What are the environmental problems for recycling? ?

Most of the environmental problems for recycling are the same problems of manufacturing from virgin material, transportation, toxic waste, use of harmful chemicals etc.



Recycling metals and glass have less impact than using virgin materials. Paper has higher transportation impacts, but that can be changed by increasing the number of paper plants that recycle paper. Plastics have the worst impact, but that is true of manufacturing plastics too. I avoid plastics in all forms as much as possible. There is a reason China produces so much of the plastic items we use in the US, it would cost a fortune to produce plastics under US EPA guidelines, in China they can use all the toxic chemicals and dispose fo the waste in a cheaper way, but it is at a great cost to the long term health of their environment.What are the environmental problems for recycling? ?Currently the average recycling rate in the U.S. is at about 30%. We should be able to divert a lot more of our waste stream from landfills! If we recycled everything we could, we could increase our recycling rate to above 50%... and that would be fantastic.



One of the major concerns with recylcing is that there isn't always a market for the recycled material. Landfills sell their recylced materials to companies that re-process the material and make something new. But plastic for example, isn't really all that useful. It has to be cost effective to recycle and process the material. That includes paying to transport the material and energy to process it.



Lately, there are companies making a lot of clothing out of recycled plastic. This is great and I encourage everyone to buy recycled materials. If we encourage businesses to use recycled material in their products, we are making a difference.

What are the environmental problems for recycling? ?
Well I guess that it takes a lot of energy to smash it all together. Plus the extra gas fumes from the trucks that take it to the plant.What are the environmental problems for recycling? ?A sizeable proportion of recyclates from the UK are simply dumped in landfill in India. The councils here are trying to cover it up though.What are the environmental problems for recycling? ?
Another fleet of gas-hogging, pollution-spewing trucks runs their routes weekly.What are the environmental problems for recycling? ?In some cases - it takes MORE energy to recycle a good than it does to produce a NEW good................