WASTE-RECYCLE
De verdad vale la pena reciclar?
Del libro ¨World Changing¨ de Alex Steffen
¨Según la Coalición Nacional de Reciclaje en USA,
se necesita 95% menos energía para producir aluminio que si
se produjera de la materia prima. Producir acero reciclado ahorra 60%,
papel periódico reciclado ahorra 40%, plástico reciclado ahorra 70%, cristal reciclado ahorra 40%. Estos ahorros prueban ser mayores que toda la energía ¨despifarrada¨ en los sistemas alternos de transporte de la basura, incineración, rellenos orgánicos y entre otros…
Does Recycling really matter?
This is a quote from the book World Changing:
There’s no shortage of debate over the net advantage of recycling. Plenty of staunch environmentalists argue thatt the energy required to recycle bottles and newspapers negates the benefit of creating reusable material. But abundant evidence demonstrates otherwise.
The amount of energy required for recycling depends on numerous factors: what type of material is being recycled, how the material gets collected and delivered to the recycleing site, and how processed the resulting material will be. Accoding to the National Recycling Coalition, “it takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials. Making recycled steel saves 60%, recycled newspaper 40%, recycled plastic 70%, and recycled glass 40%. These savings far outweigh the energy created as by-products of incineration and landfilling.”
No doubt recycling is an intermediary step: if we truely want to save energy and stem the stream of waste we send to the landfill, we’ll have to implement new industrial production systems that generate less waste and fewer disposable components to begin with. (We’ll also have to reduce consumption of disposable/packaged goods and find more ways to reuse things.) In the mean time, recycling is certainly a worthy practice, and by simply tossing things in their appropriate bins, we can gain a clearer perspective on just how much stuff we dispose of every week.