Over the years, developed and developing countries around the world have tried various ways to ensure more of their citizens participate in recycling practices in a bid to improve their recycling rate and realize the benefits of recycling.
“Recycling costs do go higher than what it would cost to simply put garbage in a landfill, which has led to recycling being considered cost-inefficient. Other high-end recycling costs stem from building waste recycling units, maintaining said units, disposing of chemicals, and more.”
However, not all these countries have been successful in this endeavor, as the majority of them have had stagnated recycling rates over some years, unable to fully accrue the benefits of recycling.
A reason for this is attributed to the overwhelming nature that recycling presents to numerous people, which is often a result of a lack of understanding of the advantages of recycling and its disadvantages.
Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of any concept is crucial before participating in said process, hence, highlighted below are the main advantages and disadvantages of recycling.
Advantages of Recycling
1. The Protection and Conservation of the Environment
An obvious but essential benefit of recycling is its effect on the environment. These effects come in various forms and offer different means of protecting Mother Nature. For one, recycling old materials and reusing them ensures a lesser need for incinerators and landfills.
There’s also the aspect of protecting the forests and preventing the felling of trees, which leads to safeguarded ecosystems, preventing the displacement and harm of the animals that inhabit them.
Essentially, practicing the recycling of needed natural resources leads to a sustainable method of conserving the environment.
2. Minimizes Pollution
A well-known fact is that almost all forms of pollution in today’s modern era can be traced back to industrial waste. This makes recycling industrial waste like plastic and cans an imperative measure towards reducing the level of pollution in today’s modern era.
The more these industrial products are recycled and reused, rather than carelessly trashed, the cleaner our air and water. Recycling involves the use of balers and bale wires. Check out the 12 gauge stem wire at balingwiredirect.com.
3. Reduces Energy Consumption
In the industry of processing raw materials, a significant amount of energy is constantly being used and consumed. A nearly same amount of energy is utilized when transporting these raw materials, and when you add these two up, that’s a large amount of energy consumption.
An advantage of recycling is that it consumes far less energy to recycle and manufacture these raw materials than it would to process them from scratch.
Disadvantages of Recycling
1. Recycling Can Lead to Pollution
Although it sounds contradictory, it is true that recycling can as well lead to polution. The reason for this stems from the unhygienic and unsightly conditions of recycling sites, which is to be expected, given that all manner of waste is gathered in one location.
Waste being gathered in one location isn’t the only issue, as the recycling process requires tons of waste to be transported, sorted, and then cleaned before being processed. This leads to pollution and poses health risks for the dedicated individuals that carry out the recycling process.
2. Lack of Durability
A major issue with recycling is that recycled products are not always durable or of high quality.
The reason for this is, as you’d expect, the source of the product, which is then recycled, trashed material that has most likely been overused and ended up fragile. Such low-quality products end up low-priced and overly fragile.
3. There is Still Some Cost
An advantage of recycling is that it is less costly to recycle than it is to process raw materials. However, this does not mean that there is no cost incurred in the process of recycling.
Recycling costs do go higher than what it would cost to simply put garbage in a landfill, which has led to recycling being considered cost-inefficient. Other high-end recycling costs stem from building waste recycling units, maintaining said units, disposing of chemicals, and more.
