# Why recycle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879 "2009-12-19T18:51:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/1 "2009-12-19T18:51:15Z")
What are the quantifiable benefits of the individual receycling household paper and plastics? Is it just a feel-good endeavor or is there areal reason to recycle? ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/2 "2009-12-19T19:44:02Z")
At my house we have two receptacles provided by Waste Management. The one for garbage is significantly smaller than the one for recyclables. This fact alone made us start separating out more recyclable materials. An action doesn’t have to have an individual benefit to be worthwhile, you know. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/3 "2009-12-19T20:03:45Z")
With many recycled products (and I’ll admit I’m not really sure about paper and glass), it’s cheaper and uses less energy to use recycled materials than raw materials. With stuff like glass (which is made out of sand, and there’s no sand shortage), the advantage is keeping it out of landfills. If you happen to live in a big city where the trash has to be trucked to landfills hundreds of miles distant versus local recycling facilities, there is also an energy saving there. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/4 "2009-12-19T20:24:13Z")
> [@](#): > > At my house we have two receptacles provided by Waste Management. The one for garbage is significantly smaller than the one for recyclables. In our community we have three receptacles provided by Waste Management. The one for garbage and two for recyclables. The Waste Management people then collect them and toss them together into the same truck and take them and dump them all together in the same dump. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/5 "2009-12-19T20:29:51Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > What are the quantifiable benefits of the individual receycling household paper and plastics? Is it just a feel-good endeavor or is there areal reason to recycle? I never got the point of recycling paper. As far as I know, most paper is made from trees grown for the purpose of becoming paper. This takes carbon out of the atmosphere and puts it into paper. Since I’m guessing tossing paper into a land fill prevents the carbon from reaching the atmosphere AND requires new trees to be grown. Can the energy savings of making new paper out of used paper really outweigh sequestering that much carbon in a landfill? I mean certainly some of it will leak out as the landfill decomposes, but it’s probably much slower than the rate at which we grow new trees for paper, right? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/6 "2009-12-19T21:41:27Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > What are the quantifiable benefits of the individual receycling household paper and plastics? Is it just a feel-good endeavor or is there areal reason to recycle? When we recycle, we can look down our noses at those who do not. This in turn may improve our position in the local [Status class](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_group). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/7 "2009-12-20T01:46:40Z")
Cecil on recycling: > **[Is recycling worth it?](https://www.straightdope.com/21343481/is-recycling-worth-it)** ---
**Author:** ![The\_Urban\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@The\_Urban\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Urban_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/8 "2009-12-20T02:08:00Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > When we recycle, we can look down our noses at those who do not. This in turn may improve our position in the local [Status class](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_group). Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/9 "2009-12-20T02:55:19Z")
My city provides free recycling bins for all residents. They sell the recyclables and use the money to fund city services. It saves me money on fees and taxes. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/10 "2009-12-20T05:37:47Z")
Yes…its a good way for cities and towns to make money. A lot of recyclers are selling their stuff to China which apparently has a HUGE appetite for recycleables. It’s basicly…one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. China is taking our trash, and reusing it…heck what’s not to like about that? > [@](#): > > With stuff like glass (which is made out of sand, and there’s no sand shortage), the advantage is keeping it out of landfills. What I do with glass, is smash it in the harbor. Then it becomes beachglass. ---
**Author:** ![Sofis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Sofis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofis)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/11 "2009-12-20T08:17:30Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > In our community we have three receptacles provided by Waste Management. The one for garbage and two for recyclables. The Waste Management people then collect them and toss them together into the same truck and take them and dump them all together in the same dump. Cite please? Every time there is a thread on recycling, someone shows up to post this claim. I have in fact heard this claim from people living on different continents, and it seems unlikely that this kind of insanity (specifically providing receptacles for recycling (they’re not free you know) and then dumping it all) is an intercontinental issue. Given that it is an extremely convenient thing to believe if you don’t want to recycle, I strongly suspect it of being an urban legend. (Also note that things being put on the same truck does not mean they’re being mixed. Any sanely designed recycling/trash pickup truck will have different compartments for different things.) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/12 "2009-12-20T08:45:15Z")
> [@Sofis](#): > > Cite please? > > Every time there is a thread on recycling, someone shows up to post this claim. I have in fact heard this claim from people living on different continents, and it seems unlikely that this kind of insanity (specifically providing receptacles for recycling (they’re not free you know) and then dumping it all) is an intercontinental issue. Given that it is an extremely convenient thing to believe if you don’t want to recycle, I strongly suspect it of being an urban legend. Yeah I was going to ask the same thing. We have a single garbage bin that is divided in half, one side for normal rubbish and the other for recyclables. The waste truck comes and dumps the contents into the back, BUT the truck is designed with two compartments and the rubbish goes to the right compartment. The following is from a waste management pamphlet distributed by our city council. > [@](#): > > It is very important to ensure that only recyclables go into the recycling compartment of the split bin. This is because the truck, like your bin, is split in two. When the bin is lifted by the hydraulic arm it is positioned so that the contents of your bin fall either side of a separator. The recyclables fall into the top and biggest section of the truck and the waste falls to the bottom section. As each compartment fills, they are compacted in order to minimise trips to Visy Recyclers and Integrated Waste Services (see earlier in booklet). > > The driver checks each bin via a closed-circuit camera to ensure that it has been properly emptied. The driver can also see if regular contamination of the bin contents is occurring. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/13 "2009-12-20T20:05:38Z")
