I know this sounds like HERESY but.... (recycling)?

Question

Ok, here's my question. And please don't be snarky! I know it's super efficient to recycle aluminum - that's clear. But for other stuff (paper/plastic/glass) is it REALLLLLY worth it?

Answer 1

Positively.

Answer 2

With paper, you are removing the phases where the tree is cut down, turned into pulp, refined, made into paste, and made into paper.  When you recycle, the pulp and (depending on the methods used) refinement phases can be skipped.  The difference in transportation costs pays for any sorting being done.

With plastic, you remove the drilling of the petroleum, the refinement of the petroleum into the ingredients, and the mixing of the ingredients to make plastic.  When you recycle, you have to melt the existing plastic and reform it.  For most plastics, this is very cost-efficient, but the softer the plastic, the more it costs to recycle -- with plastic shopping bags, the cost is the same or more to recycle; we are trying to keep this out of the landfills.

Glass and aluminum have the same cost benefits.  People have been recycling glass since it was invented!

Answer 3

Worth if for me, but everyone has to make their own analysis.

Answer 4

Difficult question - depends how much energy is used to take it to be recycled (e.g. miles travelled & petrol used) & whether it is going to be reused as is (much better) or broken down and reworked. Someone else rightly pointed out that it reduces landfill, which can only be a good thing.

I think encouraging reuse wherever possible is the best way to go & that governments / manufacturers should (re)introduce deposit schemes on glass and plastic bottles / containers, etc (as in Holland, for example). We should also insist on less packaging and better made goods that last longer to also help reduce waste.

But until then......... I'd say recycling beats landfill!!

Answer 5

This is a great question.  I'd love to hear more informative answers that are based on scientific fact or economic knowledge.  What I really don't want to hear is religious folklore that is completely unrelated to the question at hand.

Answer 6

Visy industries makes huge sums of money recycling paper.  If a business is able to make it commercially viable, then it is worthwhile.  When paper gets recycled, a lot of trees are not cut down.

From Visy's website "That amount of paper is equal to more than 18 million trees and provides a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gases normally associated with waste paper going into landfill. "

They are referring to a yearly amount- 18 million trees per year from this company alone is a lot of trees and a lot of paper.  

With the cost of oil going up, it is going to become even more cost effective to recycle plastics.  We constantly see break through in the way things are processed making them even more cost effective. A recent invention I saw was a small mobile processing plant that was able to use all of the different bits of old tyres to reuse. So I think it is worth it.

Answer 7

I see lots of Friends of Polar Bears are answering without reading the question. I don't know myself but the question is, IMHO,  folks: does the energy used in recycling glass and plastic.....sorting, melting, bundling and shipping back to the bottle plant.......offset what was used in the first place....

Answer 8

yes. immagen all the trees cut down to make paper. did you know that a tree holds more that like 20,000 gallons of water!if we recycil, les global warming will happen, and then less trees will be cut down. same with plastic and glass. it took energy to make them.

Answer 9

of course its worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! your making the world a better place even if it sounds like a small and useless task. its not!! keep up the good work!

Answer 10

Absolutely!  Do you know that we need petroleum to make plastic? We all know how much that costs these days! When we recycle paper we're saving trees.Hence, newspapers made with recycled paper and printed with soy ink!   Why would you even ask if you should recycle glass? Is it biodegradable? No!! Will glass break down in the soil if you just leave it there? NO!Can you imagine how much glass(aluminum/plastic/paper, too!) would be piled up in landfills if everyone on the planet did not recycle?

Recycling is necessary for the whole planet and everyone to survive in the future! We need to stop depleting our resources and get off our behinds and do something about it!

  We need to make the time in our days to recycle everything we can!

Answer 11

The mantra is: REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE.  In other words - as one other respondent pointed out,  recycling should be seen as the last resort. So, buy as few newly manufactured goods as you can.  Use a box scheme for fruit and veg and try to buy food without packaging where possible.  Don't accept carrier bags (hard, but gets easier with practice) re-use packaging inc carrier bags where possible, use Free-cycle, charity shops, skips etc where possible for clothes, furniture etc.  Only when we have significantly reduced the amount we are consuming and the amount of rubbish we are producing will recycling fit properly into the equation.

Answer 12

As you note, it's really good to recycle aluminum.

Glass is also very good.  It takes a lot less energy to melt old glass than to melt sand, the basic raw material.

Paper and plastic are a closer call.  But....

You can do a lot of good by choosing recycled paper and plastic products, and creating a market for them.  That's probably the most important thing to do for paper and plastic.

Paper towels and garbage bags are excellent examples.

Answer 13

Sure, it all adds up :-)

Answer 14

yes it is worth it, because shops often use these recycled materials make products to sell, eg Marksand Spencers make comfortable sweaters from 100% recycled plastic. Its worth it not just for shops, but for the environment too coz otherwise shops would use new plastic instead which costs mor and adds to landfill

Answer 15

Yes, it is worth it. If you use about 10-15 glass or plastic bottles per week, and you recycle all the papers you use, and have been recycling all your life, you've saved a lot of trees and have saved a lot of energy.

Answer 16

I agree with you, it isn't worth all of the effort to collect plastic to remelt into other plastic items.  Glass is inert and doesn't hurt anything when its diposed of.  And paper should go straight to the landfill and all those volunteer worms who recylce it into fertilizer for nothing. Aluminum is so electricity intensive to manufacture in the first place that its the only thing I would consider going to any effort to recycle.

Answer 17

The reason to recycle is to save space in the land fills. It has nothing to do with cost or saving energy, despite what people seem to think. Recycling will not reduce global warming at all for example.