Recycling products prevents them from becoming a danger to the environment. If you throw something away it either gets incinerated or put into landfill which harms the environment greatly, as it is either polluting the air or using up the Earth’s valuable space. If you recycle the same product however, it can be used to make a new product and doesn’t end up filling up a landfill site. It’s important to recycle because excessive waste has become a global issue. The fact is that humans are producing too much waste for the Earth to handle, there’s nowhere to put it as landfill sites become full and whatever is incinerated causes damage to the atmosphere.
The benefits are not only for the planet either, there are benefits for everyone. The cost of using the materials from recycled items is much less than it is to find the raw materials to make the same product so it would actually save you money in the long run and recycling contributes to a green lifestyle.
You may be surprised to learn that around 60-70% of the waste that your household produces can be recycles. This means that if everyone disposed of their waste properly, i.e. recycled everything that could be recycled, effectively there would only be 30-40% of the un-recycled waste levels that there are now.
It’s been made really easy for people to recycle too; you have three bins and a small one for vegetable peelings etc. One bin is for general waste that cannot be recycled, one for plastic and glass and another for garden waste and cardboard.
A lot of people think that recycling is down to choice however, this is not the case. When your bins are collected, if it is clear that you bin contains products that should have been recycled the council can refuse to take it until it is sorted into the correct bins. Many people still don’t understand the importance of recycling and they don’t understand how their little bit can help the environment massively. However, there is great concern among scientists about waste contamination and the bi-products that are produced when waste is destroyed being a major cause of global warming. This ultimately affects our health, wild life, weather systems and the future in general.
Recycling at home is easy, as well as the convenience of so many bins to make the process more manageable, you don’t have to be an expert in order to do your bit. When you throw things away just take that extra second to think about what you are throwing away and whether it can be recycled; if you’re not sure, check the packet as there’s always something that will tell you.
If you still find it difficult to distinguish between what you can and can’t recycle just visit your local council or check out their website as they’ll be lists of what can and can’t be recycled along with which bin they should be in.
Recycling is easy and doesn’t take much time, but if you really don’t have the time then simple things, such as using a mug at work rather than disposable coffee cups is a great help too.
The article was written on behalf of Yellow Shield.
