Shouldn't recycling just be the only option, why are we still burrying our trash in the 21st century?

Question

No intelligent person would condone that we just bury our raw sewage or dump it into the rivers and lakes. Why bury trash and pretend it goes away?

Some very good answers here. I understand the cost is more for recycling, but i believe that our technology should offer more biodegradable materials and businesses should encourage recycling by having recycle bins. Many restaurants use recycled cups and bags but then only have trash cans available. I think that McDonald's can afford the bill for it's in house eaters.

Answer 1

The answer is probably money. Yes, I agree that recycling is the better option, but it's cheaper to pour garbage into landfills than it is to process it in recycling centers. In some cities, including my own, the local sanitation service picks up recyclable materials as well as trash. This is a good step, but there's still a large amount of garbage going to the dump.

Answer 2

Have you ever really done any research into recycling? It would appear as if you have not. Do you think the 20 oz bottle you are drinking out of right now will be re-made into another 20 oz bottle. Think again, only about 10% of that bottle is usable. For plastics, it cost more for a manufacture to use recycled plastic (which is not as strong as new plastic). As far as metal, okay, they have a little better of a chance of getting back into the mix.
But to answer your question, we burry our trash because it's cheaper, easier and better for the enviroment than recycling..Yes, that's right, better. Go to any of these recycling centers and see for your self how much CO2 one of the plants admit into the air to melt the plastic, metal, and glass down into something that can be used again. And they stink like a paper mill.

Answer 3

The "greening of America"- still has a ways to go yet. We STILL need to find profitable markets for the materials we recycle so that they don't end up in our landfills. This is a SLOW process...-but, we're getting there. Hopefully, there'll come a day when we'll actually start "mining landfills" for their recyclables- instead of adding to them... :)

Answer 4

you must understand that this whole "saving the environment" deal is still new to some people. also, you can't recycle everything. i do think, however, that recycling should be more accesible, which would help the situtation. you may not be able to solve the problem completely, but you can atleast give it a head start.

Answer 5

because it does. It is returned to the earth from whence it came.

in third world countries, they do dump into the ocean etc.

recycle, don't give them anything to burn.

See, we are going to have double digit IQ fuc*ers until we go down for the count. We are our own worst enemy.

Answer 6

well...recycling really should be a LOT more accessible than it is, but as for why we still bury the things we throw away, and maybe why we cant just burn it even...
one word...styrofoam...