English Argumentative Essays on Recycling
Introduction
When you look closely across the world, you will wonder how many people take their time to recycle many of the things that they use. Many people may consider it as a waste of time, though this is contrary to what researchers have found out. The truth is that recycling makes a difference to the world and until the world comes to recognize this, then they will come to appreciate its importance. There are both short-term and long term effects of recycling on the planet. The world is right now fighting global warming and trying to do its best to ensure that the planet is safe for the future generation and the best way to have a safe environment is through recycling. The process of recycling involves reusing old products meaning that it does away with the habit of throwing things after use which is more conservative to the environment and also in regards to cost of production. The aim of recycling is to reduce and reuse which is an effective method to the society. Some of the items that can be recycled easily include paper, aluminum, glass, food, batteries, plastics, and waxed cardboard among many other items. Recycling is important and worth it because of the fact that it helps in environmental conservation, saves energy and also is cost effective which makes a valuable procedure for the world to put in practice.
- Paper recycling
There are about 40million newspapers that are being cut in the US on a daily basis resulting into half a million trees which are ending in the landfills on a weekly basis. However, this shows how much the world has been careless towards the environment especially considering the role that trees play on earth. Trees are inhabited by animals which makes the cycle of life on the planet complete. At the same time, they help in cooling down the environment by attracting rains and also catching water preventing soil erosion. With the cutting down of millions of plants on a daily basis, it means that humans are doing more damage to the planet more than ever.
However, it is time to change especially the number of trees which are being cut since papers as also important for people thus it will be hard to do without them. Papers can be recycled in large quantities instead of throwing them away like some people always do. It means that regardless of the trees being cut, the end products are put into good use that will benefit humans for a long period. The main idea of recycling paper will be to reduce and reuse. People should start having the mentality and the thoughts of purchasing things that they need which has the potential to be reused again showing that they are concerned about the environment. According to Leah Thorpe, “If you have to get it, get something that can be used again and if you get something that needs to be recycled by the professionals, put it in the recycle bin (Thorpe 1).” Through this, conservation will become easy to humans and it will be a daily practice which people will not have to be forced to do. The production of less garbage helps in minimizing the landfills while at the same time giving land its nature back.
Papers can be recycled five times before their fabrics are considered too weak. It shows how much people can do with paper and help give the land its good nature back through minimizing garbage and also conserving the planet. Studies have it that each ton of paper that has been recycled has saved about 17 trees, 700 gallons of water and also 380 gallons of oil. At the same time, if every person decides to reuse their paper shopping bag for their daily usage, they will be saving about 60, 000 trees. According to Tierney, “people should just imagine how many trees they would be saving if they decide to reuse their paper bags for the good of the environment (Tierney 1).”
- Recycling of aluminum
When you consider the process of production, you will realize that it costs the world more to make the same product but the contrary is the same when it comes to recycling. It means that more resources and more energy is needed for production of new products on a daily basis something which can be minimize by simply people reusing what they already have within reach. For instance, 20 recycled cans are made using energy needed for production of only one single can through the usage of virgin materials. It means that by recycling one aluminum product, the world would be saving enough energy that would be able to keep a 100 watt bulb lighting for a period of four hours. At the same time when you toss a single aluminum product into the garbage can after one use, it means that people are wasting much energy that could be saved for better use or purposes.
However, those who are against recycling do not love saving energy at all but that does not mean that they cannot use the recycling process to make a significant impact in the society. People should take into consideration the cans habitat program, which is a project, intended to conserve the environment and also to encourage recycling process. The Can Habitat program simply involves aluminum cans being recycled through a nationwide network as a way to help people to build affordable and quality housing for people especially those with low-incomes who are not in a position to build good houses (Porter 134). It is one way in which those people who are pro-recycling are trying to do the best to ensure that everyone benefits from the things which they take for granted. Aluminum houses have been found to be affordable and also an easy way to encourage everyone especially those from low-income families to have a chance to have a place where they can call home.
