How Does Recycling Help Global Warming

how does recycling help global warming

The waste that we produce every day brings a devastating impact on global warming and climate change in many ways. Do you know that an average American has almost 5 pounds of waste every day, and when it comes to a whole family, the amount of trash goes up to 18 pounds per day? To reduce the produced waste, we need to understand the importance of recycling and a zero-waste lifestyle. Recycling helps in two ways, and it reduces the usage of raw material that we burn every day and the amount of waste that we produce every day.

It is estimated that if we continue our efforts to recycle the products will help us reduce carbon emission by 5.5 to 6.02 gigatons. That amount is equal to removing 1 billion cars from the roads. Recycling products and upholding a simple lifestyle can help you bring such a significant change to the environment. Are you interested in learning new ways of recycling things to make a difference? Let’s get into how recycling helps global warming to learn more!

How Does Recycling Help Global Warming

The concept of recycling is not just unique, but it is extremely helpful to reduce the burden of waste. Do you know that the landfill produces methane emission that contains 34 times the warming potential compared with carbon dioxide? When a product is recycled, it is transformed into a genuinely new thing, instead of making something out of virgin material or having the thing that is being discarded as waste in the landfill.

As per the latest data published at national geographic, landfills have become the third biggest cause that has exceeded methane gas emissions. Therefore, in order to minimize the emission, one should make sure to bring the waste as low as possible.

Recycling Requires Less Energy!

When it comes to recycling it requires less energy, hence using less energy is better than making an item from raw material that will go into landfills. Recycling products will hardly require a few steps to turn them into a new one, whereas making an entirely new thing would demand you to kick start the entire process from scratch.

Use Energy-Efficient Material

Some energy-efficient materials, just like aluminum, require less energy when used for production purposes. For example, instead of producing plastic jars, we can promote aluminum-made jars that save up to 95% of energy compared to any other raw material, which means that you would only require one gallon of gas to manufacture up to 50 aluminum jars. This can be essentially diminished by utilizing reused aluminum scraps.

Lower The Greenhouse Emission

As discussed above, recycling requires less energy, which means that we are sending a lower amount of gasses that will result in a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the greenhouse being a driving factor for global warming can be reduced if we uphold the process of recycling at the industrial level and at a personal level.

Get Into Zero A Waste Life To Stop Landfills

Zero waste is a concept that works to prevent waste from going into landfills & oceans. It is an entirely new approach that focuses on a massive change in materials’ conduct moving through society. Zero waste incorporates more than taking out trash through reducing & recycling. It centers on rebuilding the production ways and transportation frameworks to diminish garbage consumption at the lowest possible rate.

5 R’s Of Waste Management

It is essential to understand the 5 R’ of waste management. These 5 R’s are!

  • Refuse
  • Reduce
  • Reuse
  • Repurpose
  • Recycle

Refusing is the first rule to living a zero-waste lifestyle. It would be best if you thought before accepting any clutter into your homes. Turn down flyers and junk meals, freebies, and party favors that will likely go into the trash.

Reduce The Use Of Plastic Bags

Each year Americans throw away 100 billion plastic grocery bags, which takes about a thousand years to break down. Instead of accepting plastic bags and creating more demands, use reusable clothes bags or even no bags when possible.

You could also bring your jars to grocery stores to avoid getting home any unnecessary plastic containers. It will make it easier for you to live in life with a zero-waste concept.

Switch To Reusable Straws

Instead of using a one-time disposable plastic straw, you can refuse the straw altogether or use a steel-made straw. You can also use an acrylic straw for drinking smoothies and shakes.

Use Sustainable Food Wraps

Instead of using plastic cling wrap in your kitchen to preserve your food and leftovers, switch to sustainable and reusable food wraps. These are all-natural, organic, and compostable. Moreover, they do a great job when it comes to keeping the food fresh and healthy, even better than plastic wraps.

Opt For Reusable Water Bottles

Instead of buying disposable plastic bags, opt for reusable water bottles that you can fill up repeatedly. Glass and steel are probably some of the best options for you. But, it does not end here! Do your best to avoid any reusable utensils, including forks, spoons, and chopsticks; instead, you can purchase portable cutlery set to keep in your bag.

Start Using Bamboo Made Toothbrush

Over 4.7 billion plastic toothbrushes that will never biodegrade are dumped in landfills and the ocean each year. So you can make a significant impact by switching out your plastic toothbrush to a sustainable bamboo toothbrush.

Raw Material Harmful To Sustainable Environment!

According to government statistics, approximately 4-8% of oil is consumed in manufacturing plastic-made products. If we don’t step back and keep using plastic-made products, then it is evident that we might be consuming 20% of oil on plastic production by 2050.

The extraction of crude materials utilizes ozone-harming substances for the actual extraction alongside the transportation of the crude materials for manufacturing purposes. Therefore, we can stop using such crude materials while holding back to recycling that item.

Wrap Up

Adopting recycling principles and a zero waste lifestyle will not just save humans from getting into danger but also save thousands of species about to go extinct due to human activities. In addition, a sustainable lifestyle will help us clean the oceans, lands, and our environment to prevent biodiversity.

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