How We Can Recycle to Keep Our Water Clean

The vast majority of U.S. trash ends up in landfills, even though about 70 percent of it is recyclable, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Recycling would reduce a great deal of the waste that ends up in our landfills and reduce the negative effects from both landfills and the production of new products that harm our water supplies.

Significance

• Recycling products into usable new products saves on having to gather natural resources, shipping them and manufacturing them. Metal mining produces tons of waste containing heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic, all of which are toxic. Recycling aluminum, copper, iron, steel and other metals cuts down on the amount that has to be dug up and reduces the amount of mine drainage that ends up in our waterways. In fact, recycling an aluminum can produces 97 percent less water pollution than making a can from ore, according to the Cass County (Indiana) Solid Waste Management District. Shipping those raw materials produces airborne and soil pollution that enters our waterways as rain and runoff. Manufacturing products such as plastic and paper dumps pollutants into our water supply through both plant wastewater and chemicals leached from holding areas.

Considerations

• Landfills are a huge source of water pollution, including those that are lined to reduce leaching into ground water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that all landfills eventually leak into the environment, whether through runoff caused by storm water draining off the site or by seeping waste compounds entering the groundwater supply. Landfills contain a wide variety of toxic and hazardous waste and by-products that can cause serious water pollution issues.

Effects

• Many of the worst pollutants, such as tires, batteries, oil, plastics, household and automotive chemicals, and solvents, are all recyclable. Removing these from our landfills through recycling also removes the ability for their toxins to enter our water sources. Some states even require items such as car batteries to be recycled, due to the danger they create to the environment.

Process

• The majority of municipalities in the United States have either curbside recycling or local recycling centers that take deposits of recyclables. After recyclable trash is collected at the centers, it goes to facilities that recovers materials where it is sorted and cleaned up to be sold. The sorted and cleaned recyclables are sold to processors that convert it into usable raw material, then use it to produce new products or sell it to manufacturers.

Effects

• Recycled materials are used in a wide range of products that are different from their original use. Used tires become new roads and play mats. Plastic containers become carpet and automobile textiles. Old cars become beams for skyscrapers and for bridges that span the cleaner water that results from recycling. Buying recycled products promotes the continued production of these products by supporting the companies that create them as well as a market for recycled trash.

Water Recycling

• Many areas, such as San Diego, California, recycle wastewater so that it can be used for other, non-drinkable purposes. While it does not keep pristine water cleaner, it does clean up water that would normally have been unusable due to pollution and potential disease. This maximizes the water supplies and eases up the use of water resources.