Molina 1

Geonel Molina

Professor Smith

ENG 101

REUSE, REDUCE, RECYCLE

Did you know that Americans use 2.5million plastic bottles every hour?About 80 percent

of what Americans throw away is recyclable; yet our recycling rate is only 28 percent. There are

a lot of things that could happen to earth if we don’t reuse, reduce and recycle. Recycling is very

important because waste can cause both environmental and health problems. Growing up in the

Philippines, I saw the negative impact of not recycling. People have been careless up to a point

with the way we treated the earth. Last August 11, 2018, Philippines experienced a monsoon rain

that the Manila bay overflowed, bringing garbage (mostly plastic materials) into the streets of

Manila.

In my personal experience, my family and I, have been recycling plastic bottles and

cartons since we came here in the U.S. By doing this I know I am helping our environment.

Recycling is important in our everyday life because it will help us reduce additional waste that

will harm the environment and stops the buildup of landfills. Recycling is the process of

collecting, separating and remanufacturing waste materials. An example of recycling is when

plastic bottles get recycled into chairs.

But why do we need to recycle? What are we going to get from recycling? There are a lot

of benefits that we can get from recycling to help the community and save the earth. Here are the

sample benefits that we can get in recycling, First, Recycling reduce wastes and pollution. Reuse

and remanufacture waste materials rather than dumping it in landfills. By doing this, we are

conserving landfill space and allowing more space for biodegradable waste. Also, it reduce
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pollutants like methane gas and carbon dioxide. When we recycle landfills and greenhouse

gasses, less gas will be released in the atmosphere that causes ozone layer depletion. Second,

Recycling helps the earth and save energy. It conserves natural resources that will help the

environment by reusing materials again. In this way, we can save energy and water. For

example, to produce paper we have to cut down a lot of trees, so by recycling paper, we reduce

the extraction of resources which is the logging. And last, Recycling can help you earn and save

money. Recycling can help you make money by redeeming your bottles or cans for 5-10 cents

per plastic bottles in recycling machines. Also, it helps you save money by reusing the material

that you buy so buying new materials can be avoided.

What are the effects if we don’t recycle? Not all people recycle their non-biodegradable

waste, some claims that this is a hassle or inconvenient for them. If we don’t do the 3 R’s (reuse,

reduce and recycle) landfills will become crowded, which will leave no space for another waste.

Also, greenhouses will produce more gasses that destroy the ozone layer and also cause more

pollution in the environment. For now, it doesn’t affect us drastically, but climate changes are

happening around the world, and before we know it, we might experience a major climate

change that we can't recover from.

Recycling makes our planet a better, cleaner and more efficient place for us to live in.

Everyone can make a difference. Almost everything we use is recyclable. You can set a good

example to others especially the children, where they portray us as their role models. We can

teach them to recycle. Recycling is so easy and you can do it anywhere. Just start by separating

biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes. Let’s make a difference now and start recycling.