One thing that shocked me upon my arrival to Penn State was how many different recycling bins there were around campus for different products. Another shocking discovery was that the Starbucks cups on campus were not the right type of plastic to recycle. In this way, I realized that many people are unaware of how to recycle properly and just what products they can recycle.
What is Recycling?
Reader’s Digest gives a simple 5 step process as to how recycling works.
- You put recyclable materials, such as plastic, into your recycling bin.
- A hauler collects the materials.
- A recycling center sorts those materials.
- The materials are processed at a facility.
- The materials are sent to another manufacturer to melt, cut, or mold the materials and prepare them for the market.
What Recycling Properly Entails
Different neighborhoods, counties, and campuses have different rules for recycling. For example, at Penn State, we are able to recycle glass, metal, paper, and plastic. In my hometown, we are able to recycle the same things. However, anywhere you go, there will be different specifications about what is and what is not allowed to be recycled. If you look at the bottom of a plastic water bottle or that Starbucks cup, you’ll see the recycling symbol with a number inside it. The number represents the type of plastic that was used to make the bottle or cup. At Penn State, the guidelines are only to recycle plastic items made out of either type 1 or 2 plastic. In this way, it is important to research the recycling guidelines in your specific area to ensure that you are doing your part.
Negative Consequences of Improper Recycling
Say you are misinformed and end up recycling the type 5 plastic Starbucks cup into one of Penn State’s recycling bins. When the products in the bins are sorted at a recycling plant, the whole bag has to be thrown out due to the one item (the Starbucks cup) being an unacceptable kind of plastic. This goes for other items as well, such as if an area does not recycle Styrofoam but ends up finding that someone did recycle it.
When the items are unable to be recycled, they end up in landfills and sometimes even the ocean, which can cause negative health effects later on. These include air pollution, water pollution, and increased greenhouse gas emissions; all of which are not helpful to the environment and climate change activism.
The Effectiveness of Recycling Properly
If everyone does their part to ensure they’re recycling properly, we can make a difference in terms of energy and fossil fuel conservation. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling just one ton of office paper can save the energy equivalent of 322 gallons of gasoline. In addition, recycling 10 plastic bottles saves enough energy to power a laptop for more than 25 hours. In this way, everyone can do their part to make sure they are recycling properly for their area to ensure that our world can continue to flourish.
Recycling should be an easy task for citizens to follow when disposing waste. Recycling is something that not only makes the environment more clean, but it saves waste from accumulating and prevents pollution. It is important for more policies to be put in place to keep up recycling, especially with the benefits associated and the conservation of energy. I definitely appreciate Penn State’s effects to promote recycling with the recycling bins put around campus and in buildings.
I completely agree with you that we have to recycle properly in order to help the environment. I remember that my grade school believed in educating us about the different types of recycling. We would have school assemblies featuring a “How to Recycle” game show and the 4th graders would have to perform “Recycle Michael” as a musical, forcing them to learn more about recycling. I think that educating and learning about the different kinds of recycling and plastics would help people understand how to proper recycle. Before reading your post, I didn’t realize that the whole bin gets thrown out if just one piece of trash isn’t actually recyclable. I think it’s extremely important to recycle properly because then we will be helping out our earth.