Why Recycle?
1. Recycling keeps landfills from filling up so quickly.
Our landfill is filling up day by day, and has a projected life expectancy of less than 30 years. When it reaches capacity, it will be sealed over and covered with dirt. This area will not be suitable for development. Concord citizens will have to find a new place for their garbage, which will most likely be another landfill. Garbage disposal costs will rise dramatically with the cost of hauling and the added tipping fee. Recycling as much as possible will extend the life of our landfill!
2. Recycling helps keep our air clean.
Garbage that is not landfilled or recycled is incinerated, or burned. Burning garbage releases dirty smoke and many harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, which can fall to the ground when it rains. When garbage is landfilled, which is typically the case in Concord and the surrounding area, methane gas is produced as the garbage decomposes. Although this gas can be burned as a source of energy, methane reduces to carbon dioxide whether or not it is burned. Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
3. Recycling saves natural resources.
Natural resources are things found in nature that we find valuable…oil, for example. If we turn our “garbage” into new products, then we won’t have to harvest so many natural resources, and that is a good thing since harvesting those resources in processes like logging, oil drilling and metal mining can harm the environment. Trees that provide oxygen, shade, food and wildlife habitat are harvested to produce newspaper, cardboard, paperboard (cereal boxes), and office paper, oil is drilled to produce plastics and metals are mined to produce aluminum and steel cans. All of these products are recycleable and can be produced from recycled materials.
4. Making new products from recycled products can save energy.
The term "energy crisis" is often used to describe our insatiable consumption of energy and its rising costs and environmental impacts. Recycling can help offset these negative impacts as it is often cheaper and more energy efficient for companies to make products from recycled materials than virgin materials.