Recycling for Sustainability

For centuries, the world has been fervently told to “reduce, reuse, and recycle” (Grabianowski). The idea many people have is that if everyone does his or her part in tossing old homework sheets and leftover yogurt cups into big blue bins, the world will recover from the devastation of human interaction with the environment. From this standpoint, recycling would seem a savior to mankind. Unfortunately, this is not the reality of how the process of recycling works, nor what the outcome of using the system actually is. Not every glass bottle can be tossed into a bin with the expectation of it becoming a brand new window pane, and even many paper products are considered non-recyclable. Recycling is takes time and is very

The concept of sustainability is about the capacity of the environment to continue to support our lives and the lives of other living creatures into the future. There are a number of programs to restore the river to maintain communities, fisheries and navigation, to ensure long-term sustainability.

Sustainability is a concern, which has only been arising from the impact we humans have done in the past couple of decades. The word sustainability means how long you can continue doing what you are doing without coming to an end (Sustainability 2015).

So what is sustainability? It is the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.

There is no one best definition for sustainability. The simplest and most fundamental meaning would be “the ability to sustain” or otherwise “the capacity to endure”. It can also be defined as a need for our generation to manage the resources base efficiently so that the average quality of life that we ensure ourselves can potentially be shared by all future generations.

Sustainability is the stable lifestyle between humans and creatures with the earth and its natural resources. Having a healthy balance between giving and taking from the worlds natural resources is the key to sustainability. Sustainability is can be categorized into many types: Environmental, economical, population, etc.

Most people get taught at a young age to protect the Earth, recycle, and turn off the lights when you leave a room. These concepts get drilled into our heads for our whole life. Something not often included is sustainability. According to the book Sustainability by Christian R. Weisser sustainability is “the capacity to endure or continue.” If something is sustainable it can maintain itself and not get used up. So how does sustainability pertain to the environment?

“Today, U.S. citizen’s produce over 250 million tons of municipal solid waste, before recovery, which is close to one ton per person”, says Jay Withgott’s 6th edition book. The world is growing in population and people are just exceeding in the amount of waste they are adding to the Earth. Waste is defined as any unwanted material from a human activity or process. Municipal solid waste is an extensive problem in the United States, but so is an Industrial solid waste and Hazardous waste. If people repurposed items that can be reused, we would be saving plenty of resources. Recycling is the one of the best ways to get rid of waste. Recycling is the process of turning used materials into materials that can be reused as a material or for a new purpose. Per the North Carolina Data Waste Management, the amount of trash North Carolinians throw away, would fill enough Dumpsters to line the length of North Carolina’s Interstate 40 more than six times in one year. That is almost 2,750 miles of dumpsters each year. We are going to focus on how recycling saves energy, conserves waste by reusing materials, and protects natural resources if recycling materials are being used. This relates to the protection of land and ecological resources and why one should recycle.

To me, sustainability means living so that what we consume does not vastly exceed what we contribute. It is to take care of our planet so that our planet can continue to take care of us. Sustainability, to me, means trying to make choices that have the least amount of negative impact on the earth. Sustainability is about survival and taking only what you need, then let it replenish at a rate that keeps the source producing so that it can be taken from again without depleting it completely. It means creating and maintaining an environment in which the beauty of life can live on for generations. In a sustainable world, there is a harmonious and healthy equilibrium between the Earth and all of its inhabitants. Marni Evans agrees with my statement

Recycling is a process that makes certain materials to be reused in some other ways; which gives improvement over landfilling, incineration and reduce environmental pollution.

Notably, both qualitative and quantitative studies related to how the idea of recycling materials helps conserve the environment will be examined in detailed. Some of these sources will include content drawn from peer-reviewed scholarly articles, periodicals, and books written by renowned experts on the subject.

Sustainability, as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is, “based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and

Recycling the waste or converting the waste is very crucial, waste to value is one of the leading cures to help the country economically and environmentally. Leaving the rubbish unattended will release harmful gases thus we have to take an action and think out of the box and think of a way to use the waste and convert it to a beneficial product creating a closed circle with no waste to concern about.

Recycling is a form of waste management in which someone would use something that has already been used to create something new. The environment itself is benefited because recycling is a generally “clean,” process which puts factories that release harmful pollutants out of business, and ready to be taken over by other vocations. Though recycling is widely viewed as an environmental benefit, it also benefits other factors of life. Recycling not only affects the environment, but also the economy and the world known today.

Sustainability is defined as maintaining the right balance between the economic growth, environment and social responsibility.