Recycling is essential for improving environmental degradation:

Recycling is essential for improving environmental degradation:

Environmental problems have become so complex that many individuals feel they can have no effect on them. Problems like global warming, hazardous waste, loss of rain forests, endangered species, acid rain, the ozone layer, and the municipal waste crisis can feel out of our control. At the very least, these problems require group and corporate action or government intervention. But there are some things the individual can control. Our waste reduction and recycling activities can make a difference.

Recycling is nothing but reprocessing of old material and converting it to new usable products. Recycling prevents waste of potentially useful materials, reducing consumption of fresh raw material, ore and minerals. Recycling process also economizes over all energy consumption for production of materials than the virgin products; thereby improving environmental degradations. Recycling is a key concept of modern waste management.

The recyclable materials are mostly paper, metal, textiles, glass and plastics. These materials are either brought to a collection centre or picked-up from the curbside, sorted, cleaned and reprocessed into new products bound for manufacturing.

(i) Curbside recycling - Curbside recycling now serves half of the U.S. population, providing the most convenient means for households to recycle a variety of materials. While all curbside programs differ, the most commonly included materials are The Big Five: aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper, plastic and steel/tin cans.

(ii) Electronics - Technology has revolutionized our lifestyle through telephones, radios, TVs, computers and cell phones. However, the brisk pace of technology means these devices become obsolete quickly. A more recent issue is how our old electronics should be disposed of, because they often contain dangerous elements such as lead and mercury that can contaminate our soil and water supply.

(iii) Composting - Managing organic material at your home can not only decrease the amount of material you send to the landfill; it can also help turn your organic waste into a landscape asset. Composting will reduce the amount of food waste in your garbage can, while creating nutrient-rich fertilizer for your garden.