Benefits of Recycling

As we pass the annual observation of Earth Day (Apr 22, 2013) Triple E wants to discuss some personal choices that will help to - as the Amazon banner expresses - Make Every Day Earth Day!  It might seem so cliché to write about recycling for an Environmental Landmark Day, but it so fits Triple E's agenda of energy, environment, and economics.  Recycling is a daily and personal choice that makes a big difference: save energy, reduce environmental waste, and create economic opportunity in your community.

San Francisco leads the US in recycling by diverting 80% of waste from landfills to recycling and compost centers, and has a goal of reaching zero waste by 2020.  Recycling and composting is not only good for our environment, it is also good for our economy, said San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee.  According to US EPA studies, recycling creates 10 times more jobs than simply sending refuse to the landfill.

Triple E Agent Assignment:
Rediscover benefits of reduce, reuse, and recycle...

What does our recycling effort do for the energy, environment, and economic picture?

It is becoming fairly standard for municipal solid waste collection to include separate bins for recyclables and compostables.  Batteries, CFLs, tires, used oil, etc. can be properly handled and recycled in just about every city or town, if you don't know where to recycle these items try 1-800-recycling.com.  Even though some cities earn good grades on their recycling report card, they are still sending hundreds of thousands of tons of waste to landfills each year (e.g., ~444,000 tons for San Francisco our nation's top recycling city).

There is a lot you can do at home, to reduce, reuse and recycle.  Recycling not only reduces waste but also reduces energy consumption in the manufacturing phase.  A brief summary of the 'Energy Savings' from recycling -

• Aluminum: >95%  This may be the most efficient form of recycling.  Aluminum can be melted and reused without any degradation of quality.
• Plastic: ~90%  A variety of plastics can be efficiently recycled and only uses about 10% of the energy required to create new plastic from raw materials.
• Paper: ~40%  Recycling a ton of paper saves 17 trees, which take up carbon dioxide and release oxygen.  Paper is the largest component of waste that gets landfilled each year, so there is plenty of room for improvement in this category.
• Glass: ~30%  Returning glass to a raw reusable state in a recycling effort is still efficient but does not save a lot of energy because the raw material (silica sand) needed for making glass is so abundant.  However, glass containers are the best to reuse in the home because the risk for the container to release toxins to the food/liquid within...is low relative to plastics or aluminum.

Glass canning jars, pitchers, mugs and any other glass container that Grandma reused gets Triple E's stamp of approval (image from simplehomemade.net)

The last note is well worth investigating in a future article, so Triple E will get back to it when possible.  For now, improve your personal approach to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Triple R,
Triple E.