In Australia there are many opportunities for you to recycle, this can include your own recycling bin, clothes recycling bins, op shops, scrap metal yards, and other recycle center’s. There are so many benefits to recycling – here’s a list of 10 reasons why you should recycle.
- Recycling conserves valuable natural resources such as coal, oil, minerals and trees- by recycling your plastic containers and bottles you will help reduce oil consumption as all plastics are oil based and can be reused to create new items for consumers.
- Substantial energy savings can be achieved by manufacturing new products from recyclables rather than using natural resources. Metals, plastics and some chemicals can be reused and made into
- Trees are used to manufacture paper products, an average of 13 trees are required per tonne of paper. Recycling your paper and cardboard products will help reduce the need to forest timber.
- It can save you money in waste disposal costs. Less waste to landfill extends the life of the landfill site, this helps your council keep your rates charges at an affordable level.
- Cuts greenhouse gases by reducing the amount of rubbish breaking down in landfill and saving energy during the production process.
- A large amount of water and energy can be saved in the production process, e.g. making aluminium from recycled material instead of bauxite requires up to 95% less energy.
- Saves lives of marine animals if plastic and other recyclable material is disposed of properly.
- Fewer animals will die of starvation. Two-thirds of Australian seabirds are affected by plastic pollution and around 25% of this comes from the beverage industry. Seabirds, turtles and some whales mistake bottle tops and other bits of floating plastic debris for food, so when they swallow too much their stomachs are too full of plastic to ingest real food.
- Local communities also benefit enormously from the recycling through the creation of jobs and support of regional economies – 9.2 jobs are created per tonne of waste recycled (National Waste Overview 2009).
- Recycling one aluminium can saves enough energy to run a 100watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours and a TV for 2 hours.
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