The Benefits of Recycling Essay Example for Free

The Benefits of Recycling Essay Recycling is a vital factor in the future of our beloved home, Earth. If we want to keep our land green, prevent pollution, conserve natural resources and save our plants and animals, recycling is a key factor in doing so. Recycling reduces the amount of pollution going into earth. When products are made from fresh material, there are more pollutants being released into the air due to the extraction and processing. Using recycled material produces fewer pollutants and is better for the environment (Weber, n. d.). Recycling helps to reduce the amount of garbage being made. This means we are decreasing the size of our landfills. The less garbage going into our landfills, the less garbage we have to burn to ash. (Onsola, 2017). Landfills also create a liquid called leachate which occurs when debris disintegrates in the landfill and leaks through the waste which can pollute the land, groundwater, and waterways (Environment Victoria, 2013). When recycling, we can lessen the amount of greenhouse gases going into our environment (Knowledgiate Team, 2017). This can create multiple environmental problems. In 2005, Pennsylvania DEP stated that by recycling, it reduced greenhouse gases by 9 million tons of carbon dioxide. By recycling we reduce the need to combust fossil fuels. (Sherman, n.d.). To make sure we want our future generation’s air to be breathable. Another benefit to recycling is that it creates a sustainable amount of resources. When we recycle, we are turning old, used material into new, usable material. By recycling we save more resources, for example when we use virgin materials, it is coming from natural resources. Around 40% of our waste comes from paper. If we recycled our paper instead, we could save millions of trees and also lessen the amount of waste going into our environment. (DLCSRecycling, n.d.).When we cut down trees, it is for fresh pulp which will be used for first-generation paper. Instead we could use recycled paper which can very well be used to make paper which is just a good quality as the paper made from virgin material (Schenker, 2017). Our future generations will also need these resources, so instead of wasting what we have we should recycle. Lastly, another pro to recycling is that it saves wildlife. When we don’t recycle we are ruining habitats. For example, when we cut down trees for a paper we are destroying homes of wildlife. By not recycling we are also polluting many homes of animals. Green SC states that more than one million seabirds, 100,000 sea mammals, and 50,000 fur seals die yearly because of plastic litter that we humans put into the water (Lake, 2015). Turtles that eat jellyfish confuse plastic bags for food and then choke and die on them (Tay, 2016). We are messing up the ecological balance of ecosystems. This will also affect our food sources in the future as it may cause the extinction of plants and animals. By doing something as simple as recycling, we reduce the need for new material, saving nature from harm (Missimer, n.d.).