Avoiding Wastefulness Rather than Recycling: Personal Opinion Essay

Recycling one ton of paper saves seventeen mature trees, seven thousand gallons of water, three cubic yards of landfill space, and two barrels of oil (“Environmental Impacts”). It is much easier than most people think to make such a big difference. If every person took a few minutes to go through the trash being put in the garbage and recycle the things that can be, it could completely change the world. It is the peoples job to take care of the planet and everything on it, and if people are not willing to do the right thing on their own, then they should be forced to. Everyone should be required to recycle because it is good for the environment, helps the economy, and saves energy, space, and resources.

Lars Eighner “On Dumpster Diving” originally published in The Threepenny review in fall 1990. Eighner’s arranges his essay into 3 main ideas to all tie into his overall theme. He ties it all into the idea that our society is wasteful by nature. Eighner uses his own experiences to show how wasteful people really are. Although he has not always been homeless, it has taught him a way of life he had never dreamed imaginable. If he doesn’t discover the hidden treasure of the dumpster’s then who will.

This image may seem familiar. Walking down the street and noticing endless rows of trash cans in which to throw away your garbage. But have you ever thought about why there aren’t many recycling bins in public places. The reason for this is that the prices of recycling are booming. In turn, less and less people are wanting to pay these extreme prices. The lack of recycling in public places leads to many problems like high costs of production, loss of resources, land overfill, and numerous more. Because there aren’t many recycling bins in public places, people aren’t as encouraged to recycle which is harmful for the environment.

From that “. . . cheese with a spot of mold” to that “. . . half jar of peanut butter” (64). Furthermore, I think that if people read this essay they may realize that some of the stuff they call trash is actually not trash at all. This essay personally made me become more thankful that I don’t have to dumpster dive just to be able to eat. Likewise, I began to understand that I and others “throw away perfectly good stuff” that really shouldn’t be in the trash (64). By making an effort to reduce my waste, I will reduce my ecological footprint on the earth and ultimately leave more resources for further

“In Waste Not, Want Not” author Bill McKibben, makes several arguments about how wasteful Americans are. Throughout the essay McKibben provides facts that show the degree of how much waste is built up daily. The author emphasizes waste throughout the essay by giving the reader an idea of much plastic, aluminum, paper, lithium, and food are wasted daily. If humans do not come together to help reduce the amount of waste, eventually planet earth will not be able to provide a stable environment to sustain life. Life as we know it is slowly coming closer and closer to the end, and without a joint effort to protect the environment and limit waste the end of life will come sooner than expected.

Despite info campaigns, recycling programs, and inundation with horrifying stats - leaking landfills, islands of garbage in the ocean, vast quantities of food discarded rather than feeding the hungry - we humans are still rampant wasters. Systemic change is needed. But could the redesign of that simple household object could help us rethink the flawed concept of “throwing things away”? The power of design means a simple object can help redirect the way we think or act. I would choose to redesign the waste bin with the idea that it has the potential to effect change from an the individual household to the global

We live in a world that has become increasingly conscious of the environment and as a result many have become conscientious of recycling, using natural resources more efficiently and even propagating this in schools. We are not only educated about what, where and how to recycle but also actively participate in the process. Then why does recycling a person’s organs become such a tension and even taboo in some cases?

Throwing away paper eventually find its way to sitting in a pile of garbage piling up on our Earth. Garbage may be little in your house but everyday, according to The Atlantic, “The typical person in a developed country produces about 2.6 pounds of garbage a day.” We have produced over 2.6 trillion pounds of garbage and it all ends up piling into every spot on the Earth. According to The Atlantic, “59% of garbage goes to a landfill, 33% in dumps,

