What Are the Advantages of Recycling Plastic?

Recycling is socially responsible and beneficial to the environment. While most people know that recycling is something that everyone should do, there are some who would like a tangible purpose for recycling. There are several advantages to recycling plastic materials.

Saving Landfill Space

• Plastic is not a biodegradable material, which means that it can sit in a landfill for hundreds or thousands of years. One ton of recycled plastic can save approximately 7.4 cubic yards of space in a landfill. Best of all, plastics can be indefinitely recycled, which means they could potentially be eradicated from landfills altogether.

Energy Conservation

• By using recyclable plastic materials, factories can produce new products using approximately 2/3 less energy than with raw material production. A single pound of recycled plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate can save nearly 12,000 BTUs of heat energy. To put it into terms that hit close to home, one ton of recycled plastic can save a year's worth of energy consumption for two people.

Reduction of Harmful Emissions

• Factories that produce plastic products from raw materials also produce a great deal of harmful greenhouse gases. By using recycled plastic materials, production time is greatly reduced, which means that less greenhouse emissions are making their way into the atmosphere.

Conservation of Resources

• Oil and natural gas are two of the main components used for the production of the raw materials used to make plastic. These natural resources are not only in limited supply, but also in high demand for other important uses such as powering automobiles and producing electricity. Because plastic materials are already in such abundance, recycling these existing materials means that less natural resources are used for production of new plastic materials.