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
Look at [photosynthesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis): 6 carbon dioxide + 6 water -> 1 sugar + 6 oxygen. Plant then chains the sugars together into long strings of [cellulose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose), which form the body of the plant. Wood, fiber.
Paper is made from wood, plastics are generally organic materials… pretty much most organic materials have TONS of what was originally carbon dioxide, now “trapped” inside the plant or animal or whatnot. The tons that a tree weighs, came from carbon dioxide and water. The atoms didn’t disappear or get created, they just got recycled by nature. Trapped in plants, animals that ate the plants, etc. Literally the weight of the thing (tree, animal, oil, plastic) is carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (water).
So while recycling does have a carbon footprint, energy consumption, and pollution overhead, letting the materials turn back into their original components would add a huge quantity of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
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