The problem may have started with the simple consumerist principle of supply and demand. When something is popular enough, obviously its demand increases, which is followed by the manufacturer's increase in its supply. Initially, the manufacturer may have chosen a long-lasting and durable encasement for their product to create a longer shelf life, however once the product's popularity starts it 'selling like hot cakes' -which are only desirable when hot, meaning they are sold in great frequency almost immediately- the encasement for the product no longer needs its former material and can now be made out of something cheaper and more expendable. More of the product is sold, more of the product is made, more of material is used for its encasement, and more of that encasement material is mindlessly thrown away. And it does pile up. Now there is a problem: What to do with all that rubbish? Certainly a solution to this problem would be to find a place to put the rubbish and possibly reuse it. Recycling.
Plastics, paper, aluminum, gold, glass, et cetera can all be recycled and in doing so create new products, lift economic weight, and save on the environment, all without any unpleasant repercussions; in fact, only good can come of recycling.
Even though the fact that only good may come of recycling, some people (even those with higher status and education) need it pointed out to them that what current patterns of creating and disposing of rubbish they are using or would prefer to use just aren't in any way reasonable, logical, or thought by one with a sound mind not clouded with bureaucratic and callous attitudes intent on smothering the good intentions of the younger generation by making requests for the abolishment of their hard working endeavors since such an act of deterrence by one would sway this generation from wanting to do any good at all.
Influence against recycling would lead to ideas of burning thousands of newspapers as a form of rubbish removal, which would reduce valuable natural resources. Instead, the simple choice could be made to spare the 75, 000 trees by just recycling the Sunday edition of the New York Times.
It takes more energy and time to burn rubbish, which only ends up causing pollution and hurting the environment. Burning rubbish is also a more dangerous job than recycling, however there are several recycling centers in our own and neighboring counties operated by the developmentally disabled, demonstrating that recycling is a safer choice for people.
Recycling is safer for people and economically helping people out. The recycling of plastics can reduce the cost of products that use the shredded plastic. For example, the recycled plastic bottles, like that of the ones seen on a day-to-day basis at this school, can reduce the cost of a car or sofa. This is because the shredded plastic from the recycling center can be sold for cheap to companies looking to save on expenses. Companies take the cheaply purchased plastic shreds and use it for seat filler. Saving on the budget for materials reduces the cost of production, which lowers cost of the final product.
Any car on the road today will consist of recycled plastic, but it doesn't stop there. Even more of the car is made of recycled parts. Cars from earlier models turned in will have been scrapped into new steel and other metals. This helps keep the need for newer material low, which keeps costs low as well. The only way to keep this consistent is to keep recycling.
Another valuable metal that is recycled is Aluminum. The source of aluminum is for it to be extracted it from bauxite, which consumes a huge amount of electricity in both the harvesting of the chief ore and the refining. Obviously this is a costly procedure when compared to the programs that melt down and reuse aluminum. These programs have also cut energy used to make aluminum one quarter since the early 70's.
More than seventy-billion canned drinks are purchased a year in America alone, each can made of aluminum. Only half of these cans are turned in for recycling. Those cans that are recycled take approximately six weeks to be made into new cans that end up right back on supermarket shelves.
After figuring out the benefits of recycling, the country created "compulsory deposit schemes" to make people return bottles to shops. New York's law was passed in 1983 and two years later it was estimated to have saved fifty-million on rubbish collection, an additional nineteen million on waste disposal, and seventy-five million in energy costs. This is a substantial amount of evidence to promote and motivate the masses to take action to perhaps increase those numbers and tilt the scale from only half of the canned goods being recycled to a number well over.
Most schools promote recycling, and try to get typical apathetic students involved in the do-gooder mentality by setting an example by recycling the gold on circuit boards in old or obsolete computers. The computers are gathered up and sent to machines at recycling centers to be shredded up. Any recovered gold is melted down and poured into ingot moulds, the kind that produce gold bars. These bars at first are impure, but are eventually refined and recast. This simple contribution helps out the economy and didn't take much effort on the part of the school to do so.
In due course of the direction the world is headed in, the necessity to recycle cannot be ignored if we, as the population of earth and keepers of its future, plan on maintaining natural resources and environmental balance. The effort is minimal but must be made, like that of providing a place for cans or bottles. Once it is made, it most certainly should not be ignored.