Term Paper on "Recycling and the Waste Management Problem"

Term Paper 6 pages (1885 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Recycling and the Waste Management Problem

This is a paper on recycling. There are nine references used for this paper.

As the population of the world continues to grow, so does the problem of waste management. Many countries throughout the world are looking at ways to reduce the refuse which is overtaking landfills and dumps, and one of the most environmental friendly means of reducing this waste is through recycling. It is important to look at recycling and the methods employed to ease this critical situation.

Centuries of Recycling

Recycling has been utilized for hundreds of years by many civilizations, as evidenced by the artifacts uncovered at ancient cities. "New Roman construction often relied on scavenged marble and other stone from the Empire, and the Coliseum served for centuries essentially as a quarry. Pottery -- the functional equivalent of today's glassware and plastic containers - was routinely ground up and reused to make new pottery (Horrigan)."

While today's recycling efforts are thought to begin in 1970, when the first Earth Day was observed, the "ancient origins of these efforts illustrates that recycling as a concept is simply being itself recycled to fit the exigencies of our times (Horrigan)."

Increasing Waste

The world has seen an increase in waste production over the past century due to increased population and technologic advances. The "average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day, and this garbage, the solid waste stream, goes mostly to landfills, where it is compacted and buried. As the waste stream continues to grow, so will the pressures on our landfills, our resources and our environment (www.americarecyclesday.org/)."

Returning to Basics

Everyone plays a role in preserving the environment for the future. It was common practice for people to recycle prior to the age of technology. "Before the 1920's, 70% of U.S. cities ran programs to recycle certain materials, and during World War II, industry recycled and reused about 25% of the waste stream. Because of concern for the environment, recycling is again on the upswing. The nation's composting and recycling rate rose from 7.7% of the waste stream in 1960 to 17% in 1990, and is currently up to around 30% (www.americarecyclesday.org/)."

Important Facts About Recycling

There are important facts about recycling and waste production by Americans that illustrate the need to preserve the environment. Some of these facts "include:

In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. This means that each adult will leave a legacy of 90,000 lbs. Of trash for his or her children.

Recycling all of a home's waste newsprint, cardboard, glass, and metal can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 850 pounds a year.

Enough energy is saved by recycling one aluminum can to run a TV set for three hours or to light one 100 watt bulb for 20 hours.

Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild the entire commercial air fleet.

Annually, enough energy is saved by recycling steel to supply Los Angeles with electricity for almost 10 years.

It is possible to make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one new one.

Five recycled plastic bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a ski jacket.

In this decade, it is projected that Americans will throw away over 1 million tons of aluminum cans and foil, more than 11 million tons of glass bottles and jars, over 4 and a half million tons of office paper and nearly 10 million tons of newspaper. Almost all of this material could be recycled.

Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates 1 job, land filling the same amount creates 6 jobs, recycling the same 10,000 tons creates 36 jobs (www.recyclingit.com/recyfact.htm)."

Facts About Paper Recycling

Recycling certain materials can help the earth in immeasurable ways. This is especially evident with paper, as illustrated by the following "facts:

Paper waste comprises 40% of municipal solid waste stream.

Less than 1/3 of paper is manufactured from recycled sources, and in the U.S., 99% of the virgin fiber used for paper manufacturing comes from trees.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that by 2010, worldwide paper and paperboard consumption will increase 90% from 1993. This equates to a consumption level of 528 million tons.

U.S. businesses throw away 21 million tons of paper every year, the equivalent of 175 pounds per office worker.

On average, every American consumers over 730 pounds of paper a year, making the U.S. The world's greatest paper consumer. A 12-foot high wall stretching from New York City to Los Angeles could be built with our annual office and writing paper waste.

The 300 million rolls of fax paper used each year are enough to go from the Earth to the moon 26 times (www.sprintrecycling.com/recyclingfacts.html)."

Benefits of Recycling

Recycling has a number of benefits which are not limiting to decreasing the amount of waste in "landfills and incineration plants. By reusing aluminum, paper, glass, plastics, and other materials, we can save production and energy costs, and reduce the negative impacts that the extraction and processing of virgin materials has on the environment (www.americarecyclesday.org/)."

Myths About Recycling

There are many critics who feel that "trash recycling is unnecessary, expensive, too much bother and ordinary citizens would never take the time to sort recyclable items from their trash (Denison)." However, these are merely opinions and are not backed by facts.

Research has shown there has been a sharp increase in recycling across the United States since 1980. Many cities now offer to collect recyclables at the curb, compost programs have become a way to dispose of yard trimmings, and there has been a significant increase in the number of recycling centers available to the average citizen. "According to the EPA, the nation recycled or composted 27% of its municipal solid waste in 1995, up from 9.6% in 1980 (Denison)."

There is a myth that landfills are cheaper than recycling, however landfills can be extremely costly due to more stringent standards and location. It has also been falsely reported that the waste in landfills is "environmentally safe. Landfills are actually major sources of air and water pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions (Denison)."

Those Against Recycling

Although it has been proven that recycling is necessary to maintain the earth's environment, there are several organizations currently fighting recycling efforts such as "the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation and the Waste Policy Center. These organizations are funded in part by companies in the packaging, consumer products, and waste-management industries, who fear consumers' scrutiny of the environmental impacts of their products (Denison)."

Recent Declines

Despite efforts by environmentalists to promote recycling, some cities are noting a decline in programs and funding available. Increased landfill space has taken away the incentives for many communities to recycle, creating these "results:

The percentage of recycled material climbed dramatically in the late 1980s and 1990s. But in has not risen over the past few years.

Recycling has declined in many communities, including Seattle, where residents once sorted their trash with as much enthusiasm as citizens elsewhere root for the local football team.

Americans are trashing more beverage cans and bottles, among the easiest items to recycle. Recycling rates for both are the lowest they've been since the mid-1990s (Watson)."

While two-thirds of aluminum cans were being recycled in 1992, that figure has dropped to less that 50% today. In 1995, 37% of all plastic bottles were recycled by Americans however, by 2002, only 21% of these containers were being recycled. These figures are indicative of the how lax many people are today about recycling and preserving the environment.

Problems in Germany

Many countries are searching for ways to improve recycling efforts. German recycling rules have faced strong scrutiny lately and this month the highest court in the European Union, the European Court of Justice, ruled that "Germany has to modify its bottle recycling rules, which it said hinders drinks imports from other European countries. The court stated Germany's environmentally friendly deposit and return plans introduced between 1998 and 2002 unfairly protected German products from competition, and the recycling rules 'hinder the free movement of goods,' adding that producers and distributors of drinks outside of Germany were at a disadvantage, because they could not meet the recycling rules in time, and so could not sell their products in the German market (unknown)."

This case was brought about due to concerns by non-German companies which felt they were unable to compete in the German market "because of the deposit and return obligations in Germany. The court agreed, saying the system 'causes every producer and distributor... To incur, apart from making and labeling costs, additional costs connected with organization of the taking back of packaging (unknown)."

Germany had previously been reprimanded by the European Union in December 2001 about its recycling rules due to concerns that importers would realize higher expenses if their products were shipped to the… READ MORE

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