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WHY RECYCLE?

The little why’s of Recycling: to divert the amount of waste going to landfills, to prevent pollution, to reduce greenhouse emissions and global climate change, to conserve resources, to save energy used for refining raw materials, and to help Earlham and the Richmond community benefit financially from the industry of recycling.

The BIG why of Recycling - to love life enough to save it. The following quote is taken from Kellert, Stephen; Wilson, Edward O. (The Biophilia Hypothesis, Island Press/Shearwater, Washington D.C.: 1993)

   We need to transform the way we use the earth's endowment of land,
   minerals, water, air, wildlife, and fuels:  an efficiency revolution which 
   buys us some time.  Beyond efficiency, we need another revolution that 
   transforms our ideas of what it means to live decently and how little is 
   actually necessary for a decent life:  a sufficiency revolution...  

   The first revolution is mostly about technology and economics.  The second 
   revoloution is about morality and human purpose.  The biophilia revolution 
   is about the combination of reverence for life and purely rational 
   calculation by which we will want to be both efficient and live 
   sufficiently.  It is about finding our rightful place on earth and in the 
   community of life; it is about citizenship, duties, obligations, and   
   celebration... 

IN MY WORD DOCUMENT: Black text taken from: Richmond Sanitary District Recycling Program flyer. Blue text taken from: http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/FACTS/benefits Green text taken from: http://www.solidwastedistrict.com

DIVERSION FROM LANDFILLS

Every day, an average American produces and throws away about 4 or 5 pounds of waste. In a city like Richmond, this means over 200,000 pounds (100 tons) of waste must be disposed of every day. Richmond's waste is currently being buried in the New Paris Pike Landfill, but this facility will not last forever. To locate and construct a new landfill will take considerable time and money, but the life of the current one can be extended by recycling a larger portion of municipal solid waste. Recycling also lessens environmental impacts of waste in landfills, such as land, water and air pollution, by reducing the amounts of waste being sent there.

POLLUTION PREVENTION

By decreasing the need to extract and process new raw materials from the earth, recycling can eliminate the pollution associated with the initial stages of a product’s development: material extraction, refining and processing. These activities pollute the air, land and water with toxic materials, such as ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, and sulfur dioxides.

GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS AND GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE REDUCTION

By reducing the amount of energy used by industry, recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps prevent global climate change. This is because much of the energy used in industrial processes and in transportation involves burning fossil fuels like gasoline, diesel and coal. The most important sources of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. Additional benefits are derived from reduced emissions from incinerators and landfills.

CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES

Recycling is also an important strategy for reducing the environmental impacts of industrial production. Supplying industry with recycled materials, rather than virgin resources extracted from forests and mines, is environmentally preferable because it saves energy, reduces emissions of greenhouse gases and other dangerous air and water pollutants, and because it conserves scarce natural resources. Recycling programs supply industry with scrap commodities such as metals, paper, glass, plastics, wood, organics, and other materials.”

Recycled materials often produce better products than those produced from virgin materials. The tin in “tin” cans, for example, is more refined (thus more valuable) after being processed for recycling.

Source reduction, preventing waste before it is generated, can further reduce the need for disposal and save more resources

ENERGY SAVINGS

Energy savings are a very important environmental benefit of recycling because using energy requires the consumption of scarce fossil fuels and emissions of numerous air and water pollutants. The steps in supplying recycled materials to industry (including collection, processing and transportation) typically use less energy than the steps in supplying virgin materials to industry (including extraction, refining, transportation and processing).” “Additional energy savings associated with recycling accrue in the manufacturing process itself, since the materials have already undergone processing.

RECYCLING AS A GROWTH INDUSTRY

Recycling is a growth industry with many kinds of business opportunities, from collection and processing to manufacturing to inventing new technologies.

Reuse and remanufacturing focuses on the refurbishing and repair of products to be reused in their original form. The largest activities are retail sales of used merchandise and reuse of used motor vehicle parts. The amount of value that can be added via this process is limited because of competition from new products. Nevertheless, reuse and manufacturing contributes jobs and sales.

In addition to the direct benefits of recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing, support businesses that provide goods and services to the recycling and reuse industry also contribute to the health of the economy. These supporting businesses include recycling and reuse equipment manufacturers, consulting/engineering services, brokers, and transporters.

