Effective Recycling of Landfills Waste: The Environmental Benefits - Term Paper Example

Recycling Introduction Recycling can be defined as the process of collection and separating the waste products and remanufacture in to new product.Recycling helps to reduce the large number of waste that is being disposed in garbage. It helps to reduce the amount of raw material extraction and effectively saves energy. Landfilling or incinerating the rubbish is not as useful as recycling of rubbish which eventually enables to combat the climate change. The lessening of disposed rubbish provides better environment and make life better for people. Waste management hierarchy consist a part which is recycling. Global warming issue and several environmental issues has affected many countries which lead to the sense of awareness. Recycling of a material requires much less energy than that of manufactured products from virgin materials. The identified benefits of waste recycling are vital for the effective preservation of the pivotal natural resources. The global warming issue leads to the water and air pollution. The issue ignited the public awareness about the implementation of recycling. Several pivotal benefits of recycling outweigh its disadvantage ethically. Most of the wastes that are being generated from home, industrial sources and business are disposed in to the landfills. Recycling is the partial solution of reducing the waste that are being generated and ethically benefit the environmental issues. This research paper will discuss about the optimum implementation of recycling that enables ethically reduction of the waste generated and environmental issue. Analysis Recycling can be defined as the process of converting waste material in to new products. The reduction of consumption of new energy is the basic aim of recycling. Due to the increase in human population and increase of people needs lead to the reduction of vital natural resources. The need of pivotal raw materials such as oil, metals and forests are not required during recycling (Davis, 1992). This eventually helps to reduce the impact created on environment by the use of these raw materials. The main purpose of recycling is to minimize the utilization of natural resources. Around 30% of the solid wastes in America are being recycled. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the large number of waste that is being disposed in to landfills can lead to degradation of environment. The implication of recycling process can effectively benefit the environment. Environmental Protection Agency also states that the implication of recycling can drastically help to reduce the water pollution by 35% and air pollution by 74%. The benefits of recycling on environment lead to awareness among people. The awareness of the benefits of recycling has made recycling a beneficiary factor to be implemented by every organization (Hall, 2004). The major regulator for the global climatic change is global warming. The denudation of the forest globally lead to the increase in major greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. Despite these major concerns for every country is environmental sustainability and efforts to nullify pollution. The implication of recycling has become major part of every organization to uphold environmental sustainability by nullifying environment issue and maintain ethics in the workplace. Wal-Mart is one of the successful and largest retail companies in the world. Several retail stores are managed by Wal-Mart in many different countries. Main goal of Wal-Mart is zero waste. In the year 2011, it has been reveal by Wal-Mart U.S. that more than 80 % of the solid waste that are disposed in to landfills are being prevented and recycled. Around more than 3.1 billion of plastic bags are being reduced in the year 2012. The goal in the year 2013 is to reduce 33% of weight of plastic bags. Wal-Mart and Sam’s club partnered with the leading organization for the implementation of recycling of the used electronics. Thousands of smartphones are prevented from disposed in to landfills and recycle it. Sam’s club partnered with ecoNEW to offer new recycle program. Environmental sustainability has become important part of every organization to be successful. Main sustainability goals of Wal-Mart is to reduce waste to zero, sell products that are sustainable to the environment and people and supply of 100% renewable energy. The zero waste strategy of Wal-Mart helped to recycled and reduces the waste disposed. In the year 2009, 11.6 million pound of mixed paper, 18.9 pounds of the plastic material hanger, 1.3 million pound of aluminum materials and 120 million pound of plastic materials are being redirected from landfills (Morgan, 2009). New systems of diversion from food waste are initiated by Wal-Mart to reduce the amount of food waste. One of the most exciting names in the world of automobile industry is Toyota Motor Corporation. In the year 2007, Toyota was named as the world’s leading manufacturer of automobile. Toyota Motor Corporation also implemented several recycling process to maintain environment sustainability (Huthinson, 2012). Dedicated Recycling Technical Centre is created by Toyota in Japan. The center is created to experiment new technique that would help to recover dismantling vehicles. Environment guidelines created by Toyota Motor