Dan Phillips once said, “I had always suspected that one could build an entire house from what went into the landfill, and, sure enough, it’s true.” We throw away tons of trash each and everyday. Trash that is not always necessarily waste or used to it’s full potential. Trash that was once apart of our lives that we kept in our homes. Nobody really thinks about it or what happens to it after it’s out of our lives. Maybe it’s time we start thinking about where all our trash winds up. I mean, have you ever really thought about it? Thought about the piles upon piles of trash polluting the air we breath and killing our environment. My issue is how no one seems to care. To change their ways and make a difference. To save this world it might be time to consider recycling. If everyone recycled a little bit each year, tons of the trash killing our planet would cease to exist. I’m fully prepared to go over exactly why we need to recycle, how to start recycling, and some of the benefits that have occurred as a result of past recycling. Let’s start

The life of trash. It may be old, disgusting, and unwanted, but it lives way longer then we can see it. In this trash you can find things such as bottles, food, cans, clothes, and “old technology”. Sitting at a lunch table one might want to talk and enjoy their time with friends in the small break of the day. But they could be sitting and watching the trashcans with all their potential. The trash has lives too. Their life (cycle) could continue, but so many decide to end it after they are done with it. Many watch as the life of these items is ended early and unnecessarily. With the U.S. population approximately 320,000,000 persons and growing, recycling has the potential to have a huge impact economically, socially and environmentally. The U.S. (and 30 other countries) is part of the O.E.C.D. (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development). This organization exists for governments to discuss global issues facing their countries, including disposing and recycling. Working through the O.E.C.D. global change could occur especially if America, the world’s largest contributor, would lead. Recycling is small for individuals but can have huge rewards if everyone is involved. This can be accomplished by increasing awareness, education, and through incentives and/or fines.

You will find people that are passionate about it and others that don't care just like any other controversial topic. Recycling can be viewed as a very beneficial thing for the environment but, many believe it is just a waste of time. People don't seem to believe that the environment will not last forever if humans do not take care if the earth and it can be takin care of in simple forms. From lowering CO2 levels by carpooling with a co-worker or Friend or even using less plastic water bottles by buying a reusable water bottle. Small changes can overall have a great impact on the environment. Global warming is something that is happening and cannot be ignored any longer. Going green should be a big concern for the world not having the

These days, our earth has been filled by a lot of waste. There is a lot of garbage, plastic waste, and electronic waste. We always produce it and dump it when we need the new one. Our waste are piling up and continuously accumulating. Plastic waste is one of the biggest problems for us now. And our solution in this problem is recycling. In my opinion, recycling is a way to manage used items into new products. We can reduce, reuse, and recycling (3R) waste management (Peter, 2013). We can reduce our waste clothes with reuse it. There are some reasons why peoples recycle used or unwanted items, which are, prevent wasting unusable materials that still have usage after recycled, reduce the application of raw materials, reduce energy

“Recycling is the only key to a less polluted future” - Anonymous. This quote is a quote that we should start to follow. I think recycling should be a mandatory rule for everyone in the entire world.

Have you seen how great the sky looks lately? Individually as humans we have been doing a great job in maintaining our environment. Just look at how many more landfills we have compared to recycling plants, It’s truly an amazing sight to behold. It is nice to know that all of the materials that could have been reused are going back in the ground where they came from. We are often bombarded with news articles, tv commercials, and social media about how the destruction of the Earth is approaching at a pace faster than before. These are alternative facts. Trees are everywhere. They’d rule the world if it weren’t for us. It is difficult to travel for more than ten minutes without seeing a tree. However, self-proclaimed environmentalists get aggravated if you try to cut so much as a single tree without pledging to plant one hundred more!

We all know that this country produces quite a lot of "stuff." Goods and services, we’re the economically-dominant country in the world. U.S. corporate power makes, the world takes. But with all this production, all these goods, comes a need to dispose of what we consider to be no longer useful. Some of it is in fact useful, some of it isn’t. But the fact is, we throw away a lot of stuff. Compared to the rest of the world, we dispose of goods much like we market them –tremendously disproportional. Each American produces about 4.4 lbs. of trash every day, costing our municipalities a total of $23 billion annually; this is far more waste than that of any other Westernized nation. (Columbia