We explain why it is important to recycle, what recycling consists of and the details of each of its benefits.
What is the importance of recycling?
The recycling It is one of the most important ecological and element reuse tasks in the industrial world, despite the fact that, unfortunately, in many societies current is still a rather minority activity.
Recycling consists of reprocessing or reuse as raw material industrial waste materials that still retain their most significant properties, such as cardboard, paper, certain plastics, most metals, glass or even water itself once we have used it.
These inputs, normally discarded together with biodegradable garbage, have not yet reached the limit of their useful life, and through recycling they can be re-incorporated into the economy, to form new consumer products.
This work is fundamental in our society, due to a set of reasons of economic, ecological and social interest, among which are:
- Reduces the amount of waste that goes to environment. By extending the useful life of certain materials, it reduces the volume of garbage - especially non-biodegradable or those with very long decomposition periods - that we dispose of into the environment, so that to pollute minus the soils and seas. Thus, we give more time to planet to regenerate the ecological damage that our way of life causes it.
- Provides new inputs to industry at a low cost. Recyclable materials have a very low cost, since they are part of the waste, and can perfectly be reused or reprocessed to re-manufacture consumable products, feeding industries more economically.
- Reduces the amount of raw material extracted from the environment. Something that follows from the above is that less raw material is demanded from the environment, thereby reducing the ecological cost of its extraction and primary processing. For example, for every ton of recycled paper, 18 whole trees are cut down. By recycling, we are prolonging the life of planet resources.
- Create new jobs. The recycling industry, like any other, requires personnel to carry out continuous tasks, which implies a demand for personnel that contributes to reducing unemployment and trains industrial professionals with an ecological orientation.
- Save Energy. Savings in raw materials and in extractive work not only save direct ecological damage, but also indirect, since they reduce the amount of energy that these activities need. This energy is obtained at the expense of exploiting the environment, in one way or another, so that by recycling we are protecting the environment doubly. nature.
- Educate in the responsibility. Getting involved in recycling as a society implies not only an environmental duty, but is also part of the activities aimed at promoting the responsible consumption, not to have an attitude of unbridled and unconscious consumption before the world, as if our way of life had no future consequences. Therefore, recycling is also educating future generations.