Recycling is a process of collecting materials that have been used and processing them in order to use them again. The elements in the waste are arranged and sorted, and then prepared to be reused again.
Recycling saves energy, reduces raw material extraction and stops climate change. Most of the research have found that recycling our waste is better for the environment rather than incinerating or land filling, the use of plastics in packaging products is increasing.
Most industrialized countries have a system responsible for the collection and recycling of plastic packaging waste, either implemented fully or pending.
Recycling of plastics is very important in the world presently. Plastics, which are non-degradable material, takes a very long time to degrade enough to be used again.
Recycling and chemically treating plastic for reuse are better ways to protect the environment from plastic pollution to avoid it from contaminating the Earth.
Plastic bags, bottles, containers, and so on can be seen polluting the oceans of the world and causing ecological problems. By recycling plastic for daily use, awareness of plastic landfills, sea fills, and environmental issues can be controlled.
The more people that are open to using recycled plastic products, the better it will be for the world.
Let us look at why plastic recycling and reuse is important:
1. Natural resource conservation
Recycling plastic waste materials help reduce scarcity of natural resources of the earth like natural gas, petroleum, coal, wood, and water.
By reusing plastic instead of manufacturing the same type of material every time, we will be able to reduce plastic dumb. Resource conservation is possible by recycling waste materials already present. Wood can be reclaimed and reused.
Wood plastic composites can be made for better and more prolonged use instead of throwing away old bags and bottles of plastics.
The process of making plastic uses a lot of natural resources and energy, water, and petroleum is wasted. Recycling and reusing plastic would ultimately mean saving these natural resources to produce more non-biodegradable plastic that will harm the environment at a later stage.
A reduction in the need for natural resources will help reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and will prevent the increase in demand for petroleum products.
2. It helps reduce landfill space
As already mentioned, plastics take a long time to break down completely. It does not matter where the plastic is stored or kept; it will still take a long time to degrade.
By recycling and reusing plastic raw materials and turning them into other products, consumers can effectively reduce plastic space that has been taken up in landfills that can be used for biodegradable materials to save the environment.
Recycling and reusing plastic would ultimately mean saving these natural resources to produce more non-biodegradable plastic that will harm the environment at a later stage.
A reduction in the need for natural resources will Categories help decrease the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and will prevent a surplus demand for petroleum products.
3. Helps protect animals
Reducing and reusing plastics is a sure method of protecting our wildlife’s. However, reusing plastics also means that there is lesser plastic in landfills, rivers, deserts, forests, and oceans across the earth.
From the research been conducted severally, it has been noted that most animals and water creatures die each year due to consumption of plastic material. Plastics cannot be digested by living organisms and instead, it harms these animals and water creatures.
Plastic ends up destroying the natural habitats of the world with its nonbiodegradable properties. Instead of helping to protect life, it ends up being the cause of many animal deaths. Every year, countless fish and marine annuals die and face extinction due to excessive consumption of plastic.
4. Innovative uses
We use and recycle plastics for invention and innovative purpose. Plastic pollution and recycling awareness have brought some excellent ideas for reusing plastic and its products.
Plastics can be used in shipbuilding and for construction sites. Since plastic is a non- biodegradable waterproof material, it does not rot or catch mold. Ships and decks can be made with toughened plastic to preserve the final products. Some sportswear and clothing accessories are also woven with plastic in their materials.
Vehicle interiors that are made with recycled plastics can increase the life of the vehicle accessories and seat covers while also actively protecting them from spills, stains, fungus.
You can also cut plastic to size, which is useful for sign making. Waste disposal and reuse is the next step in conserving our resources and our planet for our future generations.
For us to avoid negative effects and stagnation in our generation and environment, we must learn to reuse, recycle and reduce our plastic wastes.
5. It increases the availability of plastics
Plastic is something we need every day, when we recycle our plastics it helps to make it available to meet our daily needs. Most of the products we use today needs plastics for packaging and branding these products.
Therefore, when we recycle our products, we make them available for people who need them to package the products we use.
6. It provides job
You may wonder how plastic recycling provides a job, of course it those. We need labor in the process of recycling, we need labor to supply plastics, as a result of these, labor as a factor of recycling plastics needs to be made available.
Other importance of recycling and reusing plastics include: it prevents pollution, it creates new products, it creates space, etc.
Conclusion
Plastic goods are very useful because they are long-lasting products, but they become a disadvantage to us when they are not recycled or reused properly.
When we check our landfills the amount of plastic waste we accumulate can’t be easily cleared completely, and with time to come it becomes a nuisance and hazard to us and the animals.
But when we recycle and reuse these plastics it saves the environment, ecosystem, economic and animals.