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Recycling Environmental Awareness

In society today more and more people are becoming conscious of environmental issues such as recycling. People recycle everything from paper to computer hardware. For this assignment I examine two articles both with similarities and differences on the actual benefits of recycling on the environment.
.According to an article in the National Geographic, (Zeller.Jr., 2008, para. 1). “Consider the true cost of a product over its entire life—from harvesting the raw materials to creating, consuming, and disposing of it—and the scale tips dramatically in recycling’s favor”. The article in National Geographic uses data from recent studies to prove recycling is better for the environment because it keeps trash from going into landfills where it sits buried or burns and emits toxic fumes into the environment. Even though it cost recycling companies more money to recycle one’s trash than to make any financial profits, and the large trucks that pick up the recyclables will emit carbon dioxide and require more consumption of energy, it still makes more sense to recycle considering all the word’s trash. “The short answer is: Yes” (Zeller.Jr., 2008, para. 1).
An interesting point in this article is that the United States is behind on making production companies responsible in sharing the costs for the recycling burden “extended producer responsibility,” such as in Europe known as The Packaging Waste Directive of 1994. In Europe production companies share the costs for recycling because so much of it comes from excessive packaging. The Unites States also exports its share of products globally and uses packaging materials, such as water bottles that require excessive packaging for safe arrival. (Zeller.Jr., 2008)
In another article according to Smith, S. (1994) Recycling alone is not an appropriate and sustainable approach to waste

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