How Does Recycling Help The Environment?

Recycling is the process where materials are reused to make or manufacture new products. Instead of dumping material into a landfill site where it will simply sit in the ground, recycling uses this material as a resource to continue being useful. It’s important to note that not all material is recyclable – such as hazardous waste.

However, many materials are recyclable, and this is often indicated on the material itself. The fact that large amounts of waste are recyclable means it’s possible for businesses to vastly reduce the amount of waste material they send to landfill sites by implementing proper recycling processes. It’s therefore possible to significantly reduce the damage caused to the environment through recycling.

The latest recycling figures show that the UK recycles 45% of its waste overall.

Recyclable materials include:

• • Paper
  • Cardboard
  • Plastics
  • Glass
  • Wood
  • Construction waste (bricks, rubble)
  • Metal
  • Green waste and soil

You might be asking yourself why there’s such a focus on recycling. Here we outline the core reasons for recycling and the push to get homeowners and businesses to recycle more of their waste. The importance of recycling is to:

1. Reduce pollution

Recycling means materials that would otherwise class as waste and simply be left to sit in the ground are reused instead. Through reusing materials, we can decrease the demand for new materials. This process helps reduce the levels of pollution emitted as we create new materials. Waste stored in landfill sites can contribute towards damaging the environment, so avoiding unnecessarily stuffing of waste into landfill is highly desirable.

2. Lower costs

Recycling makes financial as well as environmental sense for businesses. The cost of using recycled material is much less than the cost of creating brand new material to work with. Through using recycled materials, businesses can lower their costs. When recycling is implemented on a large scale, the savings that can be made can be hugely significant.

One of the other benefits of recycling is that it helps avoid and reduce the amount of landfill tax you pay when disposing of waste.

3. Save energy

Similar to reducing costs, recycling material is much more energy-efficient than creating new material. Therefore, increased recycling can lead to lower levels of energy consumption. A decrease in energy consumption can lead to less energy needing to be created. This leads to less pollution being created and reduces overall environmental damage.

4. Cultivate a green image

Recycling is now an important part of life, and businesses that don’t recycle are increasingly being viewed in a negative light. Therefore, it’s beneficial for businesses to be seen to as environmentally responsible. As people become increasingly aware of the environmental damage caused by landfill waste, the process of recycling becomes even more championed.

Those who take their environmental responsibilities seriously are seen as desirable partners. Those who don’t may find their perceived irresponsibility a big disadvantage. From a business perspective, being green makes a lot of sense to entice and keep new customers.

There are many recycling benefits. Here we go into more detail about the benefits recycling has for businesses, the environment, and the planet as a whole.

The primary benefit of recycling is that it helps to protect the environment. With the threat of global warming growing ever more serious and extreme weather conditions becoming more frequent, steps to protect the environment are rightfully seen as very important. Recycling is one of these steps that’s relatively easy for UK businesses and homeowners to adopt.

So, we know recycling is said to be good for the environment generally. But what environmental issues does recycling specifically help to remedy? Find out with these key recycling advantages:

1. Global warming and pollution

Recycling can help remove the problem posed by huge volumes of waste dumped at sites that still need dealing with. in many cases, this waste is simply burned. However, doing so releases great volumes of C02 into the air, something that contributes significantly to the problem of global warming when carried out on a large scale.

If increasing volumes of waste are recycled, this means the volumes of waste that are burnt and release harmful volumes of gasses into the air decrease. In this way, recycling can contribute to tackling one of the causes of global warming and pollution.

2. Protect the environment and animal habitats

Landfill sites and sites where waste is burnt have a hugely detrimental effect on the environment surrounding them. These sites can damage animals’ habitats beyond repair. This is especially concerning where the habitats of rare or endangered species are jeopardised.

Through recycling, we can reduce the need for these damaging waste sites by reducing the amount of waste sent to them. Working to reuse materials rather than simply discard them helps protect the environment and preserve natural habitats rather than destroying them.

3. Conserve natural resources

As recycling involves reusing resources it can help conserve the planet’s natural resources. Rather than extracting raw materials from the earth, recycling provides us with a more environmentally friendly alternative. Reducing the demand for raw materials can also help stop large parts of forestation, such as the Amazon, from being destroyed in the search for the natural resources within.

In this way, recycling can help us slow the rate at which we extract and mine minerals and other resources from the earth. This protects and helps to conserve the earth’s natural resources for future generations.

Overall, recycling can prove to be a beneficial process for both businesses and the environment. Helping to conserve natural resources, reduce levels of pollution and tackle some of the root causes of global warming means recycling is good and can clearly have a positive effect on the environment.

Increasingly, a culture of recycling is forming in Britain. This culture envelopes both homes and businesses, with people now placing a keen emphasis on environmental responsibility. Within this culture, it pays for businesses to take recycling seriously, demonstrating that they are environmentally conscious as many of their customers will demand.

There are three main types of recycling.

1. Primary recycling – primary recycling refers to a product that can be reused without altering its current state or purpose at all. This means that once recycled, it will serve the same function again. An example of this is when you reuse a single-use plastic water bottle several times to avoid throwing it away after one use.
2. Secondary recycling – secondary recycling is when we repurpose a product for an alternative use, without it being processed or altered at all. For example, you may use leftover materials for a DIY or arts and craft project. One way you can do this is by using newspaper to create papier-mâché art.
3. Tertiary recycling – tertiary recycling is when recyclable materials are collected and altered (often chemically) for them to be reused as something else. This is typically what happens when our recyclable waste is collected and sent to a recycling centre.

There are a large variety of products that can be recycled. Although the below list is by no means comprehensive, it gives you an idea of what items you can recycle:

• Mixed paper
• Magazines
• Plastic bottles
• Cardboard
• Cans (tin, aluminium, steel)
• Glass containers/jars
• Glass bottles (wine etc.)

Natural recycling refers to adapting our practices to ensure our products can always be reused. If not, they should be broken down in a way that doesn’t harm the planet. It aims to replicate the way the earth naturally makes use of its waste. For example, plant and animal decay become part of our soil.

To practice natural recycling, we should attempt to reuse everything we purchase, where possible. We can also begin the practice of composting, as this allows us to reuse non-recyclable materials such as food waste to benefit the environment.

Unfortunately, there are some materials that cannot currently be recycled. It’s important, where possible, to avoid using these products or at least minimise our consumption of them. Materials that are non-recyclable include:

• Plastic wraps, such as cling film
• Food waste or ‘food contaminated’ items
• Broken glass
• Polystyrene
• Plastic utensils
• Garden waste (though this can be used in composting)
• Oils
• Hazardous materials
• Batteries

Find more information on recycling