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Controversy over the benefits of recycling bubbled
up in 1996 when columnist John Tierney posited in a New York Times Magazine article that “recycling is garbage.”
But let's take a look at the advantages...
1. Recycling helps conserve limited resources - Throwing
away a single aluminum can, versus recycling it, is like pouring out six ounces of gasoline. Last year, Americans recycled
enough aluminum cans to conserve the energy equivalent of more than15 million barrels of oil.
2. Recycling is energy efficient - On a larger scale,
recycling could translate into huge reductions in our energy costs. Consider this: 20 cans can be made from recycled material
using the same energy it takes to make one new can.
3. Recycling is Earth-friendly - No matter how safe
and efficient our landfills are, the possibility of dangerous chemicals from solid waste deposited in landfills leaking and
contaminating our underground water supply is always present.
Believe it or not, recycling just 35 percent of our
trash reduces toxic emissions equivalent to taking 36 million cars off the road
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