...Fact or Fiction? The trucks that collect recycling burn more energy and produce more pollution than recycling saves. Fact or Fiction? All the paper, plastic, metal and glass dumped in recycling bins has to be painstakingly (and expensively) sorted by hand. Fact or Fiction? Thanks to sky-high prices of raw materials, cities are getting rich by selling recyclables. Lay of the Land (No pun intended!) What & Why Recycle? Recycling involves processing used materials into new products to: • • • • • Prevent the waste of potentially useful materials, Reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, Reduce energy usage, and air pollution (from incineration) Reduce water pollution (from land filling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and Lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production Why is it important? • Saves Energy • Saves Land Space • Saves Money • Reduces Air and Water pollution • Creates Jobs • Preserves Wildlife • Fewer trees cut down to make virgin materials or to make space for landfills → habitat for wildlife remains It is complicated... http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/importance-recycling/ But important … Supply & Demand National Benefits – Public Goods 1980 to 2008 Solid Waste Generation per person 4.50 lbs 33% Recycling Rate < 10% 3.66 lbs Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in United States: Facts & Figures for 2008; US EPA National Benefits...
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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...
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...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 made...
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...Recycling Everyone can take part of save the planet. One of the most contributing ways of saving the planet is by recycling. These three words reduce, reuse, and recycle is talking about how people handle waste, which currently is a big issue in the United States. In today’s society, landfills are overflowing causing serious issues that need to be addressed. Knowing how to address them and how to correct the problem can be an easy process if taught the proper way to do it. Recycling allows today’s society to process used materials, which reduce the consumption of raw materials, energy, pollution, greenhouse emissions, and the need for conventional waste disposal. Recycling is one of the ultimate solutions to reduce the amount of waste that is constantly dumped into our landfills. The United States is the number one trash producing country in the world. (www.nbci.nlm.nih.gov, 2010) The United States have environmentalist groups that are really pushing for stricter laws regarding recycling. These environmentalist groups do not only want to make it a choice but demand that every American household must recycle in order to reduce the amount of waste that is entering American landfills. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 32.1% of solid waste is recycled, 13.6% is incinerated, and 54.3% end up in landfills, yet some believe that approximately 90% of all solid waste is recyclable. (Chase, Dominick, Trepa, Bailey,& Friedman, 2009) (www.lwvmd.org) Solid waste...
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...Recycling and the Environment Ayanna G Hawkins Argosy University Atlanta Professor Lily March 19, 2015 There is a number of items people use in their daily lives that could be used again. On any given day, the number of used plastic or glass bottles, newspapers, and paper products fill garbage bins. Rarely does the impact of discarding these items occur to many people in the world. Instead of throwing used products away, more people should focus on reusing and recycling. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defined recycling as “the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products” (para. 1, 2015). Recycling helps extend the life and usefulness of something that has already served its initial purpose by producing something that is useable. Recycling has a lot of benefits and importance not only to us humans but especially to our planet. There are various means for collecting recyclables such as curbside pick up, recycling centers, and incentive programs. Recycling benefits the environment in numerous ways such as reducing waste, preserving resources, and preventing pollution. Reusing Recycled Material The most easily recycled materials are plastic and paper. According to the EPA (2014a), “32 million tons of plastic waste were generated in 2012” (para. 2). Plastic accounts for 13% of waste in the United States. Unfortunately a mere 9% of plastic was recycled in that...
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...Bob Kanex Professor Gasph English 101 2/4/2014 Writer’s Checklist for Informational Essay 1. How does my introduction clearly state my thesis and give the reader an indication of the direction my essay will take? My Introduction clearly states my thesis by jumping into the issue at hand and giving a brief explanation to the issue being discussed. 2. How have I made my topic sentences and body paragraphs clear and well developed? My topic sentences and paragraphs are in an order that is easy to read and doesn’t jump from one to another but flows together. 3. What supporting details and examples have I used to fully support my thesis? My supporting details and examples have come from credited sources both from the APUS Library and those found on the internet to help support my thesis. 4. What sources did I use to complete this paper according to the assignment instructions? The following sources were used for information to complete this assignment. "Public and Private Sector Experts to Share Waste Management Best Practice at EcoWASTE 2014." UAE Government News(2014)ProQuest. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. Pyrko, Jurek, and Sarah Darby. "Conditions of Energy Efficient Behaviour--a Comparative Study between Sweden and the UK."Energy Efficiency 4.3 (2011): 393-408. ProQuest. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. "The Swedish Recycling Revolution." Sweden.se. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2015. "Landfill Methane Outreach Program | US EPA." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web....
