What are the advantages of starting a recycling campaign?

Economic benefits of recycling

You can give away toys, clothes and books that you no longer need so that someone else can use them again. The best thing to do is to communicate all these actions and motivate to reach some kind of goal to reduce the environmental impact of day-to-day activities.

In order to recycle correctly, it is important to know the type of waste, its typology and where it should be deposited. The most common waste generated in our homes on a daily basis are packaging, plastics, paper, cardboard and glass. All of them should be separated from organic waste and deposited in their respective containers.

Subsequently, we must know which are the hazardous or toxic wastes and where to deposit them. For this, there are specific containers, those of batteries, used oil and clean points in the cities.

To improve the recycling of waste, the important thing is to be well trained and to know the different types of containers that exist. We can also ask local councils to improve the waste system, making it easier to deposit and collect waste. Most important of all is to reduce consumption to improve the efficiency and use of raw materials.

5

In this post we want to tell you about 5 of the contributions that recycling brings to society as a whole. This activity is very positive, so if you have not yet incorporated it into your daily habits, what are you waiting for?

Manufacturing a new product means starting the production process from scratch, which entails significant energy consumption. If that product were to use recycled materials, certain steps in the manufacturing process would be omitted and this energy would be saved.

Energy conservation through the use of recycled products reduces economic dependence on oil. In this sense, petroleum is the main ingredient in the plastic manufacturing industry, so the use of recycled plastic conserves this non-renewable and increasingly scarce resource on the planet.

Benefits of Recycling Plastic

The coronavirus pandemic has strongly impacted solid waste recycling.  For the sector to survive and grow, creativity and a review of the regulatory and incentive frameworks are required.

Another important aspect of the sector is its high level of informality. The region has more than 2 million grassroots recyclers, who contribute more than 50% of the material that is recovered. Only 10% of the region’s recyclers are part of a cooperative or organization. The vast majority carry out their activity independently and informally. Less than 5% of our cities have recycling programs that include recyclers as part of the recyclable waste management system. In other words, recycling in Latin America and the Caribbean is informal.

Recycling is one of the main strategies to address the challenge of municipal solid waste. While “reduction” and “reuse” can have important impacts, if the underlying objective is to divert as much waste as possible from disposal sites, recycling is the best alternative to address this issue at scale.

Benefits of recycling in society

Hence its benefit to the environment, as Ranjit Baxi, president and founder of the Global Recycling Foundation, explains: “We are talking about a collective effort and a crucial issue for the future of the planet because no one can act in isolation. It is imperative that we involve the broadest possible population, from world leaders to businesses to individuals, no matter where they are located.”

There are three main types. Primary, or closed-loop, recycling turns materials into more of the same, such as paper into more paper or soda cans into more soda cans. Secondary recycling transforms a discarded product into other objects, albeit made from the same material. And tertiary or chemical recycling chemically decomposes the materials to produce something very different.

The recycling of glass, paper or plastic also removes from circulation an enormous amount of waste that would otherwise end up in landfills, whether controlled or uncontrolled. These huge accumulations of waste, which stain the map of both developed and developing countries, produce emissions of methane, another potent GHG, and contaminate soil and groundwater.