Recycling Persuasive Essay

INTRODUCTION

Recycling programs have in fact become a crucial component within the United States, it’s important to know that they’re also the most expensive form of waste management. In fact, the cost to landfill waste in San Jose, California is $28 per ton versus the $147 cost per ton to recycle. Further, on the other side of the country in New Jersey, recyclable goods are the cause for a $550 thousand deficit for Atlantic County due to the costly collection and sorting expenses as well as payments made on the recycling facilities (Black 1006). After factoring in all of the money and time spent for the collection and processing, the cost for waste disposal via recycling is much greater than the use of landfills or incinerators. No matter how steep the costs are, advocates continue to support the idea that the benefits for personal health and the environmental health do in fact outweigh them.

Aside from economics, advocates of recycling also argue this waste disposal process’s necessity for the healthier living and environmental sustainability. In addition to the high cost of recycling facilities however, they also create large amounts of waste leading to excess damage to the environment; recycling facilities emit toxic pollutants into the air. With this, these facilities are actually doing the opposite of what is being promoted by recycling advocates: creating health hazards. In knowing (aside from economics) the personal and environmental health benefits do not outweigh the costs, the amount of recycling programs in the United States should be diminished. Rather than pouring a ton of money into recycling programs, resources should be used for programs that promote education initiatives or other cost effective environmental initiatives.

COSTS

Cost 1

Recycling programs come at a significantly high cost. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), curbside recycling programs have already begun to decrease in the United States. Today, only 8,660 of these programs exist on a national level, being a decline from the 8,875 existing 14 years ago (“Municipal Solid Waste”). Additionally, the rate of recycling solid waste seems to have reached its peak within a three-year period beginning in 2005 (“Municipal Solid Waste”). Generally speaking, it is expensive to manage waste via the recycling process. This process, involving more collection, transportation and separation of materials, requires recycling centers to add transportation equipment and hire more staff to accommodate for the increased labor.

For every one ton of recycled goods delivered to a facility, in New York City, it costs $200 more than if chosen to dispose of those goods in a landfill (Tierney 2). Also, a significant amount of time and money is spent to market and educate the public on what products can or cannot be recycled (Tierney 5). An additional cost hindering recycling efforts is the need to purchase and provide bins in residential areas. To top it all off, recycling generally has higher costs than those associated with manufacturing the same product from raw materials. For example: plastic makes up about 26% of recycled solid waste in the United States and it takes less time and costs less money to manufacture than to recycle. With this, it becomes apparent that effectiveness of cost lies within the manufacturing of virgin materials rather than recycling materials that are subject to the various additional fees within the recycling process (Breslin et al. 2).