Corporation in the year 2011. The guidelines are specially created for National Marketing and Sales Companies. The guideline contains some requirements that dealers must follow i.e. recycling activities. According to the guidelines, the waste management system must be implemented by the dealers. Recycled materials are specially plastics, batteries, and tires. These types of materials are recycled to manufacture in to recycled consumer products. Toyota Motor Corporation recycled bumpers in to new. A Traditional vehicle normally uses lead-acid batteries. But manufacturer of hybrid car has totally changed the perception of using lead-acid batteries. Hybrid car used NiMH car batteries. This battery helps to generate electric power. Toyota Motor Corporation launched the recycling of NiMH car batteries. This innovative business will reuse NiMH batteries and recycle the battery in to new for hybrid cars. This innovative idea will help to maintain the environmental sustainability ethically. Tesco is one of the largest retailers in the world. Tesco has more than 2300 supermarkets spread across the globe. Special electrical recycling scheme adopted by Tesco. According to the survey by Tesco, more than 1.2 million tons of electrical products are disposed in to landfills. The main idea of scheme program is too recycled as electrical products which will eventually help to conserve energy and avoid harmful electrical substances (McKinney, 2012). The goal of diverting 100% waste from landfill is achieved by Tesco in UK operations. In the UK, more than 531,000 tons of waste is generated each year. From 531,000 wastes, 385,000 tons of wastes are recycled. The initiative taken by Tesco would help to nullify the environmental issues ethically. Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer company. The long-term ethical environment sustainability is maintained by Home Depot. It is maintained by introducing consumer compact fluorescent light bulb recycling program. This recycling program is launched in every Home Depot stores. In the year 2007, Home Depot Canada launched compact fluorescent light bulb recycling program. Customer can bring expired CFL bulbs to the stores. Expired CFL bulbs are being recycled so that to ensure maximize environmental compliance. 75% of the household are located 10 miles from Home Depot stores. This becomes easier for customers to bring expired products to the stores rather than disposing in the garbage. Effective implementation of CFL bulbs recycling enables to maintain environment sustainability. In the U.S. and Canada, Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation partnered with Home Depot to recycle rechargeable batteries (Stem, 1994). FedEx is one of the world largest global American courier companies. Extensive recycling programs implemented by FedEx. The programs help to divert million pounds of waste from landfills. Recycling program is implemented by FedEx services, FedEx Corporation and FedEx express. More than 5.3 million pounds of metal, plastic and other waste are recycled by FedEx. The Ground Green Program is initiated by FedEx which helped to recycle more than 44.8 million pound of plastic, metal and paper. Since the year 2007, it has been surveyed that more than 100 tons of waste materials are recycled by FedEx office in Texas (Morris, 2008). More than 43.9 million pounds of paper, metal, cardboard, plastic and other waste are recycled by FedEx in the year 2009. The growth of recycling increased year to year. In the year 2008, more than 17.6 million pounds of waste materials are recycled. In the year 2009, more than 2.12 million pounds of e-waste is being recycled by FedEx office and FedEx Express. additional recycling programs which is being initiated to recycled materials such as batteries, glass, tires, plastics, metals, inkjet, waste oil and electronic equipment (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2014). In the year 2009, it has been stated that more than 1 million pounds of plastic, paper, metal, light bulbs and cardboard are recycled by FedEx Freight. Discussion The implementation of recycling can help to deal with the environmental issues. During the process of incineration, land filling and collection of waste, billions of dollars are used by municipal. Recycling creates a significant positive impact on economic and environment. The benefit of recycling cannot be neglected as it helps to create job, supply raw materials, saves energy and save pivotal natural resources. The execution of recycling enabled companies that are being analyzed Wal-Mart, Tesco, FedEx, Home Depot and Toyota to maintain environment sustainability ethically. The vital exponents of recycling are to save energy, reduce air pollution, reduce the waste stream and harmful pollutants that are being disposed. In United States, more than 10 billion tons of waste is generated each year. Wastes that are disposed from industrial sources can create huge consequence on environment. The loss of valuable resources can be nullified by reducing the amount of waste that is disposed in to landfills (Green, 2005). One of the benefits of recycling is creating jobs. Companies such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, FedEx, Home Depot and Toyota implemented recycling programs which helped to create jobs. Recycling plays an imperative role in the reducing unemployment. US Recycling Economic Information Study reveals that more than 1.25 million people employed by the United States recycling Industry. 