Just about everyone knows our environment is in danger. One of the most serious threats is the massive amount of waste we put into the air, water, and ground every year. All across the world are thousands of places that have been, and continue to be, polluted by toxic waste, radioactive waste and just plain garbage. It is imperative that we are aware of all the things that we can do to help our environment by diminishing the amount of trash and garbage that we produce each year. One easy way of doing that is by a method called recycling. Many might not know the importance of recycling and what it can do to our environment. While recycling has become part of the daily routine for many people, the full importance of recycling is not always understood. In general, people do understand that recycling helps to minimize the drain on the limited resources of our planet. However, there are several other factors that make recycling important which will be discussed in this paper.

Although recycling may seem like a modern concept introduced with the environmental movement of the 1970s, it's actually been around for thousands of years. Prior to the industrial age, you couldn't make goods quickly and cheaply, so virtually everyone practiced recycling in some form. However, large-scale recycling programs were very rare -- households predominantly practiced recycling. The mass production of the industrial age is, in many ways, the very reason we need to worry about large-scale recycling. When products can be produced (and purchased) very cheaply, it often makes more economic sense to simply throw away old items and purchase brand new ones. However, this culture of "disposable" goods created a number of environmental problems. In the 1930s and 40s, conservation and recycling became important in American society and in many other parts of the world. Economic depressions