In a perfect, environmentally conscious world, we’d all carry reusable dishware and bottles. In reality, we use products that come in disposable containers or require paper packaging. Producing waste seems like it’s out of our immediate control, but it’s not. We’ve heard about the three Rs ‘mdash; reduce, reuse, recycle ‘mdash; so much that they trigger eye-rolls quicker than you can say ‘landfill,’ but the slogan prioritizes environmental action.
By reducing, we should evaluate our consumption and eliminate unnecessary products and practices. If we don’t buy products in disposable packaging, companies won’t produce them. By reusing, we can maximize our available materials’ use. This means investing in a sturdy water bottle rather than buying a new bottle each day. And finally ‘mdash; as a last resort ‘mdash; we should recycle unnecessary resources when they become absolutely useless.
Our third and most hyped R is the most controversial: Many argue recycling actually wastes more energy than throwing trash into a landfill.
True, recycling isn’t a flawless process. Recycling facilities rely on local power grids, which depend on coal-fired plants. On the other side of the coin, virgin paper mills typically use less fossil fuel to operate than waste-paper facilities. This is because the machines used to make new paper are usually powered by timber detritus ‘mdash; a waste product from the wood pulping process. In terms of carbon-dioxide emissions, coal is generally dirtier than wood. The Environmental Defense Fund argues that recycling paper cuts overall greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing the amount of waste diverted to landfills (where decomposition leads to the production of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas) and by not cultivating new forest lands, though research is still sketchy in this area.
Critics argue that the fossil fuels used to run collection trucks offset the environmental merits of recycling. But according to a study by Washington-based environmental consultant Jeffrey Morris, 10.4 million British thermal units are used to manufacture products from a ton of recyclables. A total of 0.9 Btu are used to collect, haul and process recyclables (much less than the 23.3 million Btu required for making virgin materials). So even from an energy standpoint, it makes perfect sense to recycle.
Through recycling, we can save energy because we have the technology to make the same products at a fraction of the cost of mining and extracting natural resources to make new products.
If you want to break it down to specific materials, Morris found that aluminum requires 96 percent less energy if made from recycled cans than bauxite (the mineral ore from which virgin, or new, aluminum is harvested). Recycled plastic bottles use 76 percent less energy; newsprint uses about 45 percent less. Recycled glass comes in at the lowest, saving us about 21 percent of manufacturing energy.
Plastics are made from crude oil, glass from sand and silica, aluminum from bauxite and paper from trees. By recycling,
we reduce the need to use oil, cut down trees and mine for metals. By trashing everything, we spend more money and energy to mine and extract new resources, while recyclables just hang out in landfills for the next several hundred years waiting to decompose instead of being reincarnated into your next shirt (yes, some bottles are recycled into polyester).
Miramar Landfill on Convoy Street estimates that about 1.4 million tons of San Diego’s trash goes to its site every year. Because of recycling and other diversion techniques, the amount has decreased by 400,000 tons from an average of 1.8 million tons in 1988. According to the Disposal Division of the Environmental Services Department, current estimates anticipate that the Miramar Landfill will reach capacity sometime around 2012. Who knows where we’ll put our trash then. But because over 60 percent of our trash is recyclable, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, we have the power to postpone that disaster.
Recycling is a good alternative for maximizing our resources and preventing waste, but it’s not the magical solution. We can’t just nonchalantly use tons of bottles, cans and paper, thinking that recycling is magically going to solve environmental issues.
Everything is part of a balance, and our actions directly tip the scales. If we’re going to continue bottling beverages and packaging products, recycling is as close to a win-win solution we can have for those materials. Throwing recyclables away is what it is: a waste. I know I can’t reach into every single trash can and take out the recyclables. If you do recycle, keep up the effort ‘mdash; your actions will affect future generations’ mindsets. Influence others through your actions and awareness will spread.