The Scoop on Recycling

Recycling is great, and hopefully all of you out there are doing your part to recycle whatever you can. Making goods from recycled materials take about 1/2 the energy of making them from virgin materials, and reduces all of the energy, carbon emissions and pollution that would go into extracting the raw material. Plus, the more we recycle, the less we have to put into landfills, and our need for extracting new resources from the Earth decreases. However, recycling is not the answer to all of our environmental problems.
First of all, recycling takes a LOT of energy, from collecting it and transporting it to recycling centers, the process of recycling it, and then moving the recycled materials to where they are used. Pollution and carbon emissions are produced in the process, and some nasty chemicals are often by-poducts as well. So, recycling is better than trashing something, but not having anything to dispose of or recycle is the ideal choice. Whenever possible, first try to REDUCE the things you buy and then try and REUSE what you already have.
Also, if you recycle, please support the industry and buy recycled as well. Without a market for recycled goods, recycling costs skyrocket, and many cities have to decrease or cut recycling programs all together.
Lastly, be careful what you put in your recycling bin. If recycling gets contaminated with non-recyclables, entire loads can be discarded. At the least, someone will have to pick out contaminates, which causes recycling costs to increase even more.
So recycle, but recycle smartly. And when you can, choose to reduce your purchases or reuse things you already have.