Importance of plastic recycling
Most products nowadays come with plastic packaging and you make use of plastics every day, right?
Do you ever wonder what happens to them? Or do you even care?
Every day you make use of this packaging and drop them in a garbage bin along with other wastes, do you know where they finally end up?
Before I tell you the importance of recycling them instead of discarding them anywhere, let me say a little about plastics and how they affect you.
What’s plastic?
Plastic is a non-biodegradable material which is largely made up of polymers. This means it doesn’t decompose or, it takes a long time to decompose into the earth. Plastic takes several years, about 10 to 300 years to decompose depending on the type of plastic.
Now, here goes the question again, have you ever wondered what happens to the plastics you use every day?
Some households heap them together and burn them in an abandoned area, use incinerators or bury their plastics. You probably don’t have a problem with any of these methods but they are usually not efficient enough.
You should start to care about what happens to your plastics because they affect your health and the earth in a negative way.
How plastics affect you
Unrecycled plastics pollute the earth. When plastics are left abandoned, with time, they produce toxic chemicals which are harmful to the planet. Leaving plastic on any available landfill is dangerous.
The burning of plastics isn’t advisable either as they cause waste of useful resources and release a destructive chemical to our ecosystem. What then should be done to plastics? Recycling!
Plastic recycling as you must have guessed is the process of converting plastic waste into newer materials. When plastics are recycled, they save lots of resources thereby reducing the burden on resources used for producing new plastic.
If you still think plastic recycling has nothing to do with you, the importance of plastic recycling will give you a change of mind. You will get some insights into why you should be concerned about the plastics you use.
Importance of Plastic Recycling
1. Conservation Of Resources
Without a doubt, many of the earth’s resources are used for the production of different things which, in simple words, means we humans are putting a strain on earth’s reserves.
Do you know how many chemicals are involved during the production of plastic? You probably haven’t made that research yet or have you?
If you have, you will realize just how careless it is to toss out a plastic. Tossing out plastic may seem like a simple action but it is a big deal to earth whose treasures you take and instead of a saying ‘thank you’ to mother earth, you return toxic chemicals to it.
When you recycle plastic, you save up resources like water, energy, and petroleum that could have been used in other productions thereby reducing the immense pressure put on earth.
What other way can be used to say a thank you if not recycling?
Recycling puts a stop to the waste of useful resources. When recycling takes place, resources are conserved and put to better use.
And just so you know, when you recycle a lot of plastics, it conserves enough electricity that could power homes for several months. So, “Recycle Your Plastic”!
2. Prevention Of Pollution
The fact that you discard not less than two plastics a day isn’t something nice. You see something you like, you buy it, you consume it and the plastic goes into the trash bin! No one cares! Well, you should.
Since plastic cannot decompose easily, they break down into the earth producing toxic chemicals that find their way into the ocean which disrupts the normal condition of aquatic bodies.
When the ocean is polluted, our climate suffers! The oxygen we breathe in is mostly produced by the ocean, not only that, but it also consumes our waste product which is carbon dioxide. Now think about this, what happens when our main supplier of oxygen is being polluted? Just as you guessed, it is we humans who suffer the consequences.
Additionally, we mostly depend on aquatic bodies to provide us with protein and other valuable nutrients. If you keep on with the act of disposing of your plastics carelessly, you might want to think up new ways for humans to provide themselves with all the good things the ocean has to offer.
Not ready to think up ideas? Then take the easy route and recycle your plastics.
The bottom line – recycling helps to prevent hazardous events which is why plastic recycling is very important.
3. Creation Of New Product
It is also important to recycle plastics because it can be used to recreate more plastic products. The plastic containers you trash out every day can be used to produce cool stuff like sporting materials so why trash out plastics when they can be beneficial to you and the environment?
Whenever something new and unique is produced, you quickly dash to the nearest counter to book an order. You keep hoping that something beneficial to you will be invented but have you ever tried to assist in its production?
Well, it isn’t too late. Recycling plastic can cause people to innovate ways to make use of recycled plastic, and since it can be used for the production of another product, why bury or burn it in your backyard?
4. Protection Of Living Thing
Protection of living things! How does a little thing like recycling plastics protect the human and animal race you may ask?
Every human activity you do, in one way or the other, affects the ecosystem at large. Recycling even that little shampoo container of yours would make a difference. Yes, it does make a difference.
For every plastic you don’t recycle, another and more are produced in its place. Unfortunately, continuous plastic production produces a significant amount of greenhouse gas and what do greenhouse gases do? They alter the normal course of our ecosystem leading to the increase in diseases and other natural disasters.
When there is an increase in natural disasters and diseases, living things become endangered but when plastics are recycled, all these harmful gases won’t find their way to disrupt our beautiful ecosystem. So, now you know how important recycling is!
5. Creates Available Space
As it is already a clarified fact that most people don’t care about what happens to the plastic in their garbage bins, it will be a little puzzling to ask why it is important to create space.
Just as you guessed, plastics may have been tucked together in an abandoned landfill and left to decompose. The landfill here is the bone of contention. The use of landfills to accommodate your plastics is a waste of useful earth space.
The world’s population is increasing day after day and more lands are needed to accommodate the increasing population. If your tossed-out plastic takes all the places meant for inhabitation, where else will people build houses and other structures?
That’s when recycling comes to play. When these plastics are recycled, space can be created for more important things.
6. Increase Availability Of Plastic
Since plastic is something you need every day, recycling helps to make it available to satisfy every need involving plastics. So yes, recycling plastics help your favourite shampoo brand in providing more colourful shampoo containers for you.
More products being created day by day need plastics for branding. Hence, recycling makes what they need to come in abundance with no pressure on resources.
7. Reduce Demand On Raw Materials
The daily needs of humans rise by 2 times every day and mosts of these needs involve plastic which means we are demanding more materials from the planet earth. Recycling plastic helps reduce the burden we place on the raw material used in making plastic.
8. Employment Opportunities
How does plastic recycling help an average you to find a job?
Recycling plastics can create employment for most people. Funny, but true!
If more attention is put into recycling, labour will be needed to supply plastics, labour will also be needed in the recycling process of plastic. These labourers needed won’t fall from the sky, they will all be employed.
In this little way, the importance of plastic recycling is expressed.
Conclusion
Finally convinced? Yes, Just as I thought! After reading through the importance of recycling plastics, only an enemy of the planet earth wouldn’t be convinced that we all need to recycle lots of things that need recycling, not just plastic.
Our present generation indulges in the waste of raw materials, and the truth is, we can’t stop. Since this lavish behaviour of us won’t end anytime soon, try minimizing waste, so when next you want to trash out a plastic, remember to discard them in a separate bin, so that they could be taken for recycling.
Now that all is said, the fact remains that plastic recycling does a lot of good to the human race. If you consider yourself a lover of the ecosystem, you should recycle your plastics!
