Recycling the Household Rubbish - Case Study Example

  The nations around the world should opt for compulsory recycling of household rubbish to overcome problems like environmental pollution and ecological disorders. The most crucial aspect of this issue is that the world is running out of room to bury its rubbish. The figures in recent years show that if the people of America recycled the Sunday newspaper, they could save over 500,000 trees a year. Much more will be the effects if another solid household waste is recycled. Recycling is widely accepted as an environmentally friendly, cheapest and most sensible way to dispose of the household rubbish.

To begin with, recycling the waste helps in reducing the amount of methane generated from biodegradable waste, for example, breaking down cardboard in the landfill. It also cuts down the emissions of methane, the most important factor contributing to global warming. Recycling the rubbish will also avert other negative environmental impacts; for instance, it will reduce the number of trees being cut down and will reduce the number of minerals and metals extracted from mines. An important hindrance that stands against recycling of household waste is the unreceptive mentality of the society against recycling.

The National Consumer Council (NCC) points out, factors that might restrain people from acting ‘sustainably’ include recycling (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 2005). People should be convinced of the fact that the reserves of metal ores are not unlimited. There is only a little gold, silver, tin and other metals remaining in the ground and once they all have been mined out, there will not be anything left unless we are already to recycle what has already been used.

Evidently, “the United States daily generates more solid waste than any other country on earth.” (Barry & Mendoza, 2006, p. 416). Consumption of fast food meals packed in paper or Styrofoam containers has grown alarmingly high. Dumping off the garbage offshore, landfills and the interstate transportation of garbage are only a temporary means of getting rid of the rubbish (ibid). In addition, such dumping causes serious health problems for the surrounding neighborhoods. So the only and reasonable solution to reduce the amount of garbage is to recycle the household rubbish.

Many countries like Australia have already taken steps for mandatory recycling. Obviously, the government should provide necessary assistance to the citizens in recycling the garbage. It will, in turn, reduce the amount of solid ravage disposed of in landfills.   However, collaborated effort is essential to conserve our natural resources and the environment as a whole.