Are there any cons to recycling?

Question

I no recycling is great but are there any cons to it?

Answer 1

takes an extra second to get the cap off of bottles and such.

Answer 2

its expensive and the energy taken to recycle is much more than to produce a new item.

Answer 3

There is a large amount of fuel burned to ship the stuff to be processed, and thoes processing plants need a large amount of energy to melt down, etc. the stuff for it to be useful.

Answer 4

Recycling does cost money, someone, either city, county, or another agency, must cover the costs.  However, in every case of household items, steel cans, plastic bottles, glass jars, etc., recycling always saves energy.  You have to consider the entire process of making materials from virgin versus recycled stock--extraction of materials from the earth, transportation, and manufacture.

Answer 5

The recycling process does consume energy and produce greenhouse gasses, but not nearly as much as initial production.  I feel the need to list out the pros to counter all the cons being listed here, but I'll just stick to the cons to answer your question.

1. Inconvenience.  Separating, washing, etc.

2. Transportation.  It takes an extra truck to collect recyclables, which increases greenhouse gas emissions, and some recycled materials do need to be transported great distances to be used.  (though so do raw materials for initial production)

3. Processing.  Consumes some energy, releases some pollutants.  Again, not as bad as making stuff from scratch.

4. Economic.  Recycling programs cost money, though as solid waste costs go up and landfills close down, those costs do pay for themselves in the end.

Answer 6

Recycled computers go to china where they are stripped of their gold and thrown in a pile where chemicals seep into ground water.

Answer 7

Sometimes they ship stuff halfway around the world to be recycled. Like some of the plastics collected in London are apparently shipped to China and recycled there...:S