Should Recycling Be Mandatory? Essay

Recycling and conservation are the solution to climate change and to saving energy. America sends a majority of its trash to landfills when it could be put to much better use by means of recycling or even by burning it to produce energy. Pollution is greatly reduced when recycling because the need to collect new raw materials goes down. Recycling is great because it can help people conserve this Earth for future generations who deserve to have a healthy Earth. Once the United Stated reaches recycling levels of 75%, it would be the equivalent of getting rid of fifty five million cars from the roads in the U.S. each year.

Recycling has been the environmental crusade to reducing the human footprint, with it’s spotlight shining down on in recent years. It was the noblest of causes, recycling being a great idea for the environment and society; but it is being handled poorly. Its modern descendant has turned into a corporate scheme with recycling becoming a business, instead of being about the environment because marketers are using environmentalism as a excuse for overconsumption, recycling products are only being recycled for profit, and cities & big business use inflated numbers to attain media attention. Let’s now take a look at the bread and butter of

Recycling is the process of making new products from a product that has originally served its purpose. The process of recycling starts when used products are disposed in an appropriate, environmentally friendly way. Items made from materials such as paper, tin cans, aluminum cans, plastic water bottles, and glass, which people use in everyday life, can be separated from regular trash and put in an appropriate recycling bin. The United States now realizes the importance of recycling. However, many ignorant people still think separating recyclables requires too much work. Requiring mandatory recycling would prod these individuals into action. Lack of recycling leads to dramatic consequences such as polluting the environment and raising the number of landfills. Delay is critical; time plays a significant role in waste management. The sooner American communities recycle properly the better it will be for the environment and our surroundings. People need to become conscious and take responsibility as a society to protect the earth, keep it clean and beautiful, and preserve the natural resources. The United States can achieve this goal by implementing mandatory recycling.

Many people say that recycling is a waste of time or that they just don't have the time.”Yes it’s popular in affluent neighborhoods like Park Slope in Brooklyn and in cities like San Francisco, but residents of Bryon and Houston don't have the same fervor for sorting garbage in their spare time’(“The Reign of Recycling”). The world needs more people to recycle no matter where they live. It seems that even if more people have started recycling things have not changed much.”While it’s true that the recycling message has reached more people than ever, when it come down to the bottom line,both economically and environmentally, not much has changed at all”(“The Reign of Recycling”). People need to work harder to make a change that will account to something. The goals are being set higher and higher but with little success. ”While politicians set higher and higher goals, the national rate of recycling has stagnated in recent years”(“The Reign of Recycling”). This rate has ceased to flow. If something changes how people feel about recycling then the nation may be able to meet its

One of the biggest reasons recycling should be taken so serious is because of its positive affect on the environment. Without recycling, so many goods that have potential to be repurposed are thrown into landfills. These landfills are piled up and affect the lives of countless wildlife. This quote by Allen Hershkowitz shows the enormity of the helpfulness of recycling. “Because using recycled materials reduces the need to extract, process, refine, and transport the timber, crude petroleum, ores, and so on that are necessary for virgin-based paper, plastics, glass, and metals, recycling lessens the toxic air emissions, effluents, and solid wastes that these manufacturing processes create” (Hershkowitz). Not having to put the weight of everyone’s trash trash on the world’s land and instead, repurposing it into something usable saves so many resources. Recycling not only leaves more room for things where the trash would have gone, but it also means that the people living here will get farther with the resources they have. The more that is taken from the earth the less there will be for those in the future, so saving and taking care of what is here is very important. The ones living in the world today are the people who are get to decide how the people of the generations to come are going to live. People should not want their kids living in a world of filth and pollution where no one cares about the world they are living on. An article by Omid Nodoushani discussed in depth the terrible amounts of pollution that is

For centuries, the world has been fervently told to “reduce, reuse, and recycle” (Grabianowski). The idea many people have is that if everyone does his or her part in tossing old homework sheets and leftover yogurt cups into big blue bins, the world will recover from the devastation of human interaction with the environment. From this standpoint, recycling would seem a savior to mankind. Unfortunately, this is not the reality of how the process of recycling works, nor what the outcome of using the system actually is. Not every glass bottle can be tossed into a bin with the expectation of it becoming a brand new window pane, and even many paper products are considered non-recyclable. Recycling is takes time and is very

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.

