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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 virgi