Should recycling be encouraged?
YES
- Recycling reduces consumption of energy. Transporting raw materials and processing them require a significant amount of energy. For instance, recycling paper consumes less energy than processing trees. The same thing is true when it comes to recycling or re-purposing wood.
- It reduces air and water pollution. A major source of pollution today is industrial waste that comes from factories producing plastics and cans. If both products are reused, instead of manufactured from scratch, pollution can be reduced significantly.
- Recycling could mitigate global warming. A large proportion of our waste is burned, which contributes to global warming. By minimizing our waste, recycling could go a long way in helping us prevent global warming from worsening.
- Recycling decreases the amount of waste in landfills. It enormously reduces the possibility of landfill sites overflowing, which contributes mightily to environmental degradation and causes land and water pollution.
- It raises environmental awareness. When everyone becomes accustomed to recycling, people will be more eco- conscious and would participate more in eco-friendly activities.
- Recycling can help you save money. There are companies that pay cash for your trash, like old water bottles, electronics
and other things. - It can minimize logging.
NO
- Recycling results in more pollution and energy consumption. Recycling tons of garbage will require waste to be transported, sorted, cleaned and processed in separate factories, all of which need energy.
- Recycling will produce pollutants, including toxic chemicals after breaking down the waste materials. This can hurt the environment further if not planned well.
- Recycling is not always cost-effective. Recycling costs can go thrice as high as the cost of putting garbage in landfills. The process is also labor intensive and the manpower requirement is high.
- The jobs created by recycling include sorting garbage, cleaning toxins and doing other manual and back-breaking labor, which can result in low income and poor quality of life in the community.
- Recycling does not guarantee quality products.
- Recycling can be harmful for us. For instance, bleaching is required to recycle paper, which involves a harsh chemical that is harmful to our health.
- Recycling can give people a false sense of security. People might not realize that the only real benefit of recycling is reducing the damage from human folly.
- Recycling sites are always unhygienic, unsafe and unsightly.
