Benefits of recycling why is recycling important

Instead, Google around for a recycling facility which specifically takes care of tires. If they can retread the tire, it could go back on the shelf for you or the next consumer. Got a little time to kill and some DIY spirit? Here are some fun, funny, and creative ways to recycle your old tires. Textile recycling, which includes clothing, rags, sheets, curtains, linens, and other similar materials, is a key way to reduce municipal solid waste MSW.

According to the EPA , the US generated 16, tons of textiles in , of which just 2, tons were recycled. If they make their way to landfills, clothing and other fibrous materials can take up to several hundred years to break down. But, recycling these textiles helps the environment by skipping the landfill and sending the clothing to plants to be sorted, cleaned, shredded, and respun.

And an added bonus—many often give you a shopping discount for turning in your old clothes! Paperboard is thin and formed of one layer, like paper, but thicker, less foldable, and more rigid than paper think of a greeting card.

Corrugated fiberboard is the three-layer kind you may be familiar with in shipping boxes, consisting of two rigid layers sandwiching a wavy middle one for strength. So, to sum up on the benefits of recycling and how recycling helps the environment—well, there are plenty of reasons, as you have seen.

From reducing carbon emissions to conserving natural resources, recycling is one of the best ways we can fight climate change. Have any feedback, questions, or other ways recycling protects the environment? Let us know in the comments below! Oh, and if you have any recycling ideas, large or small, share them with the Goodwall community to help it get the visibility, traction, and support it deserves! Not a member of Goodwall yet? Sign up quickly and easily with the links below.

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Recycling the process of separating, collecting, and remanufacturing or converting used or waste products into new materials. Recycling helps extend the life and usefulness of something that has already served its initial purpose by returning it to its raw materials and then using those materials to produce something that is useable.

Virtually all the planet is impacted by how much we recycle. Of course, the reality of it is much more complex, but the fundamental process is valid nonetheless. Metals, for instance, are repeatedly recyclable, while maintaining most or all of their properties. Recycling reduces the need to grow, harvest, or extract new raw materials from the Earth.

That, in turn, reduces the harmful disruption and damage being done to the natural world, which means fewer forests cut down, rivers diverted, wild animals harmed or displaced, and less pollution. The demand for new goods has led to more of the poorest and most vulnerable people being displaced from their homes or otherwise exploited. While not always, manufacturing something the second time around usually consumes far less energy. Because recycling means you need to use less energy on sourcing and processing new raw materials, it produces lower carbon emissions, which means it can help with global warming.

It also keeps potentially methane-releasing waste out of landfill sites. Overall, reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere is vital to stop climate change. Recycling also makes economic sense. So, the more you recycle, and the less you put in the bin, the more money is saved — which should be good for households, businesses, and local public services.

Recycling food waste and green waste is a great idea too, often generating lots of valuable compost. A: It conserves energy, reduces air and water pollution, reduces greenhouse gases, and conserves natural resources. The results are cleaner air and water, less pollution, more forested land and open space, and reduced greenhouse gases.

Everyone knows recycling means less trash going to our landfills but the greatest environmental benefit of recycling is the conservation of energy and natural resources and the prevention of pollution that is generated when a raw material is used to make a new product.

The paper, glass, metals, plastic, and organic material Stanford recycled in saved a total of about 70, million BTUs of energy; enough energy to power nearly homes for one year. Or said another way, conserved 12, barrels of oil or , gallons of gasoline. Producing products using recovered rather than raw materials uses significantly less energy which results in less burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

By reducing air and water pollution and saving energy, recycling offers an important environmental benefit: it reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons, that contribute to global climate change.

By recycling over tons of paper last year, Stanford saved 32, trees. Stanford reduced the need for tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone by recycling over tons of ferrous scrap metal. By using recycled materials instead of trees, metal ores, minerals, oil and other raw materials harvested from the earth, recycling-based manufacturing conserves the world's scarce natural resources. This conservation reduces pressure to expand forests cutting and mining operations.

In , Americans generated about million tons of trash and recycled On average, we recycled and composted 1. The state of the economy has a strong impact on consumption and waste generation.

Waste generation increases during times of strong economic growth and decreases during times of economic decline. If you look at the big picture of what it takes to create a product from scratch -- to get the raw materials, transport them, process them and manufacture them -- making goods with recycled material like paper, plastic, glass, and metal is a major energy saver.

Seattle economist Jeffrey Morris estimated that manufacturing one ton of office and computer paper with recycled paper stock can save nearly 3, kilowatt hours over the same ton of paper made with virgin wood products. A ton of soda cans made with recycled aluminum saves an amazing 21, kilowatt hours by reducing the virgin bauxite bozite ore that would have to be mined, shipped, and refined.

The San Diego County Office of Education has figured out that recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to light a watt light bulb for four hours. The Steel Recycling Institute has found that steel recycling saves enough energy to electrically power the equilvalent of 18 million homes for a year.

With all the energy that is saved when we recycle bottles and cans and paper, we should all recycle and buy recycled more often! A: The amount of lost energy from throwing away recyclable commodities such as aluminum cans and newspapers is equivalent to the annual output of 15 power plants. The energy savings applies to all recycling sectors:. One ton of recycled aluminum saves 14, kilowatt hours Kwh of energy, 40 barrels of oil, One ton of recycled newsprint saves Kwh of energy, 1.