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Top 7 Benefits of Recycling

Paul Sternberg Attorney Benefits of Recycling By Michael Arms

Recycling is a process - a series of activities, if you will, that includes: the collection and sorting of waste materials, the processing of these materials to produce brand new products, and the purchase and use of these new products by consumers.

Recycling is more optimized and efficient if we practice the three R’s of waste management: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reducing waste that otherwise get’s carted off to the recycling centers or landfills is achieved through an intentional decrease in our purchases and consumption,composting of organic waste, and flat refusal to use disposable items like polystyrene and plastic bags. Reusing materials serve to lengthen a particular item’s usage. Examples of this are: repurposing glass bottles into artistic lamp shades, giving your old cell phones to family or friends for reuse, and upcycling street trash bins into community swimming tubs.

But, why recycle? Why go through all the trouble of recycling your garbage? How does recycling benefit us and the environment?

Let’s review the benefits of recycling:

Recycling Helps Protect The Environment

Recycling sharply reduces the amount of waste that gets deposited in our landfills or burned in incinerator plants. Engineered landfills in most cities are designed to contain toxic chemicals leaking from decaying solid waste from reaching our water systems. But, for how long? Already, we’re getting reports of dangerous chemicals contaminating water supplies in some cities. Burning solid waste for electricity may be efficient, but we pay the price in terms of increased carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Recycling Helps Conserve Limited Resources

To put this benefit in proper perspective, let’s consider this statement from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection: “By recycling over 1 million tons of steel in 2004, Pennsylvanians saved 1.3 million tons of iron ore, 718,000 tons of coal, and 62,000 tons of limestone. Through recycling newsprint, office paper and mixed paper, we saved nearly over 8.2 million trees.”

Resources like oil and precious metals (gold, silver, bauxite, copper, etc.) are all finite resources that will be exhausted, sooner or later. Cell phone and computer manufacturers, like Dell and Apple, recognize the need for a steady supply of raw materials - most are active in buy-back programs to recycle materials from used products.

Recycling Promotes Energy Efficiency

Recycling is far more efficient, in terms of energy consumption, than producing something out of fresh raw material. Done on a nationwide scale, this could lead to significant reduction in our energy costs. The energy required to extract , process, and transport metal from a mine to a refinery is obviously much greater than what’s required to recycle metal from used products - it costs more energy to manufacture a brand new aluminum can from fresh material than to make 20 cans out of recycled materials!

Recycling Helps Build A Strong Economy

Every cost-reduction, energy efficiency, materials conservation, and job generation benefit of recycling adds up to help build a strong economy for our country. Recycling, done on a country-wide scale, has a huge positive impact on the economy. There was dip in the price of recyclables last year when the financial crisis started, but it is testimony to the resiliency of this industry that prices are now back to pre-crisis levels - a recovery that’s well ahead than most other industries. Jobs are being generated and city and town governments are enjoying huge savings in electricity, garbage collection, and landfilling costs.

Recycling Creates Jobs

Recycling generates more jobs than landfilling or incinerating waste. That’s a benefit we can’t lose sight of, in this time of recession and high unemployment rate. Let’s consider the disposal of 10,000 tons of solid waste: burning it for electricity will create 1 job; collecting and dumping this on a landfill will create 6 jobs; processing the waste for recyling will generate 36 jobs!

Recycling Builds Community

People band together and build communities around common causes, issues, and advocacies. Recycling is no different. In many neighborhoods and cities across the country, we see concerned citizens working together in recycling initiatives, environment lobby groups, and free recycling groups. If you’re new to recycling or environmental advocacy, go find a local group to work with. Staying the course is more fun and rewarding when you have other enthusiasts cheering you on.

Recycling Can Be Financially Rewarding

If you just want to make money to get by in these hard times or start a home business, recycling is a profitable option. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive to start a home-based recycling business. You just need to plan on what material (cell phone, paper, or metals, etc.) you intend to collect, plan storage, contact the recycling plant for pricing, and you’re set to start collecting recyclables and reselling these to the recycling facility at a decent profit. The large recycling giants in the US all started as home businesses years ago - you can do it, too - those guys just recognized the huge potential of this business well ahead of the crowd.

Benefits Of Proper Computer Recycling and Disposal

Paul Sternberg Attorney Recycling and Disposal By: Sam Brown

Computer recycling nowadays is easy to do and very commonplace as computers can be easily refurbished in order to provide 3rd world countries with older yet functioning models of computers. Disposing of computers properly is extremely important because if you sell your computer or give it away then the person who receives it has unlimited access to all of your personal information that was stored on it. If you leave your computer in the street for anyone to take away, then they would be able to access this private information as well.

In a day and age where it is easy to steal someone’s identity with such a small amount of information, and companies are reaping the benefits of “ID Theft Prevention” plans, it is sad to think that a smart adult would forget how much personal information they’ve got stored on their computer. Every time you enter and save a small piece of personal information into a computer, it remains in the hard drive and usually takes a computer expert to wipe your computer clean of all of the tiny bits of your personal information. Any time you save a password or send an e-mail, that information remains no matter how many times you clean the “cookies” and free up some memory.

Any time you order something over the internet using a credit card number, that number gets sent to the company and is usually stored in their memory so that the next time you visit their website, shopping and paying is quicker and easier. As many as 9 million Americans have their identity stolen every year, but sadly, most of these victims are cautious consumers who happen to be targeted because of one little mistake. Disposing of your computer the wrong way could be the one little mistake that your creepy neighbor is waiting on in order for them to gain access to an abundance of your personal information.

With your personal information at the tip of their fingers, identity thieves can easily commit fraud by opening up new credit cards under your name and billing address, using your social security number to obtain illegal employment, get a loan or mortgage under your name, or even just an ID card with your name and their picture. There are no limits to what an identity thief can do with your personal information, and their reach stretches further if they have access to your e-mail accounts and internet pay systems.

The best way to protect yourself against identity theft is obviously to be a conscious consumer when it comes to using your credit cards, watch your credit history and make sure that details such as billing statements coincide with your personal records. It’s important to watch what and where you spend your money, and to make sure it’s only you doing the spending with your accounts.

It’s okay to save personal information on your computer, as long as your computer remains in your hands. Once you are done with a computer either because it’s old or broken or you’re ready for an upgrade, there is only one safe way to dispose or recycle your old computer. In order to insure safety of your personal data and comply with environmental standards for computer disposal, your computer must be sent to a computer disposal or recycling company. Businesses such as those will properly dismantle a non-useable computer or will remove all of your personal information so that the computer is ready to be refurbished. Either way, years worth of your personal information that you entered into your computer will be properly wiped away and the theft of your identity via your trashed computer will no longer be a concern.