Reasons to Recycle Start Green Living

Shane Metcalf

A warm welcome to Enjoy A Greener Life .com

Here we hope to bring you reviews of some of the best green living information products the web has to offer, some real 5 star stuff.  We hope to show that there are different ways to lead a greener life so every one should be able to find at least one that suits them.  We're not into tree hugging or hemp shirts here but practical ways the average person can make their life just a little bit greener.

Note I'm saying "greener" here and not "green" because we feel "going green", living a "green lifestyle" is a bit intimidating if you've never done any such thing in your life before.  But being a little bit greener, every one can do that without it impacting negatively on standard of living and living a greener life often actually improves quality of life so it's a win-win situation really - you and the planet.

This page's main theme is "Reasons to Recycle" because we feel that's usually the easiest way of greening up your life a little as now a days most local authorities provide some form of home recycling bins or other recycling provision in most developed countries around the world.  We have lots more to offer than just reasons to recycle as you'll see in the left hand menu but without further ado:

Most communities around the U.S. (and in other developed countries) encourage recycling.  In some places, recycling is mandatory.  Recycling often involves the use of dedicated trash containers or home recycling bins with periodic collections.

Visit a theme park, an airport or other large facility and chances are you will find an abundance of recycling containers it's ease is the first of our reasons to recycle.  Some airlines emphasize collecting recyclable items from passengers.  And it's really not any harder to place recyclable materials into a specific container than into the regular trash.  So, why not do it?

Recycling is good on many fronts.  Less material winds up in landfill; things that don't decompose readily can be remade into things that are useful; and various natural resources won't be depleted as quickly.  And for most developed countries in the world, recycling often means that less oil and oil-based products have to be imported (a very important economic and political consideration).

There is also strong evidence that recycling may reduce the amount of Greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere; but recognize tradeoffs due to the transportation of recyclable materials to processing centers and the energy used in the recycling process and producing the home recycling bins.  All good reasons to recycle.

In some states (e.g., Maine) and other countries (e.g., Germany and South Australia) you can earn refunds by bringing plastic or glass bottles to a recycling facility or a drop off site (e.g. supermarket).  While refunds are small compared to the price of the drink, it's possible to collect a fair amount of money if you collect enough bottles.  Some charitable groups fund raise this way.

Each year more than 200 billion beverage cans and bottles are landfilled, littered or incinerated in the U.S.  In the U.K. the number of plastic bottles alone is about 16 billion.  Assume that each U.K. container is six inches (a bit more than 30 cm) tall; then aligning all these end to end would account for more than 3 round trips to the moon.  Whether reduction of refuse or personal financial gain are the reasons to recycle that appeal to some people.

There are educational benefits, too.  We just solved a mathematical recycling problem.  Now, look on the plastic containers that you use daily and find a small triangle (whose ends have arrows) with a number inside.  This coding was developed by the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) in 1988; it helps recyclers distinguish the different types of plastics when sorting and recycling.  It can also help you and the other members of your family recognize what goes in your trash or home recycling bins.  The lower the code number, the easier it is to recycle.

Note that some community recycling programs allow for all plastic types to be commingled; in other communities, some code numbers are not accepted at all.

To make this a family math / science activity, sort each type of plastic into its own plastic bag and either count or weigh each bag's contents weekly.  Even just paying attention to the different numbers will help you understand that there is more in life than "just" plastic.

Metal cans and paper don't require the same type of sorting classification and for some these are reasons to recycle.

You can also explore what products are made from recycled materials.  Did you know that some ski jackets are not made with a down (duck feather) fill, but rather ground up pieces of plastic soda bottles?  What a great fun reason to recycle!

Recycling is painless and mostly effortless.  When you recycle you are helping your country balance its trade payments, you are saving resources for future generations and you are making a political statement.  We've given a number of reasons to recycle, not all of these reasons to recycle will appeal to you but I'm sure you'll find at least one compelling reason to recycle and if you're not already you'll start recycling tomorrow.