The environmental and health benefits of recycling far outweigh the burdens of collection, processing and transport of recycled materials. Both landfills and incinerators make for poor neighbors as they emit toxic chemicals known to cause cancer, impaired neurological development, and infertility. A recent study by the New York State Department of Health found that women living near solid waste landfills where gas is escaping have a four-fold increase in their chance of developing bladder cancer. The more we recycle, the more we can protect our health. Our current waste practices also contribute to some of our most pressing environmental problems, like global warming and air pollution.
Recycling substantially reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
This is equal to taking nearly 7 million cars off the road. Paper recycled by Americans since 1990 saved over 3 billion trees, the equivalent of a forest 16 times the size of Yosemite National Park. Recycling a ton of steel prevents 200 pounds of air pollutants, almost 3 tons of mining waste and about 25 tons of water use. Quite simply, we can not afford not to recycle, if we wish to conserve our resources for future generations. There are many different ways to deal with our waste problems.