I'm a teen, why should I recycle?

Question

I'm doing a project on this so give me some benefits that get teenagers to recycle more. And most teens don't care about responosibility so please don't giv me that answer.

Answer 1

You'll still be alive when the flooding begins.  I will be dead.

Answer 2

Teens always say they want more respect from adults... this would be a good way to get some. Also its your future you'd be recycling for:-)

Answer 3

Because it saves you money.

The more trash you create, the more landfills are used, etc.  When your community runs out of space, it must acquire more landfill space, either by buying land or contracting to pay someone else to use their landfill (as well as pay to ship it there).

Some landfills have contaminated their surrounding groundwater or caused other pollution that must be cleaned up.

All of these costs are passed on to you.  The cost of dealing with the trash is added to your utility or garbage collection bill.  Cleanup costs usually come through taxes- either on what you and your parents make at work, sales taxes, or property taxes (which your parents must pay, leaving you with less allowance, or your parents landlords pay, passing the costs on to your parents and then to you in the same way)

Recycling, on the other hand is effectively free.  Recyclers will accept recyclable garbage free, or even pay collectors for it, as they can sell an end product.  You get rid of your trash more cheaply, and your local solid waste utility or garbage management company does not have to pay for added landfill capacity, or the associated environmental damage.

A majority of trash is recyclable, so get on it- you could, in the long run, save about half of your parents' waste collection bill.

Answer 4

People say that we are in a crisis because of global warming. People should recycle I think because it might start reversing all this golbal warming but it saves a LOT of plants and trees and anything that can be recycled will get us there.

I got these cards and this is one of the things that it tells you when going through and reading them it has a Q and A well here it is

How could farmers contrubite to making paper?

Each yr American farmers generate an estmated 280 mil tonsof excess agriculture fiber - wheat, rice straw, and stripped cornstalk- that is sutibale for making paper. Can be processed w/ less chem, water,  and enegery than wood. Fibers can be stored yr round. Does that work for you. Hope it helped any.

Answer 5

Well, if you save up your bottles and cans, there are some recycling centers that will give you money based on how many pounds of recycling you give them, so it's a good way for a little extra cash. CA does this and i think other more liberal states do this too.

Also, recycling is super easy (just seperate your  paper and cans from your other trash) and it makes things cheaper and cleaner in the long run, so your kids will have a better place to live.

Answer 6

Teen should recycle more because the more they do it, most likely they will do it the rest of their lives.

If you are trying to convince teens to recycle, try scaring them into it.  Tell them what would happen if they don't.

Like cost of things will out up because they are using more things that could have been recycled and now they are running out because of a shortage of recycables.  Just a Thought!

Answer 7

U can separate it now or dig through the land fills later to get the resources u need.

Answer 8

i do think it's because u r the ones that gonna live in the future. so if u want clean future, better start working on it. it's always better if u work for ur future right??

Answer 9

Soon you wont be a teen and you will be thinking 'ah, if only I had taken better care of my planet....'

Answer 10

Because its easy. you dont need a reason. you're just helping the enviroment

Answer 11

It depends on your values.  You might recycle because you can make some money by selling things of value.  You might recycle if it means saving money on trash services.  

You might recycle if you think it makes you look cool and you want to pretend you know about environmental issues and economics, without actually learning about environmental issues and economics -- that's how most of the people who pretend they are into recycling do it.  Most of them are just ignorant sheep, though.

Many of the answers above this one demonstrate that ignorant sheep mentality -- they say "it's good for the earth," but they don't give you any specifics -- because they don't know any.

So, if your project is about how to get teens to participate in recycling, you would probably get a lot of success with the "look cool, do like all the other monkeys"  approach - obviously that's worked with a lot of people.

If your project is to learn something about recycling, though, then I suggest you look at the actual issues like economics of production, raw materials,  cost of recycling versus making new product, benefits and costs of recycling versus benefits and costs of not recycling.  You will find that for some materials there is definitely a benefit to recycling, and that for other materials there is no benefit to recycling.  In fact, for some materials, it not only costs more money but actually harms the environment MORE to recycle.

So, if you're interested in that kind of project, one where you actually study and learn in an honest way, and then communicate what you've found to be true - that would be a worthwhile project.

Not as interesting, but certainly a lot easier, would be the thoughtless "be hip, get with the in crowd, sink your brain in mindless following" sort of project.

Answer 12

No matter what your age you should recycle. Did you know that 75% of what we produce is recyclable and Americans only recycle 28%. The landfill are filling up and without people recycling the earth will become one big landfill.

Answer 13

you will help the earth in many ways!!

Answer 14

it's your moral responsibilty to leave the world better than you found it (if only people thought this way)

Answer 15

Did someone on here just quote the "Day After Tomorrow"????  I mean, c'mon, that movie was more of a load of c**p than An Inconvenient Truth.  It was based on fear and assumptions.  At least Al Gore's movie had SOME truth to it, however, even that was mostly a load of c**p.  The truth is, there is NO, I repeat, NO consensus on man-made global warming.  There is more than enough evidence out there to refute it.  Those two movies played on people's fear and emotions by twisting facts.  Look it up.  And as far as recycling goes, it's a feel good solution.  All in all, it doesn't do much of anything because it takes a lot of energy to recycle those bottles and cans you have.  So you might be reusing that plastic and glass, but you're still burning up lots of energy in other areas.  I also noticed that someone is mis-stating facts.  They said the majority of recyclers will take your recyclable products.  That's not true.  Some will be taken.  Aluminum cans, and sometimes glass, but most is definitely an overstatement.  They will take what they can resell as a raw material.  So aluminum makes sense as it can be melted down, but many other things I'm afraid not.  And they also said most things in my trash are recyclable.  Is that right?  So you're saying all my plastic bottles are recyclable?  You'd be wrong.  Just because it's got that little symbol on the bottom does not mean that.  The bottles with #'s 1 and 2 generally are, and maybe even 3 (not sure about that one), but the others are not.  Reason being because they are so complex, that when they are recycled the composition of the plastic breaks down and becomes a lower quality of plastic than it was originally.  And even if a type of plastic is recyclable, doesn't mean it will be recycled.  Go ahead and try to take an empty bottle of Drano or bleach in to be recycled.  They won't take it because it contained a chemical and due to liability and the possiblity of others getting sick from those chemicals later after it has been recycled is too great for anyone to risk.

Answer 16

well b/c the planet is dying, byt the time you teenagers get older, it would be your responsiblities and by then you start recycling things might be too late

besides this is our planet, it's our home, imagine you trashing your house, if you are fine with it, then dont recycle, otherwise, recycle to do the cleanups =)

if you wish to encourage other teens to recycle, try to motivate them by saying "you can get money for recycling" LOL i know that's not THE reason for recycle but it helps to motivate

also

show the movie DAY AFTER TOMORROW

it's the best movie made about the consequences of global warming and what hapens when ppl dont take care of their planet

i know after watchign this movie, i sure put in my efforts of KEEPING THINGS GREEn and recycle much much more

Answer 17

You don't have to necessarily, after all it's your future. But I recommend it, and it's pretty easy to do.