Introduction to Recycling

Introduction to Recycling

Sustainability is the capacity to withstand and to successfully renew materials over an extended period of time.  In a world that is rapidly degrading through deforestation, global warming, and careless consumption of materials, there should be action to ensure sustainability is a prevalent word in our vocabulary.  Unfortunately earth is a finite resource that is starting to run out.  Of the many raw materials that are running out: oil and other earth ores that have been crucial to the success of economic growth and expansion are becoming more rare at exponential rates.

Among the world consumers, America is by far the most detrimental strain on the earth’s resources. Students.arch.utah.edu states that, “Americans represent 5% of the world’s population, but generate 30% of the world’s garbage.”  This is an alarming statistic that truly shows how ineffective sustainability is in our country, but over half of this garbage has the potential to be recycled in some way or another.  Of these recyclables, Americans discard enough aluminum to rebuild the entire commercial air fleet every three months, enough steel to recreate Manhattan, and enough wood to heat 5 million homes for 200 years (“How much do American’s throw away”).  The amount of recyclables that are thrown away is catastrophic, but it doesn’t have to be.

Recycling has been dated back as early as 400 BC.  Archaeological evidence indicates that glass from the imperial Byzantine Empire was being recycled in the ancient city of Sagalassos, located in current day Turkey.  There is also evidence that early Romans recycled bronze coins into statues that could be sold at a higher monetary value than the original coins(History of Recycling).  Recycling has been used for thousands of years, but why is the recycling rate so poor?  There are a multitude of reasons why people don’t’ recycle.  A couple of reasons are: some people just don’t care about our environment and the stress society applies to the resources we use, others find it inconvenient and extra time that isn’t worth their effort, and some people aren’t knowledgeable about recycling programs in their community.

It is estimated that 40 to 50 percent of American’s recycle common items “all the time” (Up To Half Of Americans Recycle ‘All The Time’).  Although the recycling rate could be worse, it is still only half of the time for the “easy” items, which means that much less than 50 percent of potential recyclable items actually find their ways into recycling centers.  In 2008 the EPA announced that only 30% of people in the Southern region of the United States had curbside recycling collection, while eighty-four percent of people in the Northeast had curbside recycling(Waste and Recycling Facts).  In order for our nation to be less of an impact on the environment and become more sustainable, our country needs to introduce more strict recycling programs that make it easier for the public to gain access to recycling.

When garbage is disposed in its traditional manner it is taken to a landfill, which is a large area where the waste is piled up and buried into the ground.  This is an extremely problematic way of disposing of our garbage because we are starting to run out of space for landfills.  Landfills also impact the environment a tremendous amount.  In 2008, a survey of landfills discovered that 82 percent of surveyed landfill cells had leaks, while 41 percent had a leak larger than 1 square foot.  The newer lined landfills leak in narrow spots, making leaks only detectable if they reach landfill monitoring wells. Both old and new landfills are usually located near large bodies of water, making detection of leaks and their cleanup difficult (“Waste and Recycling Facts”, 2008).

Not only do landfills use space for storing garbage, but there are also serious problems that are associated with them that can lead to pollution of soil and water ways.  Both of these types of pollution are very costly to clean up and detrimental to the environment, but a lot of the waste that is sent to the landfills can be recycled.  Increasing the rate at which America recycles would reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and reduce the soil and water pollution that is directly correlated with landfills.

Recycling has benefits besides just being environmentally friendly and saving resources.  Recycling programs positively affect the economy in a couple of ways.  For example, in South Carolina in 2006, the recycling industry contributed a 6.5 billion dollar impact on the state’s economy according to a study conducted by the College of Charleston’s Department of Economics and Finance.  This study also showed that the state’s recycling programs sustained 15,000 jobs with 1.5 billion dollars in personal income and 69 million dollars in tax revenue each year.  The economy also progressed with the money that the individuals in those jobs spent (“Economic Benefits of Recycling”, 2008).  “It has been estimated that recycling, re-use, and composting create six to ten times as many jobs as waste incineration and landfills do,” reports www.cleanair.org.  Doubling the recycling rate could create over one million new green jobs.  A million new jobs would greatly boost the economy, lowering the unemployment rate as well as providing more people money to spend and to facilitate our economy.

I have contributed many arguments for why recycling is important and I firmly believe that recycling is one of the easiest ways to improve America’s sustainability.  Not only is recycling beneficial to the environment, but I have presented facts and figures why improving our countries recycling habits would greatly impact the economy.

Works Cited

“History of Recycling .” All-Recycling-Facts.com. All-Recycling-Facts.com, 3 Sept. 2009. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.all-recycling-facts.com/history-of-recycling.html&gt;.

“How much do Americans throw away? .” How much do Americans throw away? . Utah.edu, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://students.arch.utah.edu/courses/Arch4011/Recycling%20Facts1.pdf&gt;.

“Up To Half Of Americans Recycle ‘All The Time’.” Environmental Leader 23 May 2008: 1 par. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/03/23/up-to-half-of-americans-recycle-all-the-time/&gt;.

“Waste and Recycling Facts.” Clean Air Council . Clean Air Council , n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html&gt;.

“Economic Benefits of Recycling .” DHEC’s Pffice of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling . DHEC, 2008. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. <http://www.scdhec.gov/environment/lwm/recycle/pubs/economic_benefits_of_recycling.pdf&gt;

Recycling Program

Since my project proposal, my project of implementing a recycling program in my fraternity house is slowing progressing.  I have told the treasure of my fraternity to either give me money to go out and purchase a recycling receptacle or to go out and purchase one, but I have not heard back from him.  This request was asked for two weeks ago, but I will continue to remind him of my request when I come in contact with him again.  After the recycling receptacle is obtained I will send out an email to all of the residents of the Delta Theta Sigma house.  In this email I will inform everybody of the new procedures that require separating recyclable materials from the trash.  Another factor of the implementation will be to clearly labeling the garbage and the recycling with signs so non-residents understand the system as well.

I have collected two weeks worth of data reflecting how many containers the house kitchen went through.  When collecting data I told all of the members of the house to leave out all of the recycling containers that they used in the kitchen for two weeks.  Every other day I would go into the kitchen, tally up how many containers were there and then take care of them.

	Gallon Plastic Jugs	2.5 lb Peanut Butter Containers	40oz Ketchup Bottles	1lb Cream Cheese Containers	Soda Cans
Week 1	20	1	3	4	27
Week 2	17	2	2	5	33
Avg/Wk	18.5	1.5	2.5	4.5	30

I chose this as my project because I wanted to better the environment, while I wanted to show how much we are wasting as a house hold.  The next step for showing Delta Theta’s impact is calculating how much energy and water will be saved by recycling the containers.