Living Life

Today there are many companies concerned about the environment. These companies look for ways to reduce their impact on the world around them through recycling, using less energy, and supporting conservation efforts in other countries. If consumers like you and your parents support these companies by buying their products and services then the environment will be better off. Being an environmentalist today calls for a whole new level of greener thinking — from what you choose at the grocery store to how you commute to work every day.

Recycling is the third R of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Recycling means taking a product or material at the end of its useful life and turning it into a usable raw material to make another product. Most of us have only really heard the last third of the phrase, and they’re ranked in order of importance. Reducing the amount that we consume, and shifting our consumption to well-designed products and services, is the first step. Finding constructive uses for “waste” materials is next. Finally, tossing it in the blue bin is last. (The garbage can is not on the list, for good reason.) Through a balance of these three principals you can easily see your landfill-destined waste dwindle fast. A great example of recycling is setting your empty water bottles in the bin on the curb. But by using a water filter and reusable container you can reduce or completely eliminate your need for disposable plastic bottles.

To analyze the environmental benefits of recycling, the cost of this entire process must be compared to the cost of virgin extraction. In order for recycling to be economically viable, there usually must be a consistant supply of recyclates and constant demand for the reprocessed goods; both of which can be stimulated through government legislation.

Meanwhile, critics claim that government mandated recycling wastes more resources than it saves. These critics claim that free market prices, and not politicians, are the most accurate way to determine whether or not any particular type of garbage should be recycled. According to these critics, whenever recycling truly does save resources, the private sector will voluntary offer people money for their garbage.

Recycling has been a common practice for most of human history, with recorded advocates as far back as Plato in 400 BC. During periods when resources were scarce, archaeological studies of ancient waste dumps show less household waste (such as ash, broken tools and pottery), which implied that more waste was being recycled in the absence of new material.

In pre-industrial times, there is evidence of scrap bronze and other metals being collected in Europe and melted down for perpetual reuse, and in Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires was down cycled as a base material in brick making. The main driver for these types of recycling was the economic advantage of obtaining recycled feedstock instead of acquiring virgin material, as well as a lack of public waste removal in ever more densely-populated areas.

There are obvious benefits for recycling and being more proactive in saving our planet. For more information regarding certain eco-friendly companies using recycled products, click for to see how they value recycling.