- Recycling glass
Glass comprise of sand making it an important product for recycling. The process of recycling glass is easy because it does not require any form of degrading of the product’s quality. People should know that recycled glass is being used as the main ingredient for making “new” glass. Research has it that 80 percent of the glass materials that have been recovered either in garbage or thrown in the environment have been used by conservatives to make new glass bottles which are then used by people. This is a fact that many people may not known but it is the reality and it has helped save on energy and production process required to make new glass.
Apart from recycling bottle glasses to be used again in households and in cooperate places, what is most important is the fact that the process involves saving environment which makes it most crucial. For instance, “every 20 glass bottles you recycle will save two pounds of carbon emissions; that adds up to 700 pounds of carbon emissions — the equivalent savings of line-drying your laundry for six months — saved per ton of glass that’s melted down (Thorpe 1).” This clearly shows how much pollution has been prevented making the environment a safer place to reside which is important is minimizing global warming. If the process can be redone on a daily basis, then the world will be able to achieve its dream of having a safe environment with less threats of global warming.
At the same time, recycling helps in saving lots of energy which can be used on other things such as lighting. It also prevents or minimizes depletion of natural resources on the planet. By people using recycled products, they affect the level of energy consumption for the production companies. In the end, they save on costs for production and when the production costs are low, they end up saving more money which they can use to restructure or even expand the business.
- Recycling of food
There are approximately 23 percent of municipal food wastes and yard trimming in the US. The waste is biodegradable though they sit in the landfills for several periods preventing them from breaking down because of existence of plastic garbage which they are always stored. However, this can be prevented by placing the waste food on the landfills without any form of plastic garbage for them to breakdown to enrich the soil for agricultural purposes. Through decomposition, waste products becomes of importance to animals and to humans because having a rich soil means that there is hope for better production such as plants and also grass. In the end, everyone turn out to benefit from the process.
Soil which is enriched can suppress the plant diseases while eliminating or minimizing the need for chemical fertilizers. It means that this will save on cost of fertilizers making agricultural process easy and cheap for farmers. They will not only benefit from high crop yields because of natural fertilizers but also on costs of planting because in some parts of the world, fertilizers are crucial. However, there are findings that proof that food recycling can help solve the process of fertilizers or regeneration of poor soils.
- Recycling of batteries
Batteries comprise of heavy metals like lead, mercury, cadmium, and nickel that can leak into the ground causing great contamination of the environment if they are not properly disposed off. However, some of these elements such as cadmium are highly toxic when they find themselves to the water especially the rivers and lakes placing the lives of aquatic invertebrates at a risk if they swallow them. The worst part is that when animals such as fish consumes cadmium, they end up building in them and when humans ends up consuming the fish, their lives also are at great risk.
It is therefore important that the battery manufacturers caution their customers on the right way of disposing off their products for the safety of animals and also humans. Apart from proper disposal of the batteries, they can also encourage reuse of the products especially the rechargeable ones (Ackerman 112). For instance, the rechargeable batteries have the potential to substitute about hundreds of batteries which are used on a single basis. Reuse of these products will also prevent disposal of heavy metals on the environment reducing the possibility of landfills especially if everyone decides to switch to using rechargeable batteries.
Benefits of recycling
- Good for the climate
Recycling is good for climatic purposes. This is because goods that are made from the recycled materials need less energy, less water and also create less pollution. It means that the amount of carbon being produced during the process of recycling is minimal which is good for maintaining good climate. When less carbon is produced, it means that unhealthy greenhouse gases being produced on the atmosphere is minimized. This will have both short and long term benefits to the planets making recycling a process which is not only important but also critical meaning should be highly encouraged. It is the possibility of making the environment a safer place for the future generation without any worries of distinction because of global warming. According to Richard Porter, “people need to wake up and take recycling, and its benefits, more seriously; if not for themselves, then for the future (i.e their children) (Porter 152).”
