Recycling essential for Earth's survival

By Yoshie Okabe

I was searching the Internet the other day when I came across the recycle Montana Web page (www.recyclemontana.org). Did you know that the average American produces 4.6 pounds of trash a day?!? This really set me back. If this is anywhere close to being true we are in real trouble. Our landfills will be full in the next 10 years if this continues.

Another unbelievable statistic was that 30 billion (that’s right 30 billion) pop cans are thrown away each year. In California, the going price of pop cans was close to $1 per pound last year. At about 28 cans per pound, that would be more than $1 billion thrown away. That old saying “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure,” has never been truer. Reduce, reuse and recycle to take care of our natural resources was the message of the Web site and is my message to you.

Recycling is essential to protect our environment. However, some goods like plastic bags, bottles, batteries and computer products that can be harmful to the environment if disposed of incorrectly, are sold to further profits. For example, during my stay at a San Diego college, I worked at a health food shop. Leftover products were thrown away as garbage. According to Jiddu Bezares, a Warren College student at UCSD, “there are many recycling trash boxes for those who care about the environment to use; but, for the treatment of deli-products, recycling is not used. How can we manage the left-over products?” Actually, there are machines that convert food waste into agricultural compost, but they are costly to maintain and the energy to run them must be paid for. They are many different ways recycling can benefit the environment.

First of all, when we don’t recycle, we cause energy waste. It is cheaper to use recycled materials than make new ones. If new goods are created without recycling, energy is wasted. Energy is not only used to create the products, but to transport the new products. In fact, it takes 10 kg of oil to ship 1kg of products using foreign ships. Burning fuel produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—both environmentally harmful. Increasing NO2 and CO2 through fuel combustion can help to generate the green house effect, acid rain and the destruction of the ozone layer.

Even deli-sandwiches waste energy when gone uneaten. If the product, which can be changed into compost, is just thrown away, much energy is wasted. Furthermore, they are wrapped in polyvinyl chloride film, which is thrown away.

Secondly, the lack of consciousness for recycling creates pollution. For example, throwing away alkali batteries illegally is harmful to the environment because cadmium from rusted alkali batteries can permeate into the ground water. If this water is used on a vegetable crop or for drinking water, pollution can be directly delivered into our body with negative health problems.

Also, burning refuse creates environmental pollution. Burning trash in dumps releases carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide into air. An increase in NO2 can deplete the ozone layer. Also, the increase in CO2 can cause the heat radiated from the surface of the Earth to be trapped in Earth’s atmosphere. The outcome is known as the greenhouse effect.

Thirdly, to be indifferent towards recycling can cause soil contamination. For example, there is little room to create dumps in Fresno to protect the human environment. However, because people are indifferent toward recycling, they still throw away trash such as computers that contain PBDE (Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether). PBDE, like PBC’s, (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) is very toxic and can cause much damage to plants and animals. If bacteria will die because of soil contamination, the recycling chain in which bacteria decompose materials will be broken. Then, the decomposition of materials into soil will be reduced, and the flow of energy will be stopped. Furthermore, some genetic material from plants will be exterminated. The loss of genetic material can create an unbalanced environment.

A final way to improve our environment, according to Clayton Kidwell, a Homan Hall dorm resident at Fresno State, is to the focus on car pollution. “We need to carpool much more and work on getting more fuel-efficient cars. This could cut down on pollution a lot. Carpooling, while not always easy to do, could easily be done much more than it currently is. Also, recycling more would reduce the energy used to create new products. I believe these are the two best things we can do to help our environment right now.”

As Clayton said, by making people conscious of protecting the environment, we can save our environment. After all, we have to increase the self-consciousness for saving our wonderful environment in order to reduce dumping waste. Even though some people are indifferent to recycling, we should tackle recycling as much as possible. Otherwise, our natural environment will be exterminated.

— Yoshie Okabe is an agricultural education major at Fresno State