chemicals that were tossed carelessly. It takes energy to truck the garbage to wherever it ends up, too.
4. To reduce financial costs. Simply put, buying Saudi oil or Kenyan iron or Brazilian trees costs money, and it costs more to ship it. If you can harvest paper from a recycling plant, or steel from a smelter, it saves money and keeps jobs here.
5. To encourage sustainability. People that recycle feel as though they've done something. If you can create a source of raw material from what would be garbage, what else can people do?
If we will not recycle it will result more global warming which in turns destroy our earth...
Recycling also saves lots of energy as creating new thing takes more resources than recycled one's...
So start recycling... It's not waste of time... Save Earth..
An efficient system of recycling is good for the environment. Communities that send around a separate truck to pick up your newspaper and drink bottles are destructive to the environment.
As the first answer pointed out, your garbage goes to a center where things that are economical to recycle are usually pulled out. Even if you don't believe you are recycling, they recycle much of your garbage for you. Often it is a waste of time and is more about the ritual of recycling that leftist want you to engage in so you can feel like you belong to their cause. They need you to believe their garbage about garbage or AGW (both are garbage) so that you give them money and vote for their propagandists.
we shouldnt focus on what the consequences would be, instead we must focus on how to prevent those consequences.
we should all encourage whether at home or in the workplace to recycle as much as possible. some companies provide recycle and biodegradable products. by shopping at this type of companies you can save 87286 Trees and about 69,367,156 Gallons of Water!! here is a good site: http://www.shoplet.com/shop-green/
also they offer a biodegradable binder here: http://www.shoplet.com/Binders/recycled/...
when I read about it, it only takes 2-4 years for it to decompose depending on environmental conditions as opposed to 400 years which is what it takes an average binder!! small changes like this really do help it is all of our responsibility to make recycling catch on!
I never recycle. Just seems like a waste of time to do it.
Animals die from so much waste and people get sicker and sicker and die off slowly and all the plants get sick and turn brown and the earth is slowly shrinking and will one day turn into a black hole if you don't recycle
