If you are following environmental news reports, the future seems dire. Recycling has long been thought of as a way for everyone to become involved in saving the planet and reducing waste. However, many reports are surfacing that make it seem like recycling is a losing battle. People are making too many mistakes, contaminating the recycling, and thwarting our efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle. It’s time to point out some good news when it comes to recycling. Here’s why you need to continue your recycling efforts, and why recycling can make a big difference locally and globally.
Why recycling matters
There are more benefits to recycling than reducing waste and landfills. Recycling is also great for our communities and the economy. The four main reasons why recycling is more important than ever is to reduce overall waste, reduces landfills, creates jobs, and saves money.
Reducing overall waste and minimizing landfills
By recycling, we are minimizing waste overall. Not only do we prevent more waste from ending up in landfills, but recycling means that we get to reuse old resources instead of sourcing new materials from the planet. Reusing materials takes less energy and resources than sourcing new materials. Minimizing landfills will create a cleaner environment, reduce landfill pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as, minimize bacteria and disease. Landfills are toxic for our environment, so the more we can minimize landfills, the better.
Saving money and creating jobs
Companies charge money for cities to drop off their waste in landfills and incineration facilities. Many times, the charges are calculated by the weight of the garbage. The more plastic, metal, and paper we can recycle, the lighter the load and the cheaper it will be to dispose of the garbage that is left over. Of course, the more we recycle, the more we need qualified people to work at the recycling facilities, and engineers to come up with more efficient and effective ways to sort and process our recycling. Investing in recycling efforts will create new jobs in every community. The more we invest in recycling, the more jobs will be created, both at upper and lower levels.
Sunrise Sanitation provides recycling services for your home, business, and job-site in West Virginia and Maryland.
