From Guest Blogger Lizzie Weakly: Your Neighborhood Advocate–Why We All Need to Recycle

Everybody has heard about recycling at this point, but some people are still on the fence about it. They see recycling as an unnecessary hassle instead of an ecologically-necessary practice. Well, for any naysayers, here are some facts about how essential and easy recycling has become.

Sustainability

No home can be truly sustainable without recycling. This means that if everybody stopped recycling, they would all be on a path to run out of places to put their garbage. Landfills are filling up rapidly due to non-biodegradable plastics that sit in landfills indefinitely without being absorbed by the Earth. The solution is, unsurprisingly, recycling.

The plastics that would sit in landfills are easy to recycle into new products. Not only does this significantly extend the lifespan of landfills, but it means that fewer resources are needed to create new plastics. The longer that people can make resources last, the better. Otherwise there may well be a time that those resources run dry and people are left without immediately available alternatives.

Ease of Recycling

Even for those that understand the importance of recycling, there is often an idea that recycling is hared to do or extremely pricey. While that may have been true once upon a time, the widespread recognition of recycling’s necessity has significantly dropped the cost of most recycling companies.

In the present, nearly anybody can have a local company come and take care of their recyclables for a nominal fee. For example, Lakeshore Recycling would be more than happy to take the local recyclables and ensure that they are being handled responsibly.

But what about the annoyance of recycling? Separating garbage into various piles can be tedious at best. Thankfully, that is no longer a requirement to recycle. There is an option called “single stream recycling” that allows the user to put all of their recyclables into a little blue bin and let the recycling workers sort it out. Recycling has never been more easily accessible than it is today.

Do Your Part

Everyone has a responsibility to recycle. Not for selfish or moral reasons, but to literally protect the planet. Generations of people will be impacted by the decision to recycle or not. Recycling may not fix every environmental issue, but it is certainly a necessary first step that everyone must take.