Young Writers Society

Picture this: city streets covered in slimy, sticky junk with nowhere to walk. Skyscrapers, which you can't see because of the choking, gray smog, covered in filthy plastic bags. Scummy, sluggish black water oozing past, carrying uncountable amounts if trash. Trash piled sky-high and not a living thing anywhere in sight; not even a weed because of the tragically unlivable conditions. Not a pleasant picture, right? This is the exactly why we need to recycle. Recycling is a crucial part of caring for the environment because it reduces pollution, saves renewable and nonrenewable materials, and saves energy.

How might recycling reduce pollution? Well, if you throw away a recyclable item, let's say a plastic bottle, it will end up in the landfill. Say it rains, and the bottle get washed away onto the streets. Now it's just pollution, even though you didn't litter mindfully. If you recycle that plastic bottle instead, it will be taken to a recycling plant, melted down, and pressed into a new item, from another plastic bottle to a t-shirt! This way, recycling can also reuse old materials, and reduce the amount of pollution. UCO even gives statistics on how much pollution is reduced! "Manufacturing products from recycled paper reduces water pollution by 35% and air pollutants by 73%. Using recycled steel in manufacturing can cut down on 76% of the water pollutants, 86% of the air pollutants, and 97% of the mining wastes that would normally be produced. Using recycled glass can reduce the water used by manufacturing by 50%, cut air pollution by 20%, and reduce mining wastes by 80%" (“UCO: Recycling”).

Recycling also helps to save renewable and nonrenewable materials. Plastic is made from chemicals and is made by using oil, coal or natural gas; all of which are nonrenewable. We need to not be throwing around our nonrenewable materials carelessly; it takes millions of years for them to reproduce! We even need to be careful with our renewable materials; trees are vital to our survival and we have to make sure there are enough. If we used all of our trees for paper, we would surely die, as tree provide our main source of oxygen. Planting more trees is a way to avoid this, as is recycling! If we recycle our used paper, they can be shredded down to create more paper instead of cutting down more trees.

Energy is also saved when recycling. It takes energy, usually in the form of coal, oil, or natural gas, to make most of the products we use every day, and a lot of those items are recyclable. If we recycle, we still use some energy to transform the material into something new, but significantly less than making a brand new product. All it takes is taking a few extra moments to place the recyclable item in the correct bin, and you have made a world of difference for our planet! But it doesn’t save my energy, you say. Well, it may not, but it only takes a few extra moments out of your day to make a huge difference. Caring for Environment says "If just a few hundred people took the time during their day to place the right article of trash into the appropriate receptacle then our future will look much brighter, e.g. cleaner water for drinking and bathing, and fitter plants and animals" (“Caring for Environment: Recycling”).

To conclude, recycling is a crucial part of caring for the environment because it reduces pollution, saves renewable and nonrenewable materials, and saves energy. Just a few extra minutes to stop and put a recyclable in the correct bin can save the environment from pollutants and depletion of natural resources. You can make all the difference by just recycling! So go, see how much of a difference recycling can make and spread the word about the need to recycle. Those few extra minutes can be your difference to the health of the planet.

Works Cited

“A New Revolution in Recycling.” Caring for Environment: Recycling . n.d. Web. 27 January 2018.

www.caringforenvironment.com/recycling/.

“Recycling.” UCO: Recycling. n.d. Web. 27 January 2018. sites.uco.edu/administration/green/recycling/index.asp.