"this is interesting" Do you really believe that recycling will help save the planet, I'm not to sure it will.

Question

Ok i understand if you recycle paper it will stop more trees being cut down and this can help save our planet. but plastic bags,bottles etc, and glass bottles etc, these have to be melted down to make more plastic and glass products.
So what about the power and energy used on the machines that have to melt these bags and bottles, Then what about the fumes form the plastic and glass being melted going into the atmosphere this will cause global warming not prevent it.
If you don't recycle properly you will get a heavy fine from the councils, then you have to pay for extra bins to recycle properly
so you wont get fined.
So is recycling just another government conspiracy to take more money off people.
or is this just another load of rubbish which i heard in the pub yesterday.

Answer 1

To produce the materials in the first place requires intensive quarrying, mining and mineral extraction activities. Overall, for every 1kg of useable material that is extracted there's 9kg that goes to waste. The extraction process is very damaging to the environment and in many cases is very energy intensive. It's also dangerous and expensive.

All your plastics and other hydrocarbon products (everything from petrol to wax to road surfaces) comes from oil, a finite resource which once depleted has gone for good. The more you recycle now the longer these resources will last. The same is true of many metals.

The raw processing of extracted materials uses many times more energy than is required for reprocessing your recycled materials. Also, mineral extraction tends to take place a considerable distance from the point of production and often involves shipping the raw materials thousands of miles whereas recycling is done at a local level.

Take something as simple as a tin can. To produce a can in the first place the raw matrerials need to be extracted from a tin-mine. This is a dangerous and intensive process, the raw material is then processed in a multi-stage process so as to extract the metal, the amount of metal recovered is tiny in comparison to the amount of material excavated. The processes are highly polluting and energy intensive, the environmental damage they cause extends far beyond that of the tin mine itself. the processes are hazardous and harmful to health. Once extracted the metal could be shipped half way around the world before reaching the factory where it's finally made into a tin can.

By recycling, all of that is done away with and your tin can is simply returned to the factory and melted down again.

Answer 2

If you lived in the 50's and 60's you remember flip tops , cans and broken glass everywhere. Now you see none of it.
That makes the Earth a better place.
Also it gives the homeless and less fortunate a way to make a few bucks to get a meal or a beer. Before many of them stole and begged and now they have a route where they pick up recyclables. That is a good thing.
Nothing willl ever stop fumes or power being used, or trees being cut down. There will always be a reason to do it no matter how much is recycled, so you have to look at other reasons that are worthwhile instead.

Answer 3

Some recycling is economically viable, metal, paper, while most plastic and glass is not. I lived where there was no sorting other than to put what you thought was recyclable in one bin and what you thought was trash in the other. No fine for guessing wrong either. No fine for putting things in the wrong bin.

I'd guess recycling is about a 60% eeffective and economically viable process, with bin charges and fines making up the rest of the cost. Yes, it is mostly to make people feel good, that they are "doing something". So it is part Leftist government control, a way to take money from people, part a good thing and part a load of pub rubbish. I favour voluntary recycling, not fines and compulsory recycling and the government should reveal how much they make from recycling and how it is used to reduce rubbish collection taxes.

Mike makes a good point. In order to stop GW we must destroy our technological civilisation and become primitive farmers. There is no other way than reducing the number of people in the world. So why doesn't this vocal "majority" that believes in this, just lead the way. Drink your poisoned Kool Aid and let the rest of us sensible people get on with life without your inane drivel and hysterics.

Answer 4

Northern Lad; I heard it was true that if the whole world recycled properly then taht would sufficiently curb global warming. Oh, and plastic bags are better for the environment...

I was going to say that everything that you don't like is a conspiracy.

perhaps though you shouldn't bring garbage back from the pub.

Ask yourself why they would do it if there was no benefit?

A, there is benefit to the environment (landfill or global)
B, It's a conspiracy, now go get some evidence, or just have another beer.

Answer 5

Only if every single man/woman/child in "every" country did the same - which I doubt they do - would it possibly work.
Otherwise, pointless and a waste of time.
We have three different huge council vehicles come to empty the three different wheelie-bins, and they don`t run on battery/gas engines.

So why don`t the Supermarkets stop using plastic bags and introduce paper bags which are environmentally better? And stop the use of plastic bottles etc?

But the whole world has to recycle, not just a few country`s.

Answer 6

Most recycling is a good thing. It uses far less energy to recycle metals than to mine ore and refine it into usable metal. Most plastics are made from petroleum. Like metal it is more efficient to recycle than to produce from crude. Recycled plastics can not be used for food packaging because plastic absorbs odors from whatever was in it the first time. Paper is one thing that should not be recycled. Properly managed forests will grow new trees. The chemicals used to break down paper and remove the ink so it can be made into recycled paper are worse for the environment than logging and making virgin paper. Unless it is laminated to plastic, paper is 100% biodegradable. Paper also contains as many BTUs per pound as wood. One good use of used paper is fuel for biomass powerplants. Another use for newsprint is insulation. Paper is ground and treated for fire resistance to become cellulose insulation. I don't know much about glass recycling except that most fiberglass insulation is made from recycled glass.

Answer 7

Depends on what's being recycled. You mentioned glass. It takes way less energy to make new glass from old glass than to make glass from sand. That's enough to pay for all the extras involved in doing it. Same with aluminum. Paper is a more dodgy proposition. But England is a small country and waste disposal space is also a consideration.

Answer 8

You have seen the light !!!!!

Do you remember the SODA STREAM craze in the early eighties? You would have people saying "Oh yeah, I can make my one fizzy drinks, 4p a glass" But that would only be if they made 500 glasses, and the time and the hassle to do it and the end product was - well liquid crap.

The same thing applies for recycling, YES you can recycle, but look at the hassle & expense for a tiny return AND the carbon footprint it costs in the first place.

Recycling is also being used as a way to cut money and services EG Supermarkets - If you reuse the bag you save the environment CRAP CRAP CRAP - if you reuse your bags WE do not have to provide them and we save money.

Answer 9

No...not at all.
It's a simple matter of, like you say, another government scam which has attracted all the band wagon jumpers from all over the world, thus giving companies another excuse to make the population feel guilty and buy there 'green' products.
Dinosaurs didn't have plastic bags and unrecyclable crap splattered all over the country but they were wiped.
It's a simple matter of mother nature,(if I'm aloud to say that without sounding sexist), keeping earth in balance. The human race will never be wiped out and earth will never burn out.

Answer 10

No it wont but that does not mean it is not a good thing to do. The planet is going to get warmer and while we are contributing to that it is not just us and there is little we can do to stop it. What we need is strategies to deal with the warming as it occurs and that is what governments should be concentrating on