Recycling. It is one great movement that is sweeping the entire world off of its feet. It is a good cause but many people over exaggerate facts and such other things about recycling. If you would like to learn more please go to the following sites:
I'd like to thank the writers of those two reports because they were very helpful in the writing of this paper. Now getting back to the real stuff. Many organizations around the world (even Conservation Club) can sometimes over exaggerate facts about recycling. Everyone always wants to recycle after being persuaded that if we don't recycle that we will be buried in our own trash. EHHHH! Wrong Answer. Here is Myth 1: Our Graves Will Be In A Pile Of Garbage. Since the 1980s, many people have been very concerned about the “landfill crisis.” Al Gore has said, “(we are) running out of ways to dispose of our waste in a manner that keeps it out of either sight or mind.” This is true and untrue. During the 1980s, there were fewer landfills but they were very larger. So as some people would say, you just killed two birds with one stone. EPA only observed the number of landfills that were being produced not the actual capacity of them. As a fact, today the U.S. has more landfill capacity than ever before. We are actually improving our rate of losing landfill area. In 2001, we could last for about 18 more years of the landfills of that time, 25% greater than the capacity the decade before. No that does not mean we have only 11 years to live. Number of landfill capacities are becoming greater while still keeping it on the land it belongs on. There are even a few places where capacity has shrunk. The total land space needed to hold all the trash for about one century would be about 10 square miles.
Now Myth #2: OUR TRASH CAN KILL US. Your answer is not exact so we can't give it to you. People in the U.S. are very alarmed when hearing of deaths due to poison in products. But trash? Many people think so but it is not as serious as everyone thinks. Landfills as of today cause about 5.7 cancer- related deaths with in 300 years. That's less deaths than the death rate in New York City. (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0DE2DE173EE233A25754C2A9669D946697D6CF) “One person is killed every fifteen hours by the street, Subway, or elevated cars of New York City. That is the story of a report made to the Public Service Commission last month. In twenty-six days of the month of August forty-two persons were killed, and the grim total of killed and injured was 5,500.” There is a larger death rate of getting killed by an accidental terrorist bombing than there is of dying from landfills. Let's see if I were to put that to unit rate, then .019 people every year die of landfill causes. Wait? I don't think you can have .019 of a person. That's like a finger or a foot.
Now Myth #3: SAVING RESOURCES IS ALL GOOD. Well yes I will agree that this is good but has a dark side to it. Current posters say that, “for every ton of recycled newspaper, 17 trees are saved.” Well, this is true and all but just think about it. No human can carry around 1 ton of newspaper or carry it in the little basket inside of his/her bicycle. No. In order to transport mass bulks of these items call for large trucks, ships, and other types of transport. Now these transports all run on fuel. Now if I'm not mistaken, exhaust coming from a fuel powered car is bad for the environment. So if 1ton of newspaper saves 17 trees, you need a fuel powered truck to transport it and the exhaust can cause a lot of harm. As said by Lucas McMillan, “Recycling requires twice as many trucks, twice as much gas consumption, and thus twice as much atmospheric pollution. If nothing else, recycling still offers the average citizen a sense of duty and action, like they are really helping to save the world.” And he also says, “Recycling can help matters to a certain extent, but ultimately it is a counter-productive procedure. Recycling ultimately exacerbates the problems it wishes to solve in the first place.” Also by using less of one source, means you must use a lot more of another resource.
Now for Myth #4: SOON IT WILL BE HARD TO FIND IRREPLACEABLE RESOURCES WHEN WE DON'T RECYCLE. Well, I have something to say on that. Stocks of most natural resources are actually growing more than they are shrinking. But don't thank recycling for that. Market prices are the best measure of natural resource scarcity. Thanks to human innovation we continue to increase the amount of resources. Now Myth #6: RECYCLING WILL SAVE THE EARTH AND OUR LIVES! Nope not necessarily. Very often the pollution of recycling shows up in many different ways. That's right recycling causes pollution. For example, curbside recycling means twice as many trucks, one for trash and one for the recycled material. In L.A. I am guessing people know a lot about the air pollution and pollution in general there. That is because they have 800 trucks for these purposes instead of 400. This means more iron ore and coal mining, steel and rubber manufacturing, petroleum extraction and refining, and of course twice as much air pollution. Sorry L.A. I can find some more things, but right now I feel I have proved my point.
For my conclusion before I write it I would like to take some things from the websites that I researched from:
Recycling is a long-practiced, productive, indeed essential, element of the market system. Informed, voluntary recycling conserves resources and raises our wealth. In sharp contrast, misleading educational programs encourage the waste of resources when they overstate the benefits of recycling. And mandatory recycling programs, in which people are compelled to do what they know is not sensible, routinely make society worse off. Market prices are sufficient to induce the trashman to come, and to make his burden bearable, and neither he nor we can hope for any better than that.
Recycling can help matters to a certain extent, but ultimately it is a counter-productive procedure. Recycling ultimately exacerbates the problems it wishes to solve in the first place.
Me: So basically even though recycling may seem like a dream come true to some and think it is like a magical wand that when waved will save the world from all evils. Nope. There probably isn't anything like that yet. I mean recycling can be good to an extent but when going over the extent, recycling is actually doing more harm than it is doing good. Thank you for reading this paper.
