Recycling has been encouraged for many years now. We have already seen the impact of residential and commercial waste around the world. Some places have felt the impact even more. Videos of polluted oceans have also resurfaced in recent weeks. This shows that our failure to manage waste has led to the pollution of the environment.
The worst part is that what we have done to the environment over the years has lasting effects that may be felt even by the next generations. Therefore, even if you feel lazy about recycling or you don’t see its immediate impact, you should still give it a try.
You can earn money
You won’t be an instant millionaire simply by recycling, but you can at least earn some money. You can sell some materials and turn them into extra cash. Some places even provide incentives for people to recycle by giving them monetary rewards. Items like paper, scrap metals and boxes can be sold at a reasonable price. There are also some recycling facilities that can buy these items too. The key is to classify them before selling.
More jobs are created
The recycling industry has already created a lot of jobs over the years. Some of these jobs include collectors of recycled items, designing labels for recycled goods, operators for recycling facilities, waste management engineers, and many others. This only shows that your support for recycling is also a support for job creation.
Landfill waste is reduced
Wherever you go, landfills have already been maxed out. There are even countries that have decided to sell their waste materials to countries that are willing to dispose of them. Given the number of people living in this world today and the tons of waste being produced on a daily basis, landfills are already nearing or going beyond their capacity. As most of the items thrown in landfills take time to decompose, it is becoming a big problem. When you recycle, these items won’t end up in a landfill. You may even decide to create your own compost pit at home to avoid throwing the waste in landfills.
Environmental effects
When you recycle, trash is not burned and so it does not cause pollution. It also takes more energy to create new products as opposed to recycling. For instance, creating new paper from scratch is more energy consuming than creating paper out of recycled materials.
Another thing you need to realise is that not all the items we continuously throw away will be here forever. Some of them like steel have limited sources. If not recycled, we will soon run out of sources.
Recycling hazardous waste can also impact the environment. If it is thrown away, it will just end up in landfills. Then it seeps into the ground and damages the water sources.
Recycling can go a long way. You really have to understand what it means to you and the people around you. It also helps to understand recycling machinery and how it makes recycling easier especially for people who hate recycling.