Benefits of Recycling
When recyclables are thrown away in the trash at home, they are later collected and landfilled. But by implementing a recycling program, recyclables are collected in a container designated for recyclables and separate from trash. This allows for recyclables to be recovered, preventing them from ending up buried in a landfill. Recycling has a positive environmental and economic impact locally and globally.
Environmental Benefits
- Conservation of raw resources - Creating products from recycled material helps reduce the consumption of natural resources.
- Pollution reduction - In most cases, mining and harvesting of raw material produces more pollution from manufacturing than recovering and recycling used material.
- Less damage to biological habitats and water quality - In most cases, mining and harvesting of raw material interrupts and harms biological habitats and water quality.
- Reduction of by-products that form in landfills - Less use of landfills will reduce the formation of by-products, such as methane or leachate, that can form in landfills and can potentially contaminate groundwater and harm human and animal habitats.
Economic Benefits
- Decrease in waste disposal costs – With large amounts of materials ending up in landfills, available landfill space is diminishing driving up landfill disposal costs. Recycling programs provide the opportunity to send less to the landfill by diverting reusable material. This may potentially result in a decrease in waste disposal costs, which then reduces or may possibly offset the costs of a recycling program.
- Cost effective - It is much more cost effective to process recycled material than it is to harvest raw resources.