Are recycling plants more harmful to the environment than helpful?

Question

I posted this before with a typo, sorry!

Answer 1

It depends on what's being recycled, how it's done, and what costs are being accounted for. It generally comes out that glass and metals are worth recycling, as evidenced by the fact that recycling them produces enough value that places bother recycling them at a profit without the government involved.

Paper gets more tricky. It takes a lot of energy and produces a lot of noxious chemical waste to recycle paper. Also, most of the trees used for paper production in the US come from tree farms, so ironically, the higher our paper consumption, the more trees. (If this doesn't sound right to you, stop and think- if you wanted there to be more corn, should you buy more corn, or less? The higher the demand for corn, the more acres of corn get planted every year. Same for trees. Some lumber is cut from older trees and in some cases is a different story, but paper comes predominantly from farmed trees, and buying more paper causes there to be more acres of forest.) On the other hand, we use huge quantities of paper, and a lot of it can be recycled effectively into lower grades of paper and cardboard. I don't know the answer, I've seen conflicting studies on the topic.

Plastics are probably a huge waste to recycle. Just the energy consumed in recycling probably causes more damage to the environment and costs more money than the value of the landfill space and the costs of making a new one. That doesn't even include the costs of collection, separation, cleaning, etc. All the well-done studies I've seen on plastics indicate that recycling them is bad for the environment.

So you have to take it on a case by case basis.

Answer 2

Off course they are helpfull..as you might know not 100% of any waste can be reused..some portion is always left to be recycled so as to avoid more waste getting generated....

A properly setup , maintained and well operated recycling plant can never be harmful as every country has its own Environmental rules and regulations which control the operation / maintenance and pollution levels of recycling plants..

But still in countries like (China , India..[my home. I feel ashamed]..) There are certain recycling plants (even government) being operated under pathetic conditions with no regulation/maintenance..Which can spoil the environment more..

so in general and well setup / maintained / operated within limits of regulation., a recycling plant is not harmful..

If you have to assess a recycling plant..consider

1.0 what they recycle , how they dispose the effluent
2.0 whether the concentration of the effluent are within the permitted limit.
3.0 Whether annual / need based maintenance are done?
4.0 Whether the waste handling system is effective / up-to-date or not..?
5.0 Is there any better alternative available to dispose the same ?


sorry for this big answer..hope it helps...

Answer 3

Well... considering that the alternatives for handling post-consumer waste are either recycling, landfill storage or incineration, then I'm going to vote for recycling as being better for the environment.

In general, it takes less energy to recycle materials than it does to produce them from scratch.

There is probably a lot of energy used in transporting the recyclables to the recycling stations; however, in this case I think the best approach is to improve the efficiency of transportation, because you have to look at the big picture and consider the overall effect.

From the answers people have given, I get the impression that people would rather burn their trash than recycle it, only because the current technology for recycling may be somewhat inefficient. Well, I suppose you could make that argument for the short-term, but long-term I think the answer is to improve the efficiency of recycling overall, (as well as with reduce & reuse), and just to increase efficiency in general.

I think recycling is something of a goal for us to work toward; it takes time to develop, and it doesn't just happen overnight. It takes years for consumers, industry and legislators to develop technology, good methods and practices, and then to improve upon them, and then to streamline the whole process.

Answer 4

When it comes to recycling, the key is how efficient and cost-effective the process will be. If process is to expensive and yield is to narrow then why bother. Besides, there are some recycling processes that end up with undesirable bi products.

We all must focus on making good and responsible use of all natural resources before they even become trash.

Answer 5

Depends on what they recycle.
The easiest things to recycle, like glass or auto tires, are ignored and recycled plastic products often cost more that new manufacture. We should also concentrate on reducing and re-using.

Answer 6

that is a very good question, and it all depends on the plant, some are run better then other, you can take to recycle plants and they will operate totally opposite of each other.

Answer 7

Plant recycling has gone on since plants existed.

If they didn't decay and in most cases help rejuvinate the soil, what would we have?

A bunch of dead plants along with all the plastics that don't decompose...

Answer 8

Some, but that is due to the Management team.