Recycling Revisited

By: Zach Adams

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The word recycling has become rather prevelent in the world today.  There’s not many people that have not heard the word recycling , and many municipalities have recycling programs for consumers to recycle their waste.  What types of material is recyclable?  Well, there are lots of options for what you can recycle: plastic, newspaper, cardboard, metals, etc.  For this purposes of this article, plastic will be the focus.

In the most basic sense, recycling is essentially getting the most use out of the products that we consume and reducing waste.  According to CleanAir.org, each individual produces 4.34lbs of trash per day, and up to 56 tons per year!  This is a tremendous amount of waste.  Whats worse is that Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Aluminum cans that are thrown away instead of recycled waste energy as well.  Throwing aluminum cans out instead of recycling wastes approximately the same amount of energy as if the can were half full of gasoline.  These facts go on and on.

Plastic is a material that has truly miraculous properties.  Plastics can be classified by their chemical structure, namely the molecular units that make up the polymer’s backbone and side chains. Some important groups in these classifications are the acrylics, polyesters, silicones, polyurethanes, and halogentaed plastics. Plastics can also be classified by the chemical process used in their synthesis, e.g. as condensation, polyaddition, and cross-linking.  Rubbers, plastics, nylons, polyesters are just a few of the type of plastics that we use everyday.  Plastics revolutionized manufacturing and the packaging industry with ease of manufacturing and the low cost associated.

These wonderful properties however, are a two-edged sword.  Because of the remarkable stability of plastic, they do not biodegrade.  The bonding of the molecules is incredibly strong, and if left in the environment, may began to decompose in 10,000 years or so.  Now think about the fact stated above about how many plastic bottles are thrown away every day by Americans.  It doesn’t take much imagination to get an idea of how much plastic is not being recylced.  Our society uses a material, plastic, that is designed for a lifetime of use, and uses it one time.  Plastic is now synonomous with disposable products.  This is the exact opposite application this product should be used in.

What can we do as consumers?  Every little bit helps.  First, if you are not part of a recycling program in your community - get involved!  It’s not hard, and almost every town or school has a recycling bin.  Next, try to get multiple uses out of plastic bottles and other plastic products.  Try to extend the life cycle .  Again, every action helps.  Often when traveling, I crush and put my empty plastic bottles into my suitcase and throw them in the recycling bin when I get home.  This may sound crazy, but being mindful of where the plastic goes when it is thrown away instead of being recycled truly makes a difference.

Get involved and stay mindful!

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