Recycle Today, So We’ll Have Tomorrow
Earth is the beautiful place where we all live, where we call home. As a society we need to protect our earth, our homes! Just like any living thing, it can die. Everyday we pollute and destroy the earth more and more. The world will soon become one huge polluted landfill, where no life is sustainable. We must make a change! Recycling is the best solution for the environment because it lowers the amount of waste in landfills and the ocean. 79% of the waste that ends up in a landfill is recyclable (Ottum, “Sounds Like Garbage…”). If we can eliminate that 79% in every landfill there wouldn’t be a surplus of waste getting in our oceans. Apathy to recycle can be reduced through education to prevent the massive landfills that overflow into our oceans harming our animals. Collectively if we don’t begin to recycle as a whole, we will all be to blame in the earth’s downfall.
As the population grows, so will the amount of trash produced. Soon it will become too difficult for the landfills to hold such large amounts of trash. The waste then overflows into our oceans, contaminating the water, killing the animals, and poisoning our earth. Now you’re probably wondering how that will affect you...here are a few examples. 1.) Ocean dynamics strongly affect climate and weather patterns, transferring heat from the equator to the poles and moderating carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere (Wu, Wu, Tong, Wu, Sun,& Peng, “ Energy and greenhouse…”). 2.) Biomedical products derived from marine plant and animal sources provide important medicinal products and health benefits (Wu, Wu, Tong, Wu, Sun,& Peng, “ Energy and greenhouse…”). 3.) Seafood is a major food staple and protein source. Consumption of seafood is increasing around the globe. The list is endless, something so simple could make so much of a difference.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water. If the landfills don’t overflow into the ocean, our animals can swim freely in their home without the risk of being in danger. If you consume any form of seafood, then this should be very important to you. Not only does the trash get into the bodies of the animals that we eat, but there is a large chances of extinction. Eating animals with pollution in their bodies pollutes our bodies. You might as well eat the waste yourself. If we want to keeping enjoying the luxury of seafood, we need to do all we can to prevent extinction and start cleaning the oceans. According to J. Ottum in “An Insight into Ship Recycling: Facts and Figures”, and I quote “It is a space of man-made mass proportions and some have estimated it to be twice the size of Texas.” Right now it's only twice the size of Texas, but how long until it's the whole world?
Recycling not only helps our planet, but it comes with a lot of other benefits as well. The biggest benefits of recycling is that will help get pollution in check, and begin to decrease little by little. Recycling also saves energy and resources; if we can use at at least half of the recycled trash to make something new, we automatically save in resources due to the fact that we didn’t have to make the product from scratch. There are so many things that are/ can be made from recycled products. Almost anything can really be made from recycled products, and usually things made from recyclables are cheaper and more durable. Not only will it help the environment, but also your pockets. Honestly, there are too many reasons to recycle, and non as to why not- it’s so easy! Not only is it easy, but it’s the right thing to do as a consumer and user of this planet, it’s just the morally right thing to do. According to C. Baston in “Why don’t moral people act morally,” and I quote “ a person sincerely intends to act morally, but once the cost of moral become clear, this initial intent is overpowered by self interest.” Majority of people who don’t recycle are either uneducated as to how, or just plain lazy. Most homes/ apartments have a designated recycling pick up location, so it would be as simple as throwing trash in a recycling bin versus the trash can. If not, there are at least twenty recycling center in the Metro Atlanta area alone. I have no doubt in my mind that there is a recycling center accessible to everyone, they also give free recycling bins. There really is no excuse!
In an imperfect world no one would recycle; the world would become one massive landfill where plants can’t grow, and no forms of life could survive. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in. If we don’t change now in one hundred years the world won’t be sustainable for human life, any life for that matter. Maybe you won’t be directly impacted, but what about your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren? We need to change our ways while we still have the chance. How unfortunate would it be for the world to have such a surplus of waste everywhere, that prevented life to continue as we know it? It’s time to embrace the natural roots of our earth, and give back to create a more pure environment. If we want to continue to enjoy the luxuries of our beautiful planet we have to keep it beautiful and treat it with the utmost respect, this is the only earth we’ll ever get. It all begins will recycling, it all starts today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qT-rOXB6NI