Recycling Plastic Has Many Benefits

You will find that recycling plastic is quite easy in most cities and states across the country. There are various ordinances in place concerning the recycling of plastic bottles and other plastic materials so you will need to find out what the guidelines in your community are before you begin recycling these bottles.

Benefits of Recycling Plastic

The first benefit is the fact that one ton of recycled plastic reduces landfill space by 7.5 cubic yards. It may not sound like much but when you consider the huge amounts of plastic that are not recycled each and every day it could make a huge difference in the amount of landfill space being used and needed. While many people aren't overly concerned about landfill space at the moment there will come a time when everyone needs to be concerned about it.

Another benefit to recycling plastic one pound of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) recycled bottles can save approximately 12,000 BTUs (British thermal units) of heat energy. It adds up rather quickly.

It takes plastic bottles 700 years to even begin the process of decomposing. They will be littering our landfills for a very long time to come if they aren't recycled unless we take measures today to begin recycling more plastic bottles and keep them out of our landfills.

In America alone four million plastic bottles are used every hour of the day. Of those four million only about one fourth of them are going to be recycled. That is a lot of plastic bottles heading off to our landfills each and every hour of the day.

There are a few other benefits of recycling plastic that bear mentioning. Recycling saves precious raw materials such as virgin bauxite ore. It saves energy and it creates jobs for the workers who work in various recycling centers around the country. Can you imagine the new jobs that would be created if everyone recycled?

In some states that are financial benefits to recycling plastic. Some states charge a deposit on certain plastic beverage containers. When you return the bottles to the recycling centers (which can usually be found at local grocery stores in these states) you will receive your deposit back. This was an effort to insure that people would recycle bottles and cans that has been fairly successful.

If you do not live in one of these states there are some that will pay you for every plastic bottle you recycle. You will need to check your local listing to find a center for recycling plastic for money but they do exist and are a great incentive to those who need a tangible incentive to recycle.