Recycling is the process of turning waste materials into new, useful products. It’s a vital way to help reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills, where it can create harmful gases that contribute to climate change and pollution. By reducing the need to extract new materials from the earth, recycling also helps protect natural habitats and resources.
Recycled materials are also used to manufacture many types of new products, such as paper, glass bottles, aluminum cans, plastic containers, and more. The recovery and processing of these materials substitutes for the need to acquire raw material from increasingly scarce natural resources such as oil, coal, mineral ores, timber, and trees.
Using recycled materials in manufacturing also conserves energy. For example, producing a t-shirt from recycled cotton or polyester requires 95% less energy than making it from virgin materials like natural fibers, wood, and petroleum. This reduced energy consumption also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
While the benefits of recycling are significant, it’s important to remember that it isn’t a magic bullet for our environmental problems. Recycling is one of several ways to manage waste, and it must be combined with other strategies such as reducing the amount of trash we produce in the first place.
Some critics of recycling worry that it gives people the false sense that they are doing their part for the environment by simply recycling their garbage. They argue that, if people continue to shop excessively, eat meat, and take long-haul flights, they will still be damaging the planet, even if they recycle everything else.