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...on trying to clean up cities and towns it still has a long way to go. The United States has a growing problem with resource consumption, Cities and towns are having problems with handling large capacities of waste. Hazardous waste and construction waste has grown in this dilemma also. With the methane emissions increasing as well hazardous liquids contamination seeping out of the landfills more computers means more plastic this causes your city and town landfill tax to increase to keep these problems under control. According to the U.S census bureau say there are 309,941,768 people in the us, a growth of 3.3 million people a year. With the average 4 person house hold accumulating 1 ton of waste per year, this could be a very serious problem for the ecosystem and the earth as well. The fact that pollution is on our highways, in our lakes and streams at the beaches and even even on top of Mt Everest is that litter effects both living and nonliving it has no prejudice. Litter effects use as a society in a lot of ways. Litter can be a safety hazard on the road from a survey done by green eco services(2009) twenty five thousand car accidents happen every year because of litter related conditions on the highway which in turn effects insurance companies to raise their premiums. Forty eight percent of Americas admit to littering. Taxpayers pay to pick up litter in Cities, Counties, States, National Agencies, Forestry’s, Park and Recreation Departments, Prisons, Corporate...
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...Recycling, Reducing, and Reusing Dasheen M. Jennings Ecology and Environmental Sustainability | SCI201 A05 Instructor: Jennifer Parker-wright July 31, 2013 Recycling, Reducing, and Reusing 1 “Richmond, VA (WTVR) – More people are living in Virginia. According to a new study, Virginia’s population is outpacing the rest of the nation. Virginia’s population grew by 2.3% between 2010 and July of 2012. At the same time, the United States’ population grew by 1.7%.More than half of the State’s growth occurred in Northern Virginia, Virginia Beach, and Richmond. The study, done by demographers at the University of Virginia, also puts the states current population at 8.2 million.” (http://wtvr.com) when I read these amazing facts, I was blown away I didn’t know that Virginia has grown and still is growing. I remember when I first moved to Virginia, at the teenager age, I couldn’t believe that this state was so big and the scenery was beautiful. In the Richmond, we have a recycling bin that collects metal, plastics, and paper. This company has a website I would like to put some information: “Since 1985, Richmond Recycling has been one of the Mid-Atlantic’s premier recycling centers. One of the reasons...
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...Running head: THE BENEFITS OF RECYCLING 1 The Benefits of Recycling AIU Online THE BENEFITS OF RECYCLING 2 Introduction Is recycling beneficial? Yes. Recycling is the process that takes used materials and turns them into new products. First of all, this process reduces the amount of waste in the landfills which helps the environment. There is already too much land that has been taken over by these landfills. Secondly, recycling also promotes environmental awareness. It’s important to be aware of what the waste is doing to our environment. Third of all, recycling will also help with the economical aspect by providing job opportunities. This would be a great benefit for people who cannot find jobs. The environmental, political, and economical situations would all benefit from the recycling industry. THE BENEFITS OF RECYCLING 3 Abstract What would happen if we became over run by trash? We probably wouldn’t be living in a healthy environment then. Recycling promotes the reuse of recycled materials to make new products. Most products are made with recyclable materials like plastics, glass, paper, metals, and even rubber can be recycled. All these materials can prevent the landfills...
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...BENEFITS OF RECYCLING 1 The Benefits of Recycling AIU Online THE BENEFITS OF RECYCLING 2 Introduction Is recycling beneficial? Yes. Here are some reasons why recycling is beneficial. Recycling is the process that takes used materials and turns them into new products. First of all, this process reduces the amount of waste in the landfills which helps the environment. This would help with using the land for other beneficial reasons and also reduce the pollution risks of our environment. There is already too much land that has been taken over by these landfills. Secondly, recycling also promotes environmental awareness. It’s important to be aware of what the waste is doing to our environment. We wouldn’t want our generations to live in an unhealthy environment. We need to show the future that reusing materials saves energy, provides resources and can also provide more job opportunities. Third of all, recycling will also help with the economical aspect by providing job opportunities, reducing the cost of waste disposal and also providing more land for other beneficial resources. This would be a great benefit for people who cannot find jobs. The environmental, political, and economical situations would all benefit from the recycling industry. THE BENEFITS OF RECYCLING ...
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...Is Recycling Efficient? Antonio Childress Baker College ECN 202 Sections 00630 Mr. R. Jordan May 19, 2012 Is Recycling Efficient Recycling is the process of converting waste products into reusable materials; it is an ancient practice with many modern applications, recycling differs from reuse, which simply means using a product again. It refers to the recovery and reuse of materials from spent products. In recent years recycling has become a major part of environmental policy, mainly because of the increased costs of solid- and hazardous-waste disposal, the scarcity of natural resources, and the growing concern over polluted land, water, and air. There are two types of recycling operations: internal and external. Internal recycling is the reuse in a manufacturing process of materials that are a waste product of that process. Internal recycling is common in the metals industry. External recycling is the reclaiming of materials from a product that has been worn out or considered obsolete. An example of external recycling is the collection of old newspapers and magazines for the manufacture of newsprint or other paper products. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about 30 percent of U.S. solid waste is recycled. About 15 percent is incinerated and about 55 percent goes into landfills. Recycling is appealing because it seems to offer a way to simultaneously reduce the amount of waste disposed in landfills and save natural resources....
