Eric Truong

       Humans worldwide produce approximately 29.4 billion tons of garbage each year. The earth we live in is soon becoming overrun with waste. Imagine roads littered with disgusting trash. Infectious rodents scurry in and out of garbage heaps along the sidewalks. How would you feel if your kids had to live their daily life in garbage? I am certain you would not feel great. The waste that humans are creating everyday is piling up in our landfills and incinerators. According to Earth’s Garbage Crisis, it is estimated that “humans produce approximately 29.4 billion tons of garbage a year.” The main problem with this is that humans are now producing more trash than our natural environment can handle, and an increasing amount of this garbage is non-biodegradable. This means that a lot of this garbage cannot be decomposed or broken down naturally. What can slow this world garbage crisis? Recycling. Recycling reduces the demand for new materials and resources from the environment. Recycling reduces the energy and pollution needed to make new products from recycled materials than from virgin raw materials. Recycling stimulates growth in the economy. It is imperative that people recycle because it saves natural resources and natural habitats, saves energy, reduces harmful emissions, and benefits the economy.

      To stop the world’s garbage crisis, it is necessary first to save Earth’s natural resources. Recycling reduces the demand for new materials to be extracted from the environment. By reducing the demand for new materials, such as metals that must be mined and refined, from the environment, more land and a greater number of habitats can be preserved and conserved. For example, by recycling paper, fewer trees are needed to produce more paper. Christiane Dorion, writer of Earth’s Garbage Crisis, states “It takes approximately seventeen trees to make one ton of paper, not to mention large amounts of water, chemicals, and energy” (45). When humans recycle their used paper, it goes through a process that uses less energy and resources than when manufacturing paper from fresh-cut trees. The easiest way to save Earth’s natural resources is to reduce the world resource consumption. “Humans worldwide waste approximately 71.8 million tons of paper each year.” This is why there are nearly “four billion trees cut down” each year. It is no wonder that environmentalists complain about deforestation. Reuse your paper. Do not use it once and dispose it immediately. The number of trees cut down a year for paper alone accounts for “35 percent of all harvested trees per year” (Kraft).

A great example of reusing material to lessen the the environmental impact is the recycling of aluminum cans. Aluminum cans are the most widely recycled metal. “In 1999, roughly two-thirds of all aluminum cans produced in the United States were recycled.” Because of such a high recycling rate of aluminum, there can be a greatly decreased amount of bauxite ore (world's main source of aluminium) extracted from the Earth’s topsoil. Save our resources, save our natural habitats (“Recycling Programs Divert”).

      By recycling, one can also save energy and reduce emissions into the environment. Allen Hershkowitz, a leading expert in recycling, states that “using recycled materials helps avoid the air and water pollution typically caused by manufacturing plants that rely solely on unprocessed, virgin raw materials.” It takes less energy to make new products from recycled materials than from virgin raw materials. For example, it takes 95 percent less energy to produce aluminum products from recycled aluminum than from the raw materials of bauxite ore. Not only does using recycled materials decrease the amount of energy expended, it also greatly decreases the pollution that is released compared to processing raw materials and resources. Hershkowitz states, “Because using recycled materials reduces the need to extract, process, refine, and transport the timber, crude petroleum, ores, and so on that are necessary for virgin-based paper, plastics, glass, and metals, recycling lessens the toxic air emissions, effluents, and solid wastes that these manufacturing processes create.”

      It is imperative that you recycle materials no matter what. “In 1994 alone, the 1,834 plastic production facilities operating in the United States emitted more than 111 million pounds of toxic air emissions”. Twelve million pounds of the 111 million pounds of toxic air emissions consisted of ozone depleting chemicals (Hershkowitz). This can be avoided, however. Virtually all of these impacts are reduced or avoided entirely when recycled plastics substitute for crude oil and gas in the manufacture of consumer packaging and products. This process saves a lot of energy and reduces the pollution that would be in a full blown extraction. Everyone must cherish the healthy air they breathe,  or it will no longer be there for us when they need it. Humans must reduce the emissions that are destroying the earth’s ozone layer! Recycle today so that everyone can cause less pollution and impose fewer burdens on the earth's natural habitat and biodiversity. 

      Recycling not only benefits the environment, but it also directly benefits the people of this earth. Recycling creates jobs and benefits the economy. The United States recycling industry has generated over a million jobs--a figure that is expected to double as the demand for recycled materials continues to grow in the industrial and agricultural businesses. As Earth’s Garbage Crisis becomes increasingly well known, more and more recycling programs and industries are beginning to pop up. This is causing growth in jobs which is stimulating economic development. Neil Seldman, president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Washington, DC, states “The recycling industry has created well over one million jobs and is projected to add another million jobs as recycling levels continue to divert more and more material to industry and agriculture.”

      An example of a successful recycling business is Urban Ore in Berkeley, California. Urban Ore has served as a model for large and small reuse stores all over the world. Urban Ore is open 360 days a year, ten hours a day while conducting business under the motto "to end the age of waste.” The purpose of these “reuse stores” is to divert used building materials and other products from landfills and transfer stations by sorting, cleaning, organizing and selling products to individual customers and other reuse stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. Urban Ore has been extremely successful in the past years. They approximately send to landfills “less than two percent of the 7,000 to 8,000 tons of materials and products that come its way each year”. It is currently “a model for large and small reuse stores all over the world,” and grosses “over $2.6 million annually” (Seldman). With more and more of these recycling based businesses rapidly popping up, more jobs are being created. It is imperative that you recycle. Recycling not only positively affects the environment, it also benefits the economy and the people.

      Overall, recycling is extremely beneficial to us on earth. Recycling has shown many direct and indirect benefits to humans. It can save us from Earth’s garbage crisis. It will protect our ozone layer, save our trees, and reduce the extraction of non-renewable resources. You should recycle because it saves natural resources and natural habitats, reduces harmful emissions while saving energy, and creates jobs which benefits the economy. If you want to make an impact on the world, recycle today. Recycling will give you fresher air to breathe in and cleaner water to drink. Recycling will prevent the world garbage crisis from happening. Recycling will save your family. Recycling will save the world.