In what ways does recycling directly impact the sustainability of the environment - Essay Example

Recycling is an alternative to land filling, which in any case in getting scare. In addition, the impact of global warming is much less in recycling than in landfill. Recycling is a major industry and for the sustainability of the environment, the infrastructure has to be in order. Recycling is assumed to be environmentally beneficial but even the process of collecting, sorting and processing material gives rise to environmental impacts and energy use (Postnote 2002). The impact of recycling different products is charted in the table below: Even though recycling results in energy conservation and conservation of natural resources, it does impact the environment through the greenhouse emissions, pollution or the use of finite resources.

Recycling positively impacts the environment in several ways. It reduces waste going into landfills, it saves energy in producing fresh products and it reduces the amount of pollution from litter, incineration and misuse. Using three tons of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, and three cubic yards of landfill (Globalimpact 2005). E-waste has become very common in most countries and particularly in China where economic development has been very rapid. It is an important waste stream in terms of both quantity and toxicity (Liu, Tanaka and Matsui 2005).

Both businesses and homes discard e-waste that come from equipments like computers, televisions, refrigerators and the like. The recycling process in China is absolutely informal and this has an adverse impact on the environment. Recycling of the e-waste takes place in the villages in China and is handled by the uneducated people. These uneducated people use technology like burning or acid dipping and the waste is then dumped in the local river that has become polluted. E-waste includes several metals and chemicals and lead is commonly used in the equipments.

Lead can cause chronic damage to the nervous and reproductive systems. According to