Why Recycle?

To understand why recycling is so important; one must consider the entire life-cycle of a product. Typically virgin materials are extracted from the earth, manufactured and processed into products, shipped to points of sale, purchased, used and are then discarded. This is known as a "cradle-to-grave" life-cycle, as virgin materials are born into products that ultimately are discarded into landfills at the end of their lives. By recycling a product, significant waste and energy savings, along with other environmental benefits from not having to extract and process virgin materials, is often achieved. When products are recycled, a "cradle-to-cradle" life-cycle is created instead of the "cradle-to-grave" life-cycle keeping materials out of landfills. This is known as "closing the loop".

How much waste is generated when we make products?

A National Academy of Engineering report, by Robert Ayers, calculated that 94% of the material used in industrial production in the United States is thrown away by the time the product is made! And what happens to the six percent of the materials that actually become products? They are often thrown away after a single use.

Key reasons to recycle:

Energy savings: The energy required to recycle materials is often less than the energy required to use virgin materials (aluminum uses five percent as much energy to recycle versus mining bauxite ore). And this means:

Reduces pollution: As stated above, 94% of the material used in industrial production in the United States becomes waste by the time the product is actually made. By using recycled materials instead of virgin materials, less waste is generated and less energy is consumed.

Waste costs money: Waste disposal is not free. At Rice, waste is removed from campus and transported to a landfill, which costs money.

Landfills are limited: There's only such much capacity in a landfill. By sending less waste to landfills, we can prolong their useful lives.

Saved habitat: There are many impacts associated with extracting virgin materials, be it logging, mining, drilling, etc... By decreasing the demand for these materials in their virgin form, the pace of extraction is slowed and the impacts on species and their habitats reduced.

Not in my backyard!: In this part of the country, space isn't running out for new landfills. However, when existing landfills reach their capacity and new sites are proposed, citizens often protest to having new landfills built near their homes.