The Impact of Recycling on our communities
January 15, 2013
It is known to all that recycling has many positive topics on the environment; but we don’t realize that it impacts the community as well. Here are some of the examples –
- Employment Opportunities – Recycling has turned out to be a major industry that generates attractive employment opportunities. Apart from the curbside collections, the entire process of recycling involves a lot of tasks like collecting the scraps, transporting them to landfill, processing the metals, manufacturing new products from the recycled materials etc. Thus a huge number of employment opportunities are generated from the process.
- Greenhouse gas emissions – This is a vital outcome of recycling that is extremely beneficial for community. The hazardous effects of greenhouse gas are even more than one can imagine. Studies show that indoor and outdoor pollutants account for 5% of global disease. It is striking to know that in a year almost 74% of total pollutions can be reduced by recycling paper and thus it would indirectly help in saving people’s life.
- Improved Water Resources – Proper recycling service improves a community’s water resources by reducing the amount of pollutants entering the different water bodies. Moreover, including recycling in the waste management system decreases the consumption of water as well.
- Well being of a Community – Recycling programs help in improving the overall health of a community. Organizations or companies that use recycled materials will be more expected to open up branches in a city that is interested to take up recycling projects and this, in a way, helps to the betterment of the community.
- Financial Income – There are a lot of things that we no longer use or need. One can recycle them and earn a lot of money. Things like cell phones, computers, laptops, cartridges can easily be recycled. For communities the cost of waste disposal or recycling gets reduced a lot when handled together.
- Recycling saves energy – On a large scale, recycling help to reduce our energy costs hugely. For example, it takes more energy to create a new aluminum can than it takes to recycle 20 such cans. Again using the same energy another 20 cans can be made up.
- Recycling is environment friendly – Though the landfills are made with enough expertise and following the technical details, the dangerous chemicals that get deposited in these landfills, can always contaminate the underground water. Though combusting the solid waste is considered to be an effective way, it causes increased air pollution.
- Creating awareness among people – Since recycling impacts a society in so many positive ways, it creates a strong awareness among people that recycling is really important for a community. It also helps in building a strong economy by creating job opportunities, reducing the costs, saving resources as well as energy etc.
- Building Community – In most of the communities of the present world, people care a lot about recycling and its impact upon environment. As a result of this people tend to work together in different sorts of recycling programs. There are also many organizations that arrange free campaigns to promote recycling.