Why Recycling Is Worth

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Recycling; Is It Worth It?
For most of America, recycling has become a way of life. For some, it is a valiant effort to take charge of our waste and do what is right for the environment and for future generations. For others, it is a forced mentality by government agencies or private businesses who attempt to prove their value by self-promoting their commitment to environmental responsibility. Recycling, in theory, is a positive effort; however, massive recycling programs are not the answer. Recycling programs in general lack an intelligent way to a means, since the costs and environmental burden may outweigh the desired result. Recyclers should only focus on materials that they can process in a cost effective way, and consumers should focus …show more content…

People want to feel good about themselves by expressing a devotion to their environmental responsibility. The inherent motto of the program is “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”, which makes complete sense. Reducing the amount of waste that gets created is the base layer of recycling, because if there is less waste, there will be less material to manage. Reuse what you can, instead of throwing it away and purchasing more, or use it for a different purpose, and recycle items that can get broken down to create new …show more content…

To implement a recycling program requires a collection process that includes the containers to gather the materials, the trucks to transport them to the processing site, and the manpower to manage the program. Unfortunately, recycling is more of a business than an attempt to save the environment. The value of the material being recycled overshadows the negative impact of dumping items into the landfill. At a point in time, the demand for recycled paper declined, so recyclers stored the material in hopes that values would increase. “The hope is that eventually the markets turn around and that the materials is sold, but I have heard of instances where it gets landfilled, because a community doesn’t have the demand or the space or the company to deal with it, “ says Gene Jones, the executive director of Southern Waste Information Exchange (Westervelt,

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