Why to recycle?Special Project | Professor Gala Narezo | Soo Yun Maeng

There are many problems caused by improper disposal of wastes that requires long time to be decomposed.

This is a threat to our environment because they are toxic to the air and water around them.

We produce much Greenhouse Gases as we make new plastics. We run factories, ship them to different locations, and produce toxic wastes.

All these steps produce Greenhouse Gases, such as Carbon Dioxide(CO2), Methane(CH4), or Nitrous Oxide(N2O). These are the main cause of the Global Warming.

But if we recycle many of our waste plastics, we can reduce the production of Greenhouse Gases.

What benefits if we recycle plastics?

1. Reduce Pollution2. Reduce Landfill3. Save Natural Resources4. Save Energy5. Save Money

1. Recycling reduces pollution

Recycling reduces pollution by minimizing the energy spent during the manufacturing process. Major benefit of minimizing the energy spent is reducing greenhouse gas to the environment.

Greenhouse gases are produced proportion to the amount of energy spent. Therefore if we recycle and cut down the energy spent, we can reduce pollution.

Also plastics contain harmful chemicals itself such as cadmium, lead, PVC and other pollutants in the form of artificial coloring, plasticizers, and stabilizers. Since the toxic plastics are filling up the landfills and floating around in the oceans, the plastics are releasing pollutants into the environment. It makes health risks for both animals and humans.

Our country’s landfills are closing about two per day because of the numerous trashes.

Especially we have much problem in cities because the landfills are rapidly over filled to capacity.

Plastic bottles makes up about 11% of the contents of landfills.

Statistically, people in the U.S throw away 2.5 million plastic an hour. Since the plastic is one of the most disposable materials, it makes major reason to filling up faster and faster our landfills as well.

2. Recycling saves space for waste disposal

Landfill sites are generating toxic gases that pollutes the air and water around the sites.

However, we throw away our milk bottles, soda bottles, water bottles, trash bags, grocery bags, product packaging, and more every day without any guilty or thoughts.

There are many waste plastics that can be recycled are filling up landfill sites.So if we recycle the plastic, we can reduce toxic pollutants as well as save spaces for waste disposal.

2. Recycling saves space for waste disposal

3. Recycling saves natural resources

Recycling saves natural resources.

We don’t have unlimited resources, so it is very important to recycle to save natural resources.

Making new plastic requires significant amounts of fossil fuels. About 8% of the world’s fossil fuels are used in producing new plastics. It is about million of tons of fuels per year.

Therefore, recycle could preserve these fuels. For example, if we recycle plastic, we can save about 3.8 barrels of oil by recycling one ton of plastic bottles.

4. Recycling saves energy

5. Economic Benefit

Recycling cuts off manufacturing costs as it doesn’t require disposal costs and doesn’t need to bring in new raw materials and manufacture it.

Also recycling provides more job opportunities to society as it requires more labor in the recycling than just land fillings.

Conclusion

Recycling of the plastic is beneficial to us.

Also it is easy to recycle. All plastic and be recycled.

As designers, we should deliver benefits of recycling to people through our works and designs.

Thank you.