Articles+on+Environment+and+Lifestyle



**Why should we bother recycling? ** On a practical level, we have to recycle because we're running out of room to bury our rubbish: experts suggest [|UK landfill sites will be full by 2017] . The main environmental benefit of recycling is reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing new products from recycled material rather than new virgin material almost always results in lower CO2 emissions. Making glass, for example, uses 300kg CO2 less per tonne of glass when you recycle old glass rather than using raw materials (because manufacturing virgin glass involves a carbon-intensive furnace process called calcination). Recycling waste also reduces the amount of methane generated from biodegradable waste - such as cardboard - breaking down in landfill. Although methane is released in relatively small quantities in the UK ( [|2.3m tonnes a year] ), it is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. Aside from cutting emissions that contribute to global warming, recycling has the benefit of preserving natural resources. Fewer trees need to be cut down, and fewer minerals and metals need to be extracted from mines. Even when a natural resource is renewable if managed sustainably - such as paper - harvesting it can still have negative environmental impacts. Forests planted for paper, for example, are often monoculture plantations which are typically much less species-rich than a natural forest. **What about benefits for me? ** In the UK, recycling may eventually lead to a lower council tax bill. Local authorities have to pay more for sending rubbish to landfill every year - in 2009, councils across England spent £620m land-filling waste from homes. Figures obtained by consumer group Which? also suggest that if we recycled better - by contaminating less of our recycling with food waste, for example - we may one day [|save money on lower council tax bills] . **Where does most of my recycling go? ** Much of the material that's sorted for recycling in the UK goes to Asian countries to be recycled into new materials and products. China is the main destination for paper and plastic, taking in much of the 4.7 million tonnes of paper (55% of our paper exports) and half a million tonnes of plastics exported (80% of plastic exports) in 2007.