58,000 establishments created from recycling industries will help to generate 1.1 million jobs. By the year 2020, it has been stated that 10,000 jobs can be created in UK by the increase of focus on recycling industry. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, it has been stated that 10,000 tons of solid waste removal can help to create 6 job opening. The same amount of waste that are removed and recycled can create 36 jobs.Recycling of 7% of collected waste can help to create 51,400 jobs in UK. Recycling can also help to generate enormous tax revenue (Carroll, 1997). The estimated tax revenue generated in the year 2011 is 12.9 billion dollars. Recycling can help to reduce the use of energy and eventually saves energy. 96% energy can be saved from recycling of aluminum cans (Wilcox, 2007). Enormous amount of energy can be saved during aluminum cans recycling which can eventually help to produce aluminum with same amount of saved energy. Recycling can also help trees. Each ton of recycled newspaper can effectively help 17 trees. Fiscal efficiency is other benefit of recycling. Reduction of the waste disposal in to landfills can provide fiscal benefits to the society and country. Landfills are the method of waste management as it can create substantial dangers to the humans, animals and environment. The products that are being recycled are less costly than that of original products.The process of recycling can help to reduce the need of raw materials. This eventually can help to save forests. The conservation of forests can lead to fertile soil and healthy environment. The implication of recycling can effectively help to enrich the aesthetic value of earth. Recycling can help to save energy which eventually helps to reduce the greenhouse gas. Recycling reduce the emission of greenhouse gas from industries. Global warming has been created by the increase in emission of greenhouse gas. This can eventually create significant impact on the environment. The agricultural resources, water and forests can be vulnerable due to the increase in global warming. The recycling program implemented by companies such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, FedEx, Home Depot and Toyota created positive impact on the reduction of environment issue (Hansen, 2004). Recycling helps to reduce the emission of methane gas and carbon sequestration in the forests. The ethical implication of recycling can help to reduce the greenhouse gas. 48 million tons of carbon emission can be reduce by the implementation of recycling (Silverman, 2008). Fossils fuels and other natural resources are vital for the country in future perspective. Recycling can help to prevent the reduction of valuable and non-renewable resources. Eventually recycling creates ethical impact on the environment for the reduction of valuable natural resources and reduction of disposal costs (Goodship, 2007). Conclusion This research paper deals with the ethical implementation of recycling for the reduction of environmental issues caused by the large number of waste disposed in to landfills. The aforementioned benefits of the use of recycling can help effectively to preserve energy and vital non-renewable natural resources. The ethical implication of recycling initiated by major companies helped to create pollution free environment. Recycling is the key constituent for the reduction of waste disposed in to landfills. The pivotal benefits of recycling are the reduction of disposal cost, saving energy, creates job, benefits business and reduction of greenhouse gas emission. Recycled enablesreduction of pollution during the manufacturing of new products. The raw materials that are required to make new products are now much cleaner and require less energy. The vital natural habitats for the wildlife animals are the mining and extraction. The implementation of important natural resources can be reduced by recycling. The society can be ethically stable and environmentally sustainable by the implication of recycling. It is vital for every people to embark the use of recycling of the wastes that can help to solve the problems of global warming. References Carroll, A. (1997). “A Three Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance”. Academy of Management Review, 23(1), 8. Davis, J. (1992). “Ethics and Environmental Marketing”. Journal of Business Ethics, 61(5), 23. Ferrell, O., & Fraedrich, J. (2014). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Goodship, V. (2007). Introduction to Plastic Recycling. New York: Springer. Green, J. (2005). Recycling. London: Black rabbit Books. Hall, E. (2004). Recycling. New York: Kidhaven. Hansen, T. (2004). Recycling of Demolished Concrete and Masonry. London: CRC Press. Huthinson, C. (2012). Building to Last. London: Routledge. McKinney, M. (2012). Environmental Science: Systems and Solutions. London: Jones & Bartlett. Morgan, S. (2009). Waste, Recycling and Reuse. New York: Evans Brothers. Morris, N., 2008. Recycling. New York: QED Publishing. Silverman, B. (2008). Recycling: Reducing waste. New York: Heinemann Library. Stem, P. (1994). “The Value Basis of Environmental Concern”. Journal of Social Issues, 12(2), 16. Wilcox, C. (2007). Recycling. New York: Springer. Read More