Recycling can be best defined as the process of collecting, processing and reusing items or materials that would have been otherwise regarded as waste and thrown away in trash. It’s one of the most significant steps that we can take in order to give back to mother earth. As a matter of fact recycling enables sustainable management of resource such as water and energy. To recycle or not–to is no longer a personal choice but a necessary practice, more vital considering the rapid population growth against the limited resources available. The four main reasons why we should recycle include:

 

Pollution prevention

Some waste such as plastic and metallic cans are not bio-degradable, these materials can however be re-used in the manufacturing instead of virgin materials. Re-manufacturing is actually are several times more effective in greenhouse gas emission reduction than landfills and virgin manufacturing.

 

Environmental conservation

More than half of the Earth’s forest cover has been depleted, this has had a serious impact on wildlife habitat and biodiversity. Reusing items can reverse this worrying trend, since using recycled materials eliminates the need to extract natural resources such as timber, crude oil or mineral ores.

 

Elimination of landfills and incinerators

Recycling reuses wastes hence eliminating the need for landfills and incinerators. No matter how advance the landfill design may be, they eventually leak and are regarded as the most notorious source of pollution. Some of the pollutants from landfills include cyanide, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, mercury and lead leaches into ground water causing massive pollution. In addition landfills are emits a large amount of methane(a very dangerous greenhouse gas). Likewise incinerators also cause massive air pollution.

 

Economic empowerment and Job creation

Reusing of material saves a lot of money that would have otherwise have been used in extraction of virgin raw materials. Likewise sale of recycled materials offsets the cost of collection and processing the wastes. Recycling process also creates jobs for the youths.