Recycling

What is Resycling?

Reduce, reuse, recycle is the mantra we often hear everytime there's a discussion about recycling . Reducing waste means not only to reduce the volume of waste that goes to the landfills, but it also means decreasing the amount of dangerous chemicals that seep into the soil and pollute the air due to improper waste disposal. Reuse is basically extending the usage of most of the items we have in the house by reusing or donating these items to others in a free recycle group, for example. To complete the cycle, we must do it as part of our lifestyle to purchase and use products made from recycled materials. At its core recycling is a process. It's a series of activities within a loop, a cycle if you will, that includes, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates our average (across different products and industries) recycling rate to be 32.5%. What happens to the remaining unrecycled waste? The EPA explain that 12.5% are burned in incineration facilities (spewing hazardous emissions to the atmosphere) while the remaining 55% (well over half of the estimated 251 million tons of solid waste we produce in a year) are deposited in the landfills throughout the country. Quite clearly, there is ahuge room for recycling to grow in this country.

Recycling is a way of life
Once we have made that choice to implement all the steps of recycling in our daily lives, and stick to that choice every single day, recycling becomes second nature to us. Sure there will be lapses, it's not easy for us creatures of habit. But no matter, we press on. Every small contribution to the recycling movement and the initiative to protect our environment adds up to how our present society eventually shapes our nation's and the Earth's future. What is recycling to you?