Recycling is an important part of keeping this planet sustainable so our future generations can live on it. Many people are familiar with reprocessing paper and plastic materials, but there are countless others that can also be used. Our landfills are also filling up because too many people throw away these recyclable items that can easily be reused. Almost anyone has the ability to reduce, reuse, and recycle, but it is not always easily accessible which is why many people do not. Although there are some negatives to doing this, recycling is the best option we have when dealing with this problem. Too many non-decomposable items are being thrown away and it is harming the planet. The United States should make recycling mandatory in every state

Americans make more than 200 million tons of garbage each year, enough to fill Busch Stadium from top to bottom twice a day, that’s over 1800 feet! according to Ballparks. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it says Do Something. With the invention of the virtually indestructible material well known as plastic, on top of the rapidly evolving technological world, and the extreme reduction of locations where landfills can be built, it’s hard to believe that 75% of the waste stream in America alone is recyclable, and yet only 30% of it is actually recycled. Recycling is a beneficial solution to many of our increasingly important environmental

Ironically, everyone knows the benefits of recycling despite the astonishing amount of pollution created yearly in America. America started recycling in 1970 when recycling centers opened and by 2009 America had 9,000 curbside recycling trash programs plus 3,000 composting communities available (Palliser). According to the Janna Palliser, a 2013 study done by the EPA, deduced annually Americans produced 254 million tons of municipal solid waste while the recycled amount is a measly 87 million tons equaling 34.3%. Moreover, America should aspire to raise yearly recycling percentages considerably higher than “34.3 %”; however, the “34.3 %” concludes recycling prevented “186 million metric tons of carbon dioxide” from being expelled into the air

According to CEF, Converse Energy Future, in 2016, recycling is a process to create new items from old and used materials. This helps in reducing energy and potentially useful materials from being wasted. In 2014, according to Ever Green Recycling, each person in the US on average generates around four pounds of trash each day, which translates into 1.5 tons of waste each year. People do not take recycling seriously even though it has a huge impact on our world and fortunately is extremely easy to do. To begin, I will tell you why you need to recycle, then I will tell you how easy it is to make a change and recycle, and lastly about the outcome of recycling. In order for our environment to be healthy and safe, you need to start recycling or

How many people in the United States recycle and what is considered recycling? Unfortunately, the percentage is low and not enough people in today’s society recycles, while recycling is defined as “to make something new from (something that has been used before)” (Merriam-Webster). With the percentages of recycling being low makes you wonder what is wrong with the people in today’s society. If you ask the people why they don’t recycle, they will give you plenty of excuses. “It doesn’t help in any way,” “I don’t have time,” and/or “It doesn’t benefit my lifestyle.” But, with all of these excuses, does it still give the people the justification not to recycle? Recycling has and will give immediate and long-term effects on our planet, which in the long run is what we want for the future. Recycling should be looked

By recycling, people save half or more of the money they spend a year. An example is instead of buying a new case of water bottles every week, you can reuse them, which saves you more money that you can spend on things that you do need. In the article, the author stated, “Choosing sustainable materials for a product, streamlining the production process, and reducing the need for packaging all result in significant cost savings for the manufacturer.” This statement supports the fact that you should support recycling because it saves you money because the author explains that by recycling businesses save

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

A worker at a paper factory in Illinois states, “Then the issue was saving a tree. But trees are replaced. We plant them, we cut them, we plant them again” (Pendleton). The worker also said, “The problem now is the landfill situation, I think this one is going to stick” (Pendleton). By 1991 thirty-nine states and hundreds of local governments have passed laws or solutions requiring the purchase of recycled paper. According to Henry Miller, vice president of a paper mill said, “By volume, thirty-eight percent of solid waste in a landfill is paper and cardboard” (Pendleton). That paper and cardboard, if recycled could have produced that much paper or other products and it would have cleared up thirty-eight percent of many landfills across America. One major way to get people involved with recycling is the environment perspective. Not only would the landfills be cut down the environment gains a lot by having people recycle. So what do the states do to keep the environment clean? They enact laws against litter and waste. One way is the state requiring the deposit on beer and soft-drink bottles and cans (Prichard 8A). In those states, millions of bottles and cans that once were left on beaches, tossed in rivers and parks or thrown along the highways are being taken back to stores instead for a refund. A twenty-year old student from Michigan said, “Throwing away cans is like throwing away money to me” (Prichard 8A). These state laws must be working if people have this