Recycling

Another thing that I cannot understand why people do not do is recycling.  Seriously, is it that hard to get a separate trashcan and put your recyclables in there rather than the rest of your trash?  The apartment building that I am currently living in in Kutztown has a very good recycling system.  In the back of our building is our dumpster.  Not only is there a dumpster, but there are trash containers for plastic, cardboard, aluminum cans, aluminum beer and soda cans, clear glass, green glass, and brown glass, along with a container for paper.  I think that my landlords had done something very good with putting all of these containers out.  I think that they are teaching their tenants to not just recycle more, but to really split up all of their recyclables.  I know that personally, Tim (my landlord) has taught me more about recycling and really got me into the habit of splitting up all of my recyclables.  I mean, I did recycle before, but I did not take the time like I do now to actually split up all of the different items like I do now.  I would just throw all the glass bottles, aluminum cans, newspaper, and cardboard into one bin, and the garbage men in my hometown would just take it all away and recycle it.  I actually do enjoy the fact that my landlord actually took the time and effort to put these separate containers out, because I actually made me divide and split all the recyclables up instead of just putting them all in one recycling container. I think that more people, and especially landlords not just in this town, but in all towns, need to set up these containers and make recycling more available and easy for their tenants and everyone in general.  By putting out all of the recycling containers, they are putting out the knowledge to recycle more.  I think that it is just pure lazy when people cannot take out ten seconds of their day to just instead of throwing their glass bottle into the regular trashcan just throw it into a recyclable trashcan.  It is the small things like this that are slowly destroying the planet.  These recyclables are filling up the landfills when they easily be recycled and made into something else. 

 And there are so many other benefits that recycling does.  Recycling saves natural resources.  "By recycling over 1.2 million tons of steel in 2005, Pennsylvanians saved 1.4 million tons of iron ore, 829,786 tons of coal, and 71,124 tons of limestone. Through recycling newsprint, office paper and mixed paper, we saved the equivalent of 78 million tree seedlings grown for 10 years. Recycling often produces better products than those made of virgin materials; for instance, the tin in "tin" cans is more refined (thus more valuable) after being processed for recycling." (http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.ptopen=514&objID=589516&mode=2),  

Recycling also saves energy, adds value to our economy, and most importantly saves our environment and our planet.  It literally goes beyond me that so many people do not take the few seconds it takes to recycle.  Just imagine that if at least one person just started recycling just one item a day, how much of the Earth do you think we would start saving?