Start Recycling

It does not take ecological genius to understand why it is important to try and recycle paper. We are all regularly exposed to the problems caused by deforestation, by humble trees and forests being decimated to satisfy the world’s demands for paper materials. If one chooses to dig a little deeper, stories of how local economies that once relied on the forests at their periphery have been effectively destroyed and become destitute due to the loss of their livelihood. We may even be aware of how damaging deforestation is from an environmental point of view.  For this reason, the past decade has seen an increased push from those in the know, to try and persuade the general populace to recycle paper more. Recycled paper, we are informed by people who know, is part of the answer to the problem of deforestation. The more that paper is recycled, the less trees have to be cut down afresh – and that is undeniably a good thing.

Yet there is a further reason beyond the very genuine cause of deforestation that makes a compelling case for every person to take it upon themselves to recycle paper. The problems caused by so-called greenhouse gases are a continued reason for what scientists are calling climate change – a change in the heat of the earth which could have devastating effects for the planet and its people. One of the most potent contributors to greenhouse gas is methane; and when paper is put in to a landfill rather than recycled, it bio-degrades. That might sound like a good thing, but the biodegrading process produces methane – and the atmosphere takes the hit.

So by the simple act of recycling any paper you have, you are not only protecting forests and the welfare of local economies – you’re saving the environment, too.

Of all of the materials that can be recycled, glass is one of the most rewarding in terms of efficiency and value. Here is a statistic – if you place a glass bottle in a landfill, it could take as long as a million years to decompose. However, if you place it in a recycling bin it can be made into a new glass bottle within less than a month.

If that isn’t a good enough reason to recycle glass, then think on this. Glass is the only material that is 100% efficient in its recycling. That is to say that if you recycle a glass bottle, you will get the same standard of glass from the process that you put into it – and this cycle holds permanently so the same container could be recycled forever with no loss of quality.

If you go to the supermarket today and buy something in a glass bottle, the likelihood is that seventy per cent of the glass in that bottle will have come from a recycling process. On the other hand, to make glass from scratch – a process that features heating substances to a temperature of more than two thousand degrees Fahrenheit – it requires energy and causes a lot of pollution.

Recycled glass is also probably the safest recycled material of all, because it has very little chemical interaction with anything it comes into contact with. This means that very little newly-recycled glass has to be disposed of because it does not come up to an acceptable standard.

There is a lot of very emotive language used in the debate over recycling – as indeed there is over any environmental issue. One side will accuse the other of being too lazy and selfish to recycle, and the other will accuse the first of being guilt-tripped and gullible for falling for something that basically gives them a clear conscience for a short spell of time. The question does need to be asked; are we lazy and selfish? Are we easily guilt-tripped? Or should both sides calm down and get on with our lives?

It may not be selfish laziness that prevents people from recycling, but there is probably more that everyone could do to avoid the very real and tangible problems that are caused by a lack of recycling. It cannot be denied that recycling saves a lot in terms of the energy that goes into manufacturing, as well as the money that that energy costs to make and the resources – many of which are natural and exhaustible – which are required for the process.

Is it idealistic, naïve and bone-headed to argue the case for recycling? Some people might say it is, but when you look at the facts it makes a lot of sense to prepare for a future when we cannot rely on non-renewable forms of energy, by making sure that we use the alternatives as far as is practical in this day and age. If it takes a little bit longer to separate the garbage, what is that when set against the likely far greater expense of paying for repairs on the fly?