I’m assuming recycling (like most industrial processes), comes with its own carbon footprint / pollution overhead / energy consumption / etc., so why is it better to process these materials instead of letting them turn back into dirt in a landfill?
In: Technology
When you recycle paper you use the fiber in new paper products. The fiber in the paper can be reused about 5-7 times because it gets shorter each time.
If you did not recycle paper it the demand for paper products would not decrease. So the alternative is to get new fiber from trees.
So the alternative is not to recycle paper or not but recycle paper or use more trees to make papes. So you need to look at the total cost of carbon usage, pollution, energy use, and land use for both alternatives. Land use is a huge factor that you need to look at.
There are other options, for example, use the paper as fertilizer. Burn it as an energy source.
The other post have included the fact that it degrades very slowly in a landfill and then you discard a resource that could be used instead of something else.
So if you look at it all you find cost and environmental benefits in recycling paper.
Reduction usage might be an even better idea but that can be done at the same time that you recycle paper.
Latest Answers