> [@](#): > > In our community we have three receptacles provided by Waste Management. The one for garbage and two for recyclables. The Waste Management people then collect them and toss them together into the same truck and take them and dump them all together in the same dump. My spouse tells me that this was a three month test to see if it would be practical in our edge of the ghetto neighborhood and that it was discontinued because persons were stealing the aluminum and sometimes the the containers too. She tells me that it was the city and not WM conducting the test. (And that WM was really quite wonderful but the city did not renew there contract so they could write a new contract with someones brother in law.) ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/14 "2009-12-21T13:45:27Z")
> [@Sofis](#): > > Cite please? > > Every time there is a thread on recycling, someone shows up to post this claim. I have in fact heard this claim from people living on different continents, and it seems unlikely that this kind of insanity (specifically providing receptacles for recycling (they’re not free you know) and then dumping it all) is an intercontinental issue. Given that it is an extremely convenient thing to believe if you don’t want to recycle, I strongly suspect it of being an urban legend. > > (Also note that things being put on the same truck does not mean they’re being mixed. Any sanely designed recycling/trash pickup truck will have different compartments for different things.) I don’t know that it is written down, but the WM reps are quite willing to state this in public around here. When the cost of the recycled materials + the recycling fees collected from each homeowner falls below the cost of putting the materials in the landfill, the usual case here, WM puts all the materials in the landfill. The local environmental groups here have long since given up advocating recycling, preferring to concentrate on re-use. Now we might be a special case-the closest recycling facility to us is almost 100 miles away, but this condition seems pretty permanent. ---
**Author:** ![keno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f9ae1b/32.png) [@keno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keno)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/15 "2009-12-21T16:14:51Z")
Our Count has instituted single stream recycling which means all recyclable materials – paper, glass, metal – go into one bin, and the sorting is done at the recycling center rather than at the homes. This is less efficient for the County, BUT they have found the compliance rate to be so much higher it is worth the added cost to sort at the center rather than requiring the originators to sort. (No cite, just cocktail party discussion with the manager of recycling for our County). ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/16 "2009-12-21T19:26:07Z")
I’ve posted on this before, but one of the biggest benefits of recycling is minimizing what goes into landfills. The issue with landfills is not just the space they take up (which is another not-insignificant issue here in the Northeast), but the expense of siting, building, and monitoring them for decades even after closure. Modern landfills are not just holes in the ground like the old “dumps.” Modern landfills have double impermeable liners on the bottom, leachate collection systems, gas collection systems, and impermeable caps on top, followed by another runoff collection system (for rain), topsoil, and grass. You also have to surround them with environmental monitoring wells to ensure that groundwater is not being contaminated by landfill leachate or runoff. Here in Connecticut, landfills have to be monitored for their active life plus 30 years. The costs associated with disposing of materials in a modern landfill usually make it cost-effective to recycle materials that can be recycled, even if that part of the operation operates at a deficit. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/17 "2009-12-22T20:10:01Z")
There’s a finite amount of resources on the planet. Whether we use it up in the next hundred years, the next thousand, or the next eon, this is all we’re going to get, until we find a way to harvest resources elsewhere. > [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](#): > > What I do with glass, is smash it in the harbor. Then it becomes beachglass. You… deliberately… litter broken glass… in a public area… because it might eventually turn into something cool-looking? ---
**Author:** ![Disgscen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@Disgscen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgscen)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/18 "2009-12-22T21:19:08Z")
I think there’s a strong benefit that goes to the individual recycler. We’ve all got trash. If the garbage men go on strike, the trash adds up, and stinks. If you accidentally throw something away that you shouldn’t have, you have to go digging in the trash. Even in normal circumstances, most households have too much trash–so someone has to ask someone else to take it out, or it adds up in a smelly way. That’s not me any more. I still have trash, but the volumes are tiny. Then I have recycling, and, here’s my point, this isn’t trash. If I need to go through it for another look at a bill, it’s not all gross. If I don’t take it out enough, it’s just taking up space. The volume of nastiness I personally need to deal with is greatly reduced, simply by sorting out those things that others can use. That’s not why I’ve been told to recycle, but I do recycle, and this is why I’ll continue. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/19 "2009-12-23T07:27:30Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > There’s a finite amount of resources on the planet. Whether we use it up in the next hundred years, the next thousand, or the next eon, this is all we’re going to get, until we find a way to harvest resources elsewhere. And where, pray-tell, do these “resources” like glass, carbon, aluminum go when we “use them up”? ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879/20 "2009-12-23T07:47:45Z")
> [@](#): > > You… deliberately… litter broken glass… in a public area… because it might eventually turn into something cool-looking? Ummm it WILL turn into something cool. I seed it in deep water (off a wharf AND when kayaking) and the tides carry it away. Also my town’s harbor is not used for swimming. The glass is also basicly heated sand. I also am very anal about scouring the beaches for other litter. It’s a good thing to do, since it creates a cottage industry. (beachglass jewrely is VERY popular around here) It does not harm the enviroment the way plastic wrappers or plastic bottles do… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-recycle/521879.md?page=2)