Recycling also benefits Earlham and the city of Richmond financially. Earlham is charged for the trash it sends to the landfill, so not having as much trash to haul saves the College money. Also, Earlham is monetarily compensated for its bales of recycled corrugated cardboard; and, the city is compensated for recycled bales of plastic and for loads of glass, aluminum and other metals that are recycled by the Richmond Sanitary Department.

PAPER

Paper and paperboard products include items you use every day—newspapers, food packaging, tissues, cardboard boxes, office paper, and paper plates. In fact, at about 38.1 percent, paper and paperboard products constitute the largest portion of municipal solid waste (MSW). As the greatest portion of the waste stream, paper also offers the greatest opportunity for recycling. Today, consumers buy recycled paper in newspapers, food packages, and office paper—some containing as much as 100 percent recycled fiber. Other uses of recovered paper include insulation, gypsum wallboard, fertilizer bags, and mulch.

About 45 percent of all paper and paperboard products in MSW were recovered in 2001, nearly two-and-a-half times the percentage recovered in 1960.

Recycling rates (2001):

Corrugated Boxes: 73 percent Newspapers: 60 percent Office Paper: 55 percent Magazines: 32 percent Telephone Directories: 15 percent Recovery of corrugated cardboard leads paper’s overall recycling rate. It is so profitable to recycle that 73 percent of corrugated cardboard discards are recovered each year in the United States. Old newspapers are also widely recycled.

Every ton of recycled paper:

— Conserves the equivalent of 17 trees worth of lumber — Saves 7,000 gallons of water — Cuts pollution 95 percent — Saves 11 barrels – 462 gallons – of oil — Saves more than three cubic yards of landfill space.

Paper recycling conserves trees, water, oil, and landfill space and prevents air pollution associated with the production of virgin paper. It also cuts energy usage in half.

Recycled paper cannot completely replace paper made from new wood pulp, but decreasing the rate at which trees are consumed has environmental benefits. Trees help reduce the overabundance of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere by absorbing carbon. The trees within a mature forest also maintain biological diversity, which is not quickly restored once they are removed. Logging can also accelerate soil erosion, which contributes to water pollution.

The quality of paper fibers degrades with repeated recycling, so there is a separate market for recycled white office paper. White office paper is higher quality paper such as copy and writing paper, green-bar and multi-stripe computer printout and white envelopes without plastic windows or labels. It is best for incorporating into new white office paper products. Less than 20 percent of office wastepaper generated in the United States is recovered

Mixed paper and paperboard, such as cereal, cake mix, and macaroni boxes and gift boxes, are not presently recyclable in Richmond, Indiana. However, in other areas of the country they are often recycled into new packaging products, as well as paper towel and tissues, construction paper, cellulose insulation and bedding for farm animals.

ALUMINUM

In 2001, the United States generated nearly 2 million tons of aluminum as containers and packaging, and manufacturers used approximately 1.2 million tons of aluminum to make durable and nondurable goods.

The total amount of aluminum in the municipal solid waste stream represented 1.4 percent of total MSW generation in 2001.

The largest source of aluminum in the MSW stream is aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs) and other packaging containers.

Manufacturers make 99 percent of all beer cans and 97 percent of all soft drink cans from aluminum. Aluminum beer and soft drink containers were recovered at a rate of 49 percent of generation in 2001, and 40 percent of all aluminum in containers and packaging was recovered for recycling in 2001.

The average aluminum can contains 40 percent postconsumer recycled aluminum. Recovering aluminum for recycling saves money and dramatically reduces energy consumption. The aluminum can recycling process saves 95 percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite ore, as well as natural resources, according to the Aluminum Association. Making a ton of aluminum cans from virgin ore, or bauxite, uses 229 BTUs of energy. In contrast, producing cans from recycled aluminum uses only 8 BTUs of energy per can. Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough electricity to light a 100 watt bulb for 3 ½ hours.

An aluminum can that is recovered for recycling is back in the consumer stream in a short period of time. It takes about 6 weeks total to manufacture, fill, sell, recycle, and then remanufacture a beverage can. Most of the aluminum recovered from the waste stream is used to manufacture new cans.

GLASS

About 22 percent of glass in the municipal solid waste stream, was recovered in 2001 for recycling, though its recovery is on the increase.

Soft drink, beer, food, wine, and liquor containers represent the largest source of glass generated and recovered for recycling.

Today, most glass manufacturers rely on a steady supply of recycled crushed glass, known as "cullet," to supplement raw materials. Using cullet saves money and helps the environment, because:

Cullet co