Term Paper on "Recycling and Proposes That for the Good"

Term Paper 7 pages (1941 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

recycling and proposes that for the good of the environment it is something that should be implemented world wide. There were 10 sources used to complete this paper.

For as long as history remembers man has used the earth's natural resources to provide what it needed for survival. As man continued to evolve members of society began to want items and services of comfort in addition to basic survival. If resources that were available naturally did not provide those needs, man invented products and items that would suffice. Often times those products were not made of material that would be absorbed in their entirety and society began to place the left over materials from their use in various landfills, oceans and other places that would keep the waste out of sight. This pattern went on for many years while society enjoyed the fruits of its genius, however, many decades ago it began to occur to society that there would come a time when the earth would run out of spaces to store the leftover materials and goods. Initially society ignored this new fact, after all the earth was tremendous in size and there would be many generations before space and health issues became evident. This mindset worked for a short time however, with the population growing each year, people living longer than ever before, and industry beginning to join in the development and creation of things that had to be stored for all time, it became evident that the problem was moving faster and larger than ever imagined. That is when the idea of recycling began.

Recycling took hold years ago but saw a significant surge in the 1970's. People began to separate cans from paper, aluminum from steel and newspapers from plastic. For awhile it was vogue to recycle and anyone who did not do it was viewed as droll and substandard. As with any new fad however, the passion and initial excitement for recycling grew old and society moved on to other interests. People still recycle somewhat and industries are mandated to follow certain recycling guidelines but for the most part recycling has become one of the memories of the hippie era. Unfortunately the earth has not gotten any bigger, people have not stopped reproducing and the average life span is longer than ever before, which all translates into a serious environmental issue if recycling is not taken seriously and immediately. Leaving it for future generations to deal with is not an option nor is it fair to consider. The time has come to implement recycling on a nationwide basis and mandate participation in the recycling efforts for individuals with the same stringency that industry is mandated to follow.

WHAT IT IS Before one can get behind and support or refute a nationwide mandated recycling effort one must first have a grasp about what recycling is. (Motavalli, 1997)

Renewed criticism is undermining the achievements that the recycling movement has achieved over the years, However, despite some setbacks, recycling continue to demonstrate its many advantages, including decreased fossil fuel consumption and garbage production."

The United States only creates five percent of the world population however, it contributes a significant 19% of the world's waste products. U.S. residents consume a full 20% of the world metals, as well as 25% of the available fossil fuel and 24 of the energy. One would assume that the U.S. contributes a work in kind percentage of the recycling effort but it does not. The United States rates 15th among the world nations in the recycling effort.

Some 96% of U.S. plastic, and 50% of its paper, goes into landfills. Mexico - not exactly a bastion of environmental awareness - recycles more glass than the U.S. "

Recycling is the act of taking materials that are not easily consumable or environmentally sound and finding a way to clean them, make them whole and reusing them over and over again.

One example of recycling in this manner is the recycling of paper. People use paper, and that takes away trees. The more people who inhabit the earth and become industrialized the fewer trees will be available which translates to trouble with the environment and oxygen needs.

The effort to recycle paper asks that people do not throw their used paper in the trash with the other trash items, but instead place it in a recycle bin or container so that it can be removed to a recycling facility.

The facility takes that paper, puts it through a cleaning process and provides new pulp for paper to be manufactured again and made available to the public to buy and use.

Most states are working toward meeting that goal, and public enthusiasm is high: A 1995 Gallup Poll found 73% of the American people favoring home-based recycling. Since 1970, voluntary curbside recycling programs have grown from just two to 7,000 today. Nonetheless, 95% of all waste plastics and two-thirds of all waste paper still go unrecycled. But the recycling industry has been steadily maturing: It now diverts almost 24% of the nation's municipal waste to productive uses. In 1995, 62% of the 100 billion aluminum cans produced annually were returned for recycling."

Recycling abilities have been invented for many of the trash that used to be thrown away. Whether it is plastic, paper, glass or fuel work has gone into determining how to reuse it. Recycling is something that children's clubs, company employees and others sometimes have contests trying to win prizes for gathering the most recycling material.

BENEFITS

There are many benefits to the act of recycling. The first benefit of course is the benefit to the environment. Recycling allows products to be used over and over again instead of throwing them away. In addition it helps to preserve the earth's most precious commodities, which include space, trees, air and water. If the world continues to destroy these resources there will come a time in which mankind is in a serious threat of extinction because of the ripple impact it will have. If recycling is ignored and resources continue to be used and destroyed without any effort to recycle what the world is already seeing will grow in magnitude. Animal, plant and water life will be so severely impacted that there will be no turning back, no way to fix the problem and mankind could well face extinction.

The benefits of recycling are many. In addition to preserving much needed resources and not taking up all of the earth's space for landfills and waste dump lands there are benefits that are a byproduct of the recycling effort. One of those benefits is the fact that recycling creates jobs. People have to work at the recycle plants and also at the development companies. Those jobs create paychecks which in turn put more disposable income into the consumer hands. This gets spent at local stores which benefits the cities and counties and state governments by way of taxes and their very purchases create additional need for product which in turn creates more jobs for those who are not in the recycle industry but benefit by it because of the money it gives it workers.

Recycling also has aesthetic value, reducing the amount of litter in communities. "The Bottle Bill [which requires deposits on recyclable bottles] has been one of the most successful litter reduction measures," points out Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) (see Conversations this issue). Indeed, in a 1996 white paper, the Container Recycling Institute proposed "expanding bottle bills for the 90s," in part by including the "new age" beverage category - fruit drinks, tea and water containers, currently exempt from the rules. Sales of the trendy drinks, which are mainly packaged in single-serve bottles, have grown 150% since 1991."

Below are statistics about the nation's and world's recycling efforts thus far. http://www.environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/environmental/wastehistory.html

http://www.epa.gov/history/timeline/index.htm

In Philadelphia the Rittenhouse Mill recycles the first paper using fibers from wastepaper and rags.

A report is made linking disease to dirty conditions and sanitation becomes a major issue.

On Governor's Island in New York the first garbage incinerator was built in the U.S.

Waste reduction plants are created to compress organic waste but are soon closed because of toxic emissions.

New York opens the first official recycling plant in the U.S. where it sorts trash.

Piggeries" were created and garbage was fed to pigs. However this led to an outbreak of vesicular exanthema and the pigs had to be killed.

There were 300 incinerators in the U.S.

1920's

Landfills were established in swamps, filling them and creating more usable land.

Fresh Kills landfill is opened on Staten Island, New York. It becomes the world's largest city dump. Along with the Great Wall of China it is the only man-made thing visible from space.

Olympia, Washington is the first place to offer a deposit on aluminum cans.

The first federal solid waste management laws are enacted.

The U.S. aluminum industry begins recycling.

The EPA… READ MORE

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