My planet: ‘How do I love thee?’

The reason for recycling

Recycling myths

Critics of recycling all too often cite economics of recycling in a bad light, but they fail to take into account the hidden costs of, for example, cleaning up the pollution caused by landfill and transporting of raw materials.

Myth #1: “There’s no point in recycling because all the stuff just gets dumped and wasted away.”

Recycling is worthwhile and is getting better all the time as more and more people put out clean, sorted material for recycling and the technology to sort continue to improve.

A visit to an MRF (Materials Resource Facility) fascinates me. In FirstWorld countries, waste materials for recycling travel along conveyor belts, tumbled through huge revolving drums, passed under powerful magnets, or laser beams that can identify the types of materials like plastics and dumped into appropriate chutes for processing.

The recycling idea in our country – which had existed in the form of the “bote-garapa” buyers – had taken root and continue to spread.

Myth #2: “It costs more to recycle than to produce things from new materials.”

This is not true. Many recycled products not only save energy and water but also reduce raw material usage and the associated energy and pollution caused in the process of obtaining the raw materials.

For example, it is far better to be constantly recycling aluminum than wastefully mining out the finite stocks of bauxite and causing unnecessary pollution and wasting energy in the process. Man’s heavy use of paper is a big burden on the environment.

Seventeen trees have to be cut down for every ton of virgin paper produced. Manufacturing one ton of recycled paper results in 74 percent less air pollution and 43 percent less water pollution compared to the manufacture of paper using virgin wood pulps.

A healthy trade in used paper is helping mitigate the paper problem. Some paper companies take back used paper, shred it into pulp, and use it wholly or in combination with virgin pulp to make new paper.

Myth #3: “It costs more to recycle than it does to throw trash away.”

Trash collection costs our government P8 billion annually in Metro Manila alone (real cost has been disguised due to subsidized landfill costs).

In 2002, the Philippine Business for the Environment (PBE) organized the Recyclables Collection Events (RCE) which was held as a fitting celebration of Earth Day. The organization calls for the prevention of dumping of recyclable wastes in landfills.

Since then, an increasing number of large companies have partnered with PBE in their RCEs. The RCEs clearly set the stage for a cascade of economic and environmental, besides simply providing a platform for the collection of recyclable wastes. It is interesting to note that some RCE partners like SM Supermalls and Ayala Malls, have even taken their involvement further by conducting year-round recyclable collection at their respective malls.

For years, the RCEs have caused not only the collection of recyclable materials that would have filled up huge landfill space, more importantly, they have also contributed in gradually bringing the country a step closer to becoming a recycling society.

Myth #4: “Recycled products are of poor quality.”

Products made from recycled materials are every bit as good as (if not better than) products made from raw materials.

For example, throughout the world, military and commercial aircraft use retread tires, considering this is an area where safety is paramount. Aluminum and glass, and some plastics can be recycled indefinitely without losing its quality. Paper can be recycled a number of times and reprocessed into other products.

One of the Philippines’ best export products are bags (with at least 30 different styles), tents, beach umbrellas, mats, raincoats made from discarded doy packs and paper. They have found a receptive export market among Europeans, Americans, and Japanese who even compete over available supply.