Believe it or not people do recycle. I know in larger cities it mandatory to separate your trash.
Paper if better for the environment, not only for recycling purposes, but also because it decomposes a lot faster than metal or other material.
A big part of it has to do with wildlife. Many animals around the glove die each year by entangling themselves in our man-made products. There are pictures all over the internet of birds getting stuck in beer containers and plastics that strangle them.
But not all of it is for the birds or animals, it has to due with the pollution and our land-fills being filled up. Each container you throw away has a half-life, how long it take for something to decompose half of it mass. This trash can either be buried or burned and turned into something else, that is how it works, nothing is truly destroyed, just re-integrated.
If you live in Europe recycling is everywhere. Some countries are more
forward with it than others. In the UK for instance plastics, paper/cardboard
tin/aluminium cans, glass bottles and green waste are collected and recycled.
Then there's the municipal dumps, where everything is categorised, separated
and dealt with.
Recycling and sustainability is big business. Obviously the message hasn't
yet reached your neck of the woods. Or perhaps they're trying and you're
not listening.
Our town gets charged about $72 per ton to dispose of the trash. But if people recycle, and we do single stream, meaning we do not have to separate everything, then the township can actually break even or can even make money, depending on the market value of what is recycled.
It was a savings of quite a bit to our town last year, and it was reflected in lower trash fees.
There are legitimate arguments about paper versus plastic, but to simply toss things away is foolish, regardless of what side of the paper/plastic argument one is on.
Your beer or soda can costs far less to recycle then it does to make a new can from aluminum ore.
Lots of people recycle. My college recycles and composts a ton and in many places, recycling is mandatory. The "go green" mentality is slowly starting to gain speed. I worked at a grocery store and many people brought their own cloth bags.
It is not for the birds, it is to reduce the amount we send to landfills, which affects ecosystems and our health.
Not recycling is for the birds.
The other day at the store the woman was like 'paper or plastic', I said, why does it matter? She said paper is better for the enviornemnet. I said how come? they're chopping down trees? She said because you can recycle it. I actually laughed out loud and waited for her to reply but she didnt and I realized she was serious - does anyone recycle in 2013? How much energy and resources is used to turn my dumb paper bag into another one?
