@weaksauce Said
For instance the issue of recycling paper creates by-products such as a type of bleach. What happens to this product and others created by this process? Are they recycled as well, disposed of or simply stored until we figure out what to do with them at a later time? I believe this is the same story with plastics, although I could not find a source stating this.
Well, if you look at that in isolation it might sound like a bad thing. But if you consider the alternative, the "bleach products" whatever they are would end up in a landfill. So you really need to compare something with an alternative to decide what's better for the environment. I don't know what happens to the bleach products, so let's say they dispose of it in a hazardous waste dump, and compare with the alternative of not recycling.
- Recyling: bleach byproduct disposed in hazardous waste dump, no extra trees cut down.
- Not recycling: bleach byproduct in the paper ends up in your local landfill, not a hazardous waste dump. Extra trees cut down to make new paper.
So, even if there are some negative environmental effects of the recycling, they are less than simply throwing away the paper.
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Enough about the processing of the actual products. What about the equipment that is used? In my area we have one truck that comes by for the trash and a separate truck that pickups our recyclables. You can already see the issue with this. Two trucks equal twice everything. Twice the fuel to operate the truck and twice the emissions. Then there is the facility itself. Is the energy that the recycling center using a green source of energy, and if not how much must we recycle to compensate for this energy consumer?
Again, you need to compare the energy used by the facility to recycle with the energy required to create the product NEW to begin with. In the case of paper, most places in the country aren't anywhere near a paper mill that creates paper from fresh lumber, so a lot of energy is required to move the paper to its final destination. You can put a recycling facility anywhere, not just near large forests so less energy is required to ship the material to its final destination.
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Recycling does have its immediate positive effects. The jobs that are created are without saying beneficial and help stimulate the local area.
That, and your local garbage dump doesn't grow as fast.