"this is interesting" Do you really believe that recycling will help save the planet, I'm not to sure it will.

Question

Ok i understand if you recycle paper it will stop more trees being cut down and this can help save our planet. but plastic bags,bottles etc, and glass bottles etc, these have to be melted down to make more plastic and glass products.
So what about the power and energy used on the machines that have to melt these bags and bottles, Then what about the fumes form the plastic and glass being melted going into the atmosphere this will cause global warming not prevent it.
If you don't recycle properly you will get a heavy fine from the councils, then you have to pay for extra bins to recycle properly
so you wont get fined.
then there is all the extra vehicles on the road to dispose of all this extra waste which is ruining the environment as well.
So is recycling just another government conspiracy to take more money off people.
or is this just another load of rubbish which i heard in the pub yesterday.

Answer 1

Recycling paper and cardboard is hard to argue with because it is so easy to see the advantages. We all know that trees consume CO2, and if what we hear about Global Warming is true, then recycling paper products could do nothing but good for the planet.



There has been some controversy about recycling plastics, in that the process is energy intensive, and the solvents used are more damaging to the environment than the plastic. It is important to consider that plastic is made from petroleum and we should make any effort possible to develop technology to move away from petroleum usage of any sort. However, there is some good news from North Carolina where researchers have found an efficient, one step process that allows plastic recycling to be achieved in an "environmentally benign procedure".



There is also a company named Terracycle that re-uses plastic drink bottles to package their organic "worm poop" fertilizer. This is a perfect way to re-use plastic, and has made this forward thinking company a very popular and respected player in the eco-friendly market.



As for glass recycling, it is a very tough issue to debate. The better solution would be to reuse any glass product that can be reused. Glass jars can be used to store leftovers as opposed to plastic tupperware containers...and will last far longer as well...not to mention that you can alleviate the worry of carcinogens like Dioxin leaching into your leftovers from the plastic containers.



Developments are also being made in creating new forms of transportation that could make local transport of these items less environmentally damaging. Solar powered vehicles and Hydrogen fuel cells become more of a reality every day.



So, yes...i think that recycling could potentially save the planet if we continue to look to newer, cleaner, more energy efficient methods of recycling or reusing.

Answer 2

Depends on what's being recycled.



You mentioned glass. It takes way less energy to make new glass from old glass than to make glass from sand. That's enough to pay for all the extras involved in doing it.



Same with aluminum.



Paper is a more dodgy proposition. But England is a small country and waste disposal space is also a consideration.

Answer 3

Companies have changed a lot in the past 20 years to use as little of packaging as possible. Aluminum cans used to be very very thick and now it's quite thin. I think paper recycle is great since it can allow for replanted trees to grow. Aluminum in large amounts (like from car parts) is quite worth the money to recycle. Recycling has less to do with using less material than it does cutting down on our landfill's size.

Answer 4

Sorry, this is a lot of rubbish you heard today !!!



I do not like the US a lot BUT...



The US HAS THE STEEL INDUSTRY WITH THE LOWEST CO2 AND ENERGY INTENSITY IN THE WORLD... DO YOU KNOW WHY?



Due to all the "secondary steel" (recycled scrap) which avoid a lot of processes to produce iron in the first place. In China where there was no long industrial history, not a lot of scraps are available and so they use more energy.



A recycled ton of aluminum uses 1/20th of the energy

A recycled ton of aluminum uses 1/2 of the energy





I can send you a whole report with figures if you want. But believe me, what you heard is not accurate

Answer 5

You pass over the element to recycling plastics. Plastics are no longer Bio-degradable, it quite is, they do no longer decompose. in case you drop a soda bottle on the floor, in one thousand years, it is going to nevertheless be blowing around someplace. there is not any thank you to offer up plastics from being made, so there'll constantly be poisonous gases going into the ambience from the production of plastics. the full element to recycling plastic is to cut back the quantity of it basically sitting there in landfills. the belief being that we could constantly re-use what has already been made, quite than to maintain coming up further and extra till there is not any extra area to maintain it. In precis this is greater approximately lowering the quantity of rubbish generated than approximately scuffling with poisonous fumes and international warming. i desire this enables.

Answer 6

Recycling isn't about lessening pollution. In fact, recycling is currently about as environmentally friendly as just throwing the stuff away. Recycling is actually about conserving resources. All those plastic and glass bottles you throw away can't do anyone any good just sitting in the ground, can they?

Answer 7

sometime i will agree with you that it is another reason to spend money, but believe, it much better to recycle plastic Rather than BURN it or put somewhere else. really we don't spend a lot of energy trying to recycle plastic, it is just chemistry.

the paper recycling save us of extra cutting down trees, but here they DO mistake, OLD trees CAN'T help to produce oxygen,they just use the land.

so i think this problem it Unsolved till today....hopefully we won't damage our planet

Answer 8

I was going to say that everything that you don't like is a conspiracy.



perhaps though you shouldn't bring garbage back from the pub.



Ask yourself why they would do it if there was no benefit?



A, there is benefit to the environment (landfill or global)

B, It's a conspiracy, now go get some evidence, or just have another beer.

Answer 9

That may be true, but it takes more energy and gives off more pollution to harness completely new materials with which to make products.

Answer 10

well, you've just answered you're question.



if you don't do it right, then there really will be no positive benefits. To put it in another way, the negative benefits will outweigh the positive benefits to the environment.

Answer 11

I don't think recycling will "save" the planet... there are too many people and we keep reproducing like crazy. We have to limit our population in conjunction with not being so wasteful.

Answer 12

Ofcourse it will. How could it not? As for the the conspiracy theory-PLEASE-thats just crazy.

Answer 13

Well God has plans and no matter what the humans do this world will still end because that is what the bible states.

Answer 14

Yes, I do beleive.

Answer 15

It's a load of rubbish... i hope..........

Answer 16

DAH YEAH