Benefits Of Recycling
- Benefits Of Recycling Plastic
- Benefits Of Recycling 2019
- Benefits Of Recycling Pdf
- Benefits Of Recycling Glass
- Benefits Of Recycling Pet
Everyone knows recycling means less trash going to our landfills but the greatest environmental benefit of recycling is the conservation of energy and natural resources and the prevention of pollution that is generated when a raw material is used to make a new product. Recycling at Stanford Conserves Energy.
Recycling economics include an array of benefits for those who recycle. In some states like, Michigan, California, and Vermont, people are incentivized to recycle by getting a monetary compensation for turning in their materials. Con 2: Recycling can lead to pollution. Some say the environmental benefits of recycling are overrated, not just because it takes energy but because it can lead to pollution. This is said of electronics recycling in particular. Many electronics slated for recycling are shipped overseas to less-developed countries, where they are sorted by hand.
The three words commonly associated with recycling are “Reduce,” “Reuse,” and “Recycle.” We will look at what recycling really is, how you can benefit from it, and also the environmental benefits. You will be able to make some money and also help reduce the negative impacts on the environment through recycling, even if you have no prior knowledge.
What is recycling?
The word recycling means to process materials that we would normally be thrown away into trash, and make new products out of them. We often throw away valuable metals, glass, paper, etc. without realizing that all those materials could be reused instead of filling-up landfills. Some of the valuable metals such as copper, aluminum, iron, steel, etc, can be very easily recycled and turned into profit. If you know which household products can be reused and recycled, you could easily sort them and make money while contributing to the improvement of our environment.
You could even recycle waste from your kitchen, old furniture, old clothes, broken glass, computer and electronic parts, electrical appliances and components, roofing and siding materials, aluminum cans, empty metal cans and containers, metal wire and cables, and more.
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
When we create waste and throw it away into landfills, we not only fill up the land, but also pollute the air and soil. Harmful gases and toxic chemicals are produced which are released into the atmosphere as well as seeped into the soil. By reducing the volume of waste we produce, we can also reduce the amount of pollution released. We can reduce waste by bringing reusable shopping bags to the store, selecting products with the least amount of packaging, repairing items instead of replacing them and minimizing the disposable products we use.
The second “R” is Reuse. Reusing is to utilize and make use of most of our household items with minimum waste. If you cannot reuse some of the items you have at home, you could donate them to recycling groups or recycle them yourself. We must adapt to recycled materials and purchase more items made from recycled materials.
Benefits of recycling
According to a recent study by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we recycle about 32.5% of our solid waste across various different types of goods. What do we do with the rest? The EPA explains that we burn and destroy 12.5% solid waste at incineration facilities, emitting harmful gases in the atmosphere. The rest of the waste, about 250 million tons of it, ends up in landfills annually throughout the country. If we could separate and recycle this waste, we could easily benefit from it. Below we will discuss five benefits of recycling and using recycled materials.
1. Make money
One of the major benefits of recycling is financial income. We could all find several items lying around our homes that could be recycled and make money from them. Some such items are old furniture, old phones, cables, metal furniture, aluminum cans, metal containers, old clothes, electrical appliances, and more.
2. Conserve resources
Throwing away objects in the dumpster could increase the pressure on mining for new raw materials. It also wastes the energy such as fuel and other costs associated with mining. Recycling aluminum cans, steel, copper, and other expensive metals can save costly gas money and mining expenses, as well as conserve valuable resources.
3. The environmental benefits
Recycling can significantly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. It can save on non-reusable resources as well as water and landfill space, and most of all it can save energy. So, recycling reduces emissions, conserves energy, and reduces pollution.
Benefits Of Recycling Plastic
4. Create more jobs and a stronger economy
The idea of recycling is gaining popularity among individuals and companies more than ever for both economic and environmental reasons, and jobs in recycling industries are booming.
5. Recycling builds a stronger economy
Done on a large scale, recycling can have a significant impact on the economy when you consider creating jobs, conserving raw materials, reusing waste materials, and reduced energy cost along with environmental benefits.
Recycling is a choice and way of life. It’s one of those habits that help you make money while helping the environment. Once you make that choice, you could start taking steps towards recycling, reusing and reducing waste in your daily life quite naturally. Every bit of energy and every resource that you save adds up, and you could make a difference.
Please share and let your friends know about the benefits of recycling.
Source: Environmental Professionals Network.
If your business isn’t recycling, you could be missing out on a lot of unseen benefits. Not only is recycling good for the planet, but it’s also good for your bottom line. Here are 5 benefits of having a business recycling program that you’ve probably never considered.
