6 Vital Benefits of Recycling

Recycling is a process or an activity that involves collecting and sorting waste materials, processing them to produce fresh and new products and then selling these products to the consumers. If you practice the three R’s of management then recycling becomes very efficient and optimized. The three R’s include Reduce, Reuse and recycle.

It is essential to recycle waste which otherwise goes to the recyclers centers or landfills.  Disposable items like plastic bags and polystyrene is very crucial as they are very harmful to the environment. Reusing the materials increases the usage of the particular item. For example plastic bottles can be reused to make artistic lamp shades, old cell phones can be given off to your friends or relatives and up cycle street dustbins into locality swimming tubs. 

Many people think why waste time recycling. Let us review some benefits of recycling, how it helps in judicious use of resources, saves our environment from harsh side effects, and helps promote sustained living in present and future.

Environment protection
Recycling brings down the quantity of waste that gets deposited in the landfills or burnt in incinerator plants. Landfills with waste materials contain toxic chemicals thereby entering the water system.  Harmful chemicals have been contaminating water supplies all over the world. Solid waste is burnt for the purpose of electricity. But people fail to realize that burning solid waste increases carbon dioxide emission and causes emission of other greenhouse gases.

Conservation of limited resources
Gold, silver, copper and other precious metals like bauxite are finite resources that will exhaust very soon.  Mobile phones, computers etc need steady supply of raw materials. They use materials from used products.

Recycling increases Energy Efficiency
Recycling is very crucial for energy consumption, more than for producing fresh raw material. If this continues, it will reduce the energy costs significantly.  The energy requirement for extraction, processing and transportation of metal from mine to refinery is much higher than the need to recycle metal from used products.  The energy cost to produce fresh new aluminum is greater than make twenty cans of recycled materials. 

Development of a Strong Economy
Reduction in energy cost, increased energy efficiency, material conservation and employment generation help build a stronger economy. Recycling, if carried out on a country wide scale, makes a huge positive impact on the economic condition of the country. Recyclers cost had dipped down in the previous years with the financial crisis. But the prices are back to pre-crisis level. More jobs are being generated and there is a huge saving in electricity, garbage collection and land filling costs. 

Recycling generates Employment 
The amount of job generated out of recycling is more than that of land filling or incinerating waste. It’s a benefit we cannot ignore at a time of fiscal crisis.  Disposal of solid waste, burning them for electricity, dumping them on the landfill and finally processing the waste creates employment. 

Develops Community
Recycling helps to build the community around common issues and activities. In your local community you will find people working together for recycling initiatives making environment lobby and recycling groups. If you are new to the concept of recycling join a local group like this in your community. This will generate a lot of enthusiasm and fun when you have these groups to cheer you up.