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... It originally started off garbage dumps or landfills and has progressed to recycling facilities and incinerators that produce both heat and energy from the burned waste. It has been influenced by both motorized transportation and the advances in technology. The most influential person in the waste management industry in the U.S. has been Wayne Huizenga, who saw how to take smaller, independent companies and acquire them into the largest company in the industry. He was able to do that by using stock in his company to make the acquisitions instead of taking out loans from the banks. Waste management and corruption have always been associated with one another because of mafia ownership and even accounting debacles. It is a business that really did not take much to get into other than some capital and transportation. With the decline of available resources and the demand for fewer issues with hazardous waste, an advanced college degree has been necessary to get into management or in the design of the facilities and treatment of waste. Some countries such as Denmark have even advanced as far as to only use their landfills for about 6% of their waste, recycling and incinerating the rest (Buch-Andersen, 2005). Because of booming populations and economies, as well as the planet running out of room for landfills, we must learn to improve our waste management and teach future generations the importance and impact of it. Almost everything we do produces waste in one form or another...
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...Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that participating in recycling is important in the future of our environment. Central Idea: We as a society have the capability to change the future of our environment. Introduction I. After spending a hot day running errands you think, I could really use something to quench my thirst. A. You may grab a can of soda or a bottle of water and 10 or 15 minutes later on the way past the trash you toss it in. B. Many of us do this on a daily basis without even thinking about where all that trash goes. II. We bag up the garbage, sit it on the curb, and the trash man comes to haul it all off to the landfill. A. According to the U.S. National Park Service the soda can you throw away can take 80-200 years to degrade in the landfill, or 450 years for a plastic bottle (Garbage). B. If we recycle that one can we can save “enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours”(Cummings). III. We as consumers have the capability of altering our habits and influencing the outcome of our planet for years to come. Transition: I know many of us have thought about recycling, but we don’t take the initiative to do it consistently. Body I. I’d like to first have everyone consider the effects not recycling may have on our environment. A. With recycling we can conserve natural resources such as water, timber, and minerals. 1. According...
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...PETRODOLLARS AND ASIAN DOLLAR Introduction: A petrodollar is a United States dollar earned by a country through the sale of its petroleum to another country. The term was coined in 1973 by Georgetown University economics professor, Ibrahim Oweiss, who recognized the need for a term that could describe the dollar receiving by petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) in exchange for oil. The term, petrodollar, should not be confused with petrocurrency which refers to the actual national currency of each petroleum exporting country. It is the money that oil exporters receive from selling oil and then deposit into Western banks. Petrodollars refers to the money that Middle Eastern countries and members of OPEC receive as revenue from Western nations and then put back into those same nations' banks. For example if Libya were to receive money from the U.S. for oil and then put the money into a U.S. bank, that deposited money is referred to as petrodollars. We use the International Monetary Fund’s definition of oil exporters—those countries that currently derive the bulk of their export revenues from sales of fuel. Norway has been added because last year the country derived roughly 53 percent of export revenues from oil. Origin of petrodollar phenomenon: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in Baghdad, Iraq, with the signing of an agreement in September 1960 by five countries namely Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela...
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...Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly. Feces contain large quantities of fresh and soft texturized waste products. Waste is directly linked to human development, both technologically and socially. The compositions of different wastes have varied over time and location, with industrial development and innovation being directly linked to waste materials. An example of this includes plastics and nuclear technology. Some components of waste have economical value and can be recycled once correctly recovered. Zero Waste America defines waste as "a resource that is not safely recycled back into the environment or the marketplace." This definition takes into account the value of waste as a resource, as well as the threat unsafe recycling can present to the environment and public health. The word 'waste' and the act of 'wasting' are human inventions. Waste doesn't exist in nature. In nature, everything has a purpose. Waste was created by humans for short-term convenience and short-term profit. Wasting results in long-term harmful consequences for both humans, nature, and the economy. Where does your waste go? Landfill As you can see from the chart most rubbish in Britain goes to landfill. We used to call landfills dumps or pits. We try to use old sandpits, gravel pits, clay pits and quarries to bury our rubbish but these are being filled too quickly and we are running out of space. Another problem is that regulations now mean that new landfills have to be engineered...
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