Recycling not always an energy and resource saver, study findsFriday, May 20, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson
Picture: This is a picture of what happens in the process of recycling. Reusing plastics and other materials can reduce the amounts of such materials on earth.
Summary: Studies have shown that remanufacturing or recycling certain products uses more energy than using new products. Products like tires and used motors doesn't always save energy in the future. Also the remanufatured products were compared to the new products. In many cases, the new product outpreformed the remanufactured product. This means that over a course of a products life new ones actually save more energy than reused products from an older generation. In the tire study it showed that new tires had more rolling resistance than the retreated tires. So over a preiod of time the energy to just produce new tires uses less energy. "People often think recycling is so simple, but things are far more complicated than people expect" says Timothy Gutowski. Regardless the energy usage, remanufacturing helps to save resources. Also remanufacturing lowers the waste in landfills and helps the environment in most cases. So remanufactured devices are not always the most energy-efficient way, but it does help the environment.
Opinion: I found this article very interesting because we are always tought that recycling is so good. I never knew that remanufacturing products uses more energy. Now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. In some cases recycling is the right thing to do but in other cases it is better to make new products. Recently recycling cans were distributed to hatboro and horsham. I know in my house we began to recycling a lot more. I think recycling is the right thing to do but, this article made me think of something different.
Questions:
1. What could you do in your life to help recycling? explain.
2. If you had a choice to buy a reused device or a new device what would you choose? why?
3. Does your family recycle? Explain how recycling is enfourced in your house?
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI think it is funny that we have always been taught to recycle when this is actually using more energy. I know recycling saves money but that is not always the most important thing. I'm not surprised that new products out perform the old products because they probably update the new products and make it better than the last. Recycling has come up a lot in class and I still however, believe recycling is beneficial. It is a hard decision to either save energy or help the environment. As of right now I would want to help the environment but eventually I might want to also save and help our energy.
Answer to #1:
There are many things I could do to help recycle. One thing I can do is plant trees. I can use them to shade my home as well. Also I can turn off lights when i'm not using them, don't run water without using it, and keep plugs in for a long time. I forget to do these things a lot and I need to get better at remembering to help my environment.
Opinion/Reflection: I was very surprised to hear that recycling uses more energy than making new products. We always hear on the news and in class that recycling is the greatest thing and helps so much. I agree with Grant when he said that I would rather help the environment because it is being destroyed right now. Maybe when we start slowing down destroying it, I would want to save energy. I found this very interesting because I never heard this before and it is cool to hear about another side. Recycling is still very helpful but this showed me that it does have some negatives.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question 1: There are many things I do to help recycling. One thing I can do is start recycling all my papers that usually just end up in the trash. Also, I can bring big pieces of cardboard or other large recyclable things and bring them to the big dumpsters outside various schools. Every little I recycle can help the environment and it is very important that everyone does it.
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone when they say this is a ver ysurprising fact. We as students have always been taught that recycling is very good and helps the environment but in some cases it doesn't. That is so crazy that it can actualy use more energy and more money to recycle things like tires. Also, it even makes the tires less durable. I think instead of just not recycling them anymore we could just use the recycled rubber from the tires and use it to make something else so we can still recycle and not dump it somewhere else. I can relate this to a blog I did previously on recycling. My article talks about how recycling can truly make a difference and how it can truly benefit the world, but after reading this article I guess some stuff isn't very efficient to recycle and can hurt the world.
Answer to question 1:
I could just be more mindful of the things I use. After seeing the video about water bottles I use them very sparingly and only when I need them. So now I use a traveling water bottle so I can just wash it out and reuse it. I could probably be more mindful of things having the little recycling symbol on it so I can be more aware of recycling things.
Opinion/Reflection: I believe that this article was very interesting because in class we were always taught that recycling is very good. When I read that it uses more energy than new products, I was surprised. I never thought about it being like that. I agree with Grant when he says that he wants to save the environment and recycle now because the amount of resources are starting to decrease. When Timothy Gutowski said that people think recycling is so simple, but in reality it is far more difficult than people think, I immediately started to think about the process. I do not know exactly how hard, or what the process is, but I do know that it is not just putting paper or plastic into a recycling bin. I hope that knowing this information doesn't stop people from recycling, because as it says in the article, recycling is still a good thing to do. In science we learned that recycling helps to save the dwindling resources and help the environment in a great way. This article was very interesting because I never would have though that recycling could use more energy than making a new product.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to Question #3: In my house we recycle. When we are done with plastic or glass bottles, we throw them into the recycling can. Also, when my parents are done reading the newspaper, the newspaper gets recycled. Another thing that we do to recycle is reuse some plastic water bottles and fill them with the water from our refridgerator instead of getting a brand new water bottle. I am glad that my family recycles because whatever I can do to make the environment a better place, I will!