- Reduction of energy consumption
A study conducted by Stuart Oskamp have revealed that recycling helps in saving energy because the process requires usage of less energy making it important. When you compare products made from raw sources, more energy is needed compared to recycling of the already used products. For instance, it is easy to make paper such as tissue paper from already existing papers compared to using new wood to make the tissue paper for use. Growing trees has several benefits to the earth especially because of the fact that they consume carbon minimizing its presence in the environment. It means that when more trees are damaged for the sake of making more papers, great damage is being caused to the environment. More energy will be required to cut down on the trees and still again there is a possibility of landfills because of the garbage such as dusts being scattered across the earth which can lead to pollution (Oskamp 159).
Energy saving is crucial especially if the people wants to minimize the effects of global warming in future. It is therefore important to recycle some products such as batteries and aluminum to save on energy which can be used for lighting houses or even watching Television for a period of three hours. This might depend with the amount of energy that the Television is consuming but the main idea is that it show the possibility of saving on energy by simply reusing old products which recycling is all about.
- Pollution reduction
The production process involves a lot of pollution because several unwanted gases such as carbon monoxide and carbon among many others are released. This makes the possibility of global warming high making the plans towards saving the environment minimal. Research has it that recycling helps in reducing the landfills items (Tierney 1). It also emits fewer gases to the environment minimizing the level of carbon footprint. At the same time, it helps in minimizing waste products especially when products such as glass, plastics and aluminum are recycled. It is therefore important for people to become mindful of everything that they do towards the environment or when conducting purchase of products; they should go for products that they can reuse instead of those which are used ones and thrown in the garbage resulting into more waste.
- Saving on cost
The benefit of recycling are the fact that it helps in saving costs that is used for making new products. Instead of purchasing another polythene bag, you can simply decide to reuse the old one over and over again saving on more costs. When it comes to waste, it leaves the environment clean while at the same time saves people the money for purchasing manure or fertilizers because food and other products such as paper can be decomposed on the soil to become manure. Today, the use of homemade compost and biomass is highly encouraged to help save on costs and also energy (Oskamp 163). The process is not only cheap, but also a way to save the environment.
Arguments against recycling
Despite the fact that many environmental conservatives are highly encouraging people to consider recycling, there are those people who consider the process not worth it. The main concerns that have been raised by such individuals who are against recycling are the claims that recycling results in debris which contains hazardous chemicals which places the lives of the recycling workers at a risk (Tierney 1). They, therefore consider the entire process risky thus not worth applying. They also claim that paper recycling is more expensive compared to making new ones. This is because the process involves bleaching which requires a special type of product that the producers must have to make the recycling of paper possible. However, they also take into consideration the facts that bleaching products have harmful chemicals which places human lives at a risk thus not worth using. The other claim that have been made is the fact that plastic recycling process is more complicated especially because of the labeling system on them which require very harmful chemicals to remove.
In conclusion, recycling is important and worth it because of the fact that it helps in environmental conservation, saves energy and also is cost effective which makes a valuable procedure for the world to put in practice. Companies require less resource to recycle products thus it is high time that people decide to try considering doing more of recycling to save on costs, conserve the environment and also save energy. However, there are those who believe that the process of recycling is hard and requires the use of harmful chemicals. These kinds of thoughts can be eliminated through education and also empowering people to realize the importance of recycling. This is the only time that they will come to appreciate the importance of recycling and embrace it.
Works Cited
Ackerman, Frank. Why Do We Recycle?: Markets, Values, and Public Policy. Island Press, 1997.
Oskamp, Stuart. “Resource Conservation and Recycling: Behavior and Policy.” Journal of Social Issues Vol. 51 no.4 (1995): 157–177.
Porter, Richard C.. The Economics of Waste. Resources for the Future, 2002.
Thorpe, Leah. “Does Recycling Really Make a Difference?” Telus. Accessed 2005.
Tierney, John. “The Reign of Recycling”. The New York Times. Accessed 2015, Oct. 3