It is usually less expensive to recycle rather than to dump in a landfill. Recycling creates less pollution than does production from raw materials. Recycling conserves natural resources. For example, if recycled paper was used just to make Sunday newspapers in America, it would save 500,000 trees each Sunday. While the question of degradability is important for all solid waste, it is most controversial for plastics.
Plastics are hydrocarbon products made from crude oil.
In the process called reforming, hydrocarbons are converted into plastics. Plastic sutures, the cord-like plastics used as stitches after surgery, can be made to degrade in about a week. However, plastic milk cartons, styrofoam, plastic six-pack holders, plastic garbage bags, and some plastic diapers require thousands of years to degrade. In recent years some of these products have been redesigned to degrade more quickly. Today many plastic garbage bags and diapers are being made so that they are photodegradable.