If CO2 buildup is bad for the environment, why advocate recycling?

Question

The concentration of CO2 in the air is 0.04% which some people regard as too high. Why are these same people advocating recycling, when burying organic and oil derivative waste in a deep land fill would sequest carbon underground indefinatley.

Answer 1

Unfortunately it's not so simple as that. Much of the waste that goes into landfill sites decomposes and through the process of methanogenesis (biomethanation) it produces large amounts of methane. Many landfill sites have a stack for flaring the methane that's been produced, similar to the flaring you see on an oil rig - it gives you an idea how much methane is produced.

There are many other problems associated with landfill including the contamination of the surrounding land, leeching of toxins into the water supply, cost, aesthetic impact, fire risk etc.

Methane is a far more damaging gas than carbon dioxide so by burying waste and it's subsequent degredation we're sometimes causing more problems than if it were simply burned.

Another advantage to recycling is that it eliminates the need for mineral extraction and raw processing. Almost all metals have to be mined and this is a very heavy, industrial process. The bulk of the excavated material is spoil, only a small component is useable.

Once mined the material has to be processed and the metallic component extracted and converted into a useable metal.

Both the mining and extraction produce huge amounts of pollution including greenhouse gases, toxic, hazardous and harmful substances. Recycling eliminates the need for this.

Further, resources are finite and once used that;s it so it makes good economic sense to preserve the resources we have for as long as possible.

These same arguments hold true for the hydrocarbons (organic products). They don't require extracting from excavated material in the way that metals do but they still require fractionation and other processes to convert into useable products.

Answer 2

well first it does take LESS energy to recycle used materials than from raw materials so while recycling pollutes the air in some ways its not as bad as say trees loggers, ore miners, etc. besides recycling takes waste OUt of landfills and what we can do with the free space we saved is plant TREES to make up for the CO2 produced by the recycling trucks

Answer 3

The main reason that I hear is that it takes less energy to reform materials, than it takes to refine them from oil. Less energy burns less coal, and on up the refining ladder. If we buried everything that is made which could be recycled, we'd just be running out of materials that much sooner. And I think that the recycling chain therefore puts less CO2 into the atmosphere.

Answer 4

There are a number of reasons to call for recycling that would decrease the production of CO2.

To produce aluminum originally requires massive amounts of energy. The process of recycling aluminum decreases the energy use, and production of CO2.

The recycling of plastic, an oil based product, uses less energy and fossil fuel. The burning of less fossil fuel, and use of the already processed oil deceases dependency on foreign oil. That is a double benefit.

The recycling of glass takes less energy to produce than it originally took to make it. Thus burning less fossil fuel, and decreeing foreign oil dependency.

Recycling paper saves trees, and decreases the fuel usage in cutting, shipping, and processing the wood into paper. It also deceases the acid waste in originally producing the paper. That acid waste is either spilled, and or shipped to hazard waste sites using more fuel in the process.

There is a benefit in recycling, for the environment, financial, natural resources, and in decreasing dependency on foreign oil from unfriendly nations.

Answer 5

Plants use CO2 and I don't see what the big problem is. Recycling is obviously good to reduce pollution and overflowing landfills and conserving our natural resources.

Answer 6

Here's the real kicker.. there is actually no proof that CO2 causes any increase in temperature. In fact, if you look at the data.. you'll see that the temperature rises BEFORE the CO2 levels do.

Answer 7

I`m sure you, and your friends and family would volunteer your back yards for all kinds of dangerous waste to be buried-of course, you don`t mind if your water table gets full of Toxins? "indefinatly"