To The Editor:
Reduce, reuse, recycle: a well-known slogan from the 1970s on Earth Day, its main purpose is to try and offset the harmful effects of pollution on the natural world. Maybe you have heard it from your parents, your teachers, or even the internet, and you took it for granted. But have you thought if it works? Have you ever researched if it benefits the environment? Reduce and reusing are self-explanatory, if you use less plastics or use the same plastics repeatedly, surely it would help the environment one bit at a time. But, what about recycling, salvaging old products and converting them into new? Before, I recycled plastic water bottles, cardboard and other recyclables, thinking that I was doing something for the environment. Surely, I was ... right?
Well, it doesn’t, at least not to a high degree. Let’s do some math. (I promise it’ll be fast). The average family household living in the United States produces 4.5 lbs. of waste material, of which 1.46 lbs. are recycled, meaning that the average household recycles around 32.5% of their waste. In 2023, there were 131.43 million households (and the number is still growing to this day), meaning that there are around 191,887,800 lbs. of “potential” recyclables! However, 174,616,898 lbs. of recycling (91%) end up in landfills or are incinerated, contributing to carbon emissions! Recycling is not leading us to anything.
So, is recycling useless? Do we live in a simulation? Is anything real? These questions are difficult to answer. How did time start? Does 1+1=2? Look, I cannot answer with certainty whether recycling is useless, but we should try to refuse plastics and increase reducing and reusing your recyclables instead of recycling them. It is not too late to start. I am just a student at Mandarin High, and I intend to increase reducing and reusing. I believe that everyone, no matter what age, should intend to reduce and reuse more. I challenge you to increase reducing and reusing what you can, because everybody can! You can reuse glass containers, or you can email your shopping receipts instead of printing them. There are many ways to reuse and reduce, we just have to adapt to those ways. We must ensure to educate us and others about reducing and reusing, for the sake of the Earth!
Om Patel
