Reduce, Reuse, React
By A. J. Tripoli
What
is the point of recycling? Honestly. The extent of most people's knowledge on
recycling ends at the fact that there is a different receptacle--well….usually.
My 12 years in the Boy Scouts of America has taught me some interesting
information on the topic that has brought me to care about where my trash goes
and what happens to it. Recycling actually holds a crucial role in society,
believe it or not, so knowing the ins-and-outs is important.
For example, recycling is a
substantial way to save money. Producers of almost any type of plastic, metal
or glass can benefit greatly from the manufacturing of products with reused
materials. The Coca-Cola company, one of the largest companies in the world,
focuses a great deal of its budget into ensuring that their products can be
recycled properly. For most of the twentieth-century, most glass Coca-Cola
bottles in circulation were cleaned and reused. In simple terms, more recycling
equates to less money being poured into the creation of new bottles.
Another
benefit of reusing plastics and other recyclable containers is the effect their
disposal has on the environment. When plastics are not recycled, they are
usually burned due to the lack of landfill space. Both methods, however, are
devastating for the environment. The incineration of plastics releases harsh
airborne chemicals into the air and can impact anything from wildlife, to human
health, to the wondrous Great Barrier Reef, which has been damaged beyond
repair due to carbon dioxide emissions in Australia.
Pollution such as this has also led
to key environmental changes in recent years. Hurricanes in North America have
worsened in recent years due to change in Earth’s climate. Recently, 3 major hurricanes
have appeared in the southern Atlantic ocean, the worst of which, Irma, is so
strong that it wasn't able to be categorized in the standard 5 category rating
system.
This
leads to the big question of how these problems can be avoided. The easiest way
to help is to reach out to local municipalities about recycling. San Francisco,
for example, has a great recycling program. In addition to one general
recycling can per household, local parks and municipal areas can have up to 6
different types of recycling cans, such as paper, plastic, glass, etc. This
saves the cost of sorting each material later in the recycling process. These
bins make recycling easier, more intuitive, and help diminish the amount of
pollution in the environment.
If more major cities implemented the
use of sorted recycling, this would drastically reduce the amount of pollution
to the Earth and money lost in most commercial production. Recycling is not
only easy, but also extremely beneficial to both humans and our environment. Why
should something so simple be so extremely overlooked? There is quite a bit you
can do as a single person to help, and the effort is minimal.
