The Facts Behind Recycling
Reduce pollution, save energy , and preserve space!
posted about 13 years ago
As you walk through the halls or your dorm or along academic row you
may seem confused about whether or not to throw your plastic bottle
into those blue/cardboard recycling boxes. Have no fear, the
sustainability interns are here!
We interns are here to help YOU (students, faculty, staff, administrators and others within the UMBC community) learn what sustainability initiatives are going on at UMBC, how to reduce your carbon footprint, and about sustainability in general. This week we want to give you a better understanding of why recycling is a good thing to do.
A recent article within the Retriever weekly encouraged students not to recycle because of the inefficiencies within the waste management system. Although some of these claims are correct, recycling overall is extremely beneficial to the natural environment. By reducing pollution, preserving landfill space, saving energy, and conserving natural resources, recycling is something that should become second nature to all of us Retrievers.
Pollution
- Aside from reducing GHG emissions, which contribute to global warming, recycling also reduces air and water pollution associated with generating products from raw materials. [1]
-Fun Fact: Nationally, we recycled and composted 82 million tons of municipal solid waste. This provides an annual benefit of 178 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions reduced, comparable to the annual GHG emissions from almost 33 million passenger vehicles.[2]
Energy
- Although some plastics are harder to recycle than others, most aluminium, glass, paper, and your everyday plastics require less energy to recycle these products rather than create new materials.
-Fun Fact: “Recycling and composting 82 million tons of MSW saved almost 1.3 quadrillion Btu of energy, the equivalent of 224 million barrels of oil.”[3] Also, Every ton of mixed paper recycled can save the energy equivalent of 165 gallons of gasoline.[4]
Saving Resources
- By reducing our consumption, reuseing already existing products, and recycling materials we can use our natural resources more efficiently in the present and future.
- Fun Fact: According to some, by recycling one ton of paper, 17 trees are saved! [5] However, this number will change depending on the type of tree (size in width, height, and density of its wood) and what paper products will be used from it. Within this in mind about 1 ton (40 cartons) of 30% postconsumer content copier paper saves 7.2 trees and 1 ton of 50% postconsumer content copier paper saves 12 trees. [6]
Preserving landfill space
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that all landfills eventually will leak into the environment. Thus, the fate and transport of leaked materials in the environment, from both old and modern landfills, is a potentially serious environmental problem.[7]
- Fun Fact: Although we are not presently out of time, we will ultimately run out of space in many landfills, though the precise numbers as to when are debated. Smaller states and nations such as the UK may run out of landfill space in as little as 10 years![8]
So go ahead and throw those bottles and papers into the recycling bins on campus!
~Maddy Hall
Sustainability Intern
Sources:
[1]www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rrr/rmd/econ.htm.
[2] http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009-fs.pdf pg 4
[3] http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009-fs.pdf pg. 6
[4] http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009-fs.pdf pg 8.
[5] Nobile, Philip. Complete Ecology Fact Book, p. 379
[6]http://conservatree.org/learn/EnviroIssues/TreeStats.shtml
[7] http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-040-03/
[8]http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jan/19/waste
We interns are here to help YOU (students, faculty, staff, administrators and others within the UMBC community) learn what sustainability initiatives are going on at UMBC, how to reduce your carbon footprint, and about sustainability in general. This week we want to give you a better understanding of why recycling is a good thing to do.
A recent article within the Retriever weekly encouraged students not to recycle because of the inefficiencies within the waste management system. Although some of these claims are correct, recycling overall is extremely beneficial to the natural environment. By reducing pollution, preserving landfill space, saving energy, and conserving natural resources, recycling is something that should become second nature to all of us Retrievers.
Pollution
- Aside from reducing GHG emissions, which contribute to global warming, recycling also reduces air and water pollution associated with generating products from raw materials. [1]
-Fun Fact: Nationally, we recycled and composted 82 million tons of municipal solid waste. This provides an annual benefit of 178 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions reduced, comparable to the annual GHG emissions from almost 33 million passenger vehicles.[2]
Energy
- Although some plastics are harder to recycle than others, most aluminium, glass, paper, and your everyday plastics require less energy to recycle these products rather than create new materials.
-Fun Fact: “Recycling and composting 82 million tons of MSW saved almost 1.3 quadrillion Btu of energy, the equivalent of 224 million barrels of oil.”[3] Also, Every ton of mixed paper recycled can save the energy equivalent of 165 gallons of gasoline.[4]
Saving Resources
- By reducing our consumption, reuseing already existing products, and recycling materials we can use our natural resources more efficiently in the present and future.
- Fun Fact: According to some, by recycling one ton of paper, 17 trees are saved! [5] However, this number will change depending on the type of tree (size in width, height, and density of its wood) and what paper products will be used from it. Within this in mind about 1 ton (40 cartons) of 30% postconsumer content copier paper saves 7.2 trees and 1 ton of 50% postconsumer content copier paper saves 12 trees. [6]
Preserving landfill space
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that all landfills eventually will leak into the environment. Thus, the fate and transport of leaked materials in the environment, from both old and modern landfills, is a potentially serious environmental problem.[7]
- Fun Fact: Although we are not presently out of time, we will ultimately run out of space in many landfills, though the precise numbers as to when are debated. Smaller states and nations such as the UK may run out of landfill space in as little as 10 years![8]
So go ahead and throw those bottles and papers into the recycling bins on campus!
~Maddy Hall
Sustainability Intern
Sources:
[1]www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rrr/rmd/econ.htm.
[2] http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009-fs.pdf pg 4
[3] http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009-fs.pdf pg. 6
[4] http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009-fs.pdf pg 8.
[5] Nobile, Philip. Complete Ecology Fact Book, p. 379
[6]http://conservatree.org/learn/EnviroIssues/TreeStats.shtml
[7] http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-040-03/
[8]http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jan/19/waste
(edited about 13 years ago)