1. Save Money
One of the main reason why recycling is important for a business is because it’s a simple way to save money and improve their bottom line. Recycling programs can create cost avoidance and better yet, free up funding for other sustainable initiatives.
Centralized recycling programs specifically can save money through cost savings in janitorial fees. Now that custodial staff don’t have to go desk to desk to collect every employee’s waste and recycling, it frees-up their time to work on other areas of the organization (like cleaning work stations etc. that you may have been paying more for). These cost savings could also be directly used to fund other important sustainability initiatives within the organization.
A well planned and executed recycling program can generate approximately $100.00 in savings per employee per year. Recycling can save major dollars for your business and save the planet at the same time. It’s a win:win!
2. Make Money
When companies make sustainable choices and implement recycling programs, they have the potential to sell their recyclable waste for alternative uses thusearning back money that was used to finance the program and in most cases generate even more. As recycling technology continues to make advancements, our metals, plastics, and glass only become more precious as the cost of materials go up. Recyclable materials are a commodity, so find out the market value in your region and discover how much your recyclables are worth.
Further, having a centralized recycling program could also help make your business more money. Centralized recycling programs force employees to be more aware of what trash they’re generating and how they’re disposing of it. This helps reduce the contamination of the recycling streams which in turn helps increase the value of your recyclable assets.
3. Attract Higher Quality Recruits And Improve Employee Retention
Not only are modern-day consumers increasingly demanding green and sustainable products but business’s employees are too.
Benefits Of Recycling 2019
Employees are more motivated to work for a company that recycles. A new unpublished study conducted by Lightspeed, commissioned by Rubbermaid Commercial Products, found that workplace sustainability and recycling is more important to millennials than previous generations. In fact, almost one in 10 millennials would be willing to quit a job if their employer wasn’t sustainable. This is relevant because more millennials plan to change jobs within the next two years than other generations.
4. Help Build A Community
People want to do the right thing and implementing a recycling program in your organization is one way that people can feel their participation is making a positive impact.
Recycling encourages people to come together and to keep each other accountable. At CleanRiver, we believe that culture is the number one driver for a successful recycling program in any organization. Employees like to feel that they work for a company that is doing the right thing. By communicating the program and your diversion results it helps motivate them to keep sorting their waste effectively. If your employees are motivated to participate in the recycling program, it helps decrease recycling stream contamination and increase the amount of waste diverted from landfill.
For more tips on how to increase a sense of community with recycling check out: Culture- Your People Make A Recycling Program Work.
5. Protect The Environment
Benefits Of Recycling Pdf
Of course another reason why recycling is important for a business is because of the positive impacts on the environment. But how exactly does business recycling help the environment?
- a) Saves Energy
It takes less energy to reuse and recycle material than it does to produce the same material from scratch. For example, newspaper is recycled and reused for printing.
When aluminum cans and bottles are recycled, we can save 95% of the energy used to produce these cans compared to when using raw materials.
- b) Diverts More Waste From Landfill
As our world population continues to grow so do the size of our garbage dumps. Our landfills are only filling up faster and faster each year with many products, many of which are not biodegradable and will remain in landfills for centuries emitting harmful gases.
According to the EPA fact sheet, our landfills are filled with the following waste which could be easily recycled:
- 21% of food, the largest component of landfill
- 14% of paper and card board
- 10% of rubber, leather, and textiles
- 18% of plastic
Add all those numbers up and we could potentially start diverting up to 63% of those materials that are being sent to landfill every year!! Think about that and the positive impact something as simple as recycling can have on our planet.
Benefits Of Recycling Glass
- c) Prevents Global warming
Did you know that pulp and paper is the 5th largest industrial energy consumer in the world? Recycling paper instead actually uses 65% less energy than producing new paper products out of raw materials. When we reduce energy consumption, we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Benefits Of Recycling Pet
Don’t forget that trees help reduce global warming because they breathe in and hold carbon dioxide (a major greenhouse gas). When we recycle 1 ton of paper we save 17 trees who are playing a vital role in protecting our planet.
For more benefits of having a business recycling program, check out our blogs 3 Ways To Convince Your Boss To Start A Recycling Program and 10 Step Checklist To Start Making Money With Your Recycling Program.
CleanRiver Recycling provides a variety of innovative, flexible and customizable recycling solutions. To determine the right solution to meet your needs, use the CleanRiver product selector.
If you have additional questions that weren’t answered in this blog post please call us at 1-866-479-4038 or email solutions@cleanriver.com.