Recycling Is It Working
Recycling: Is it Working?
The affluent, fast paced, throwaway American culture is producing trash on a
stupendous scale. (Young,Mitchell page 14). We are living in a plastic universe,
and very unaware. The problem with plastic, is how frequently it is being used, and
having no true way of disposing it. The fibers of plastic are in just about everything
on Earth, not only is it sitting inside the Earth, it is in everything surrounding us.
There is plastic materials in food containers, make up, fuel, and so much more.
Using science, and technology, we need to find new ways of disposing unwanted
shreds of plastic, and other recyclables. Recycling might not get rid of all the issues
growing with global warming, but being aware of what is being ... Show more content
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The recycling system most of America uses, is flawed, like the majority of any
type of system, used in America. The main type of recycling companies, use
machines that sort through the different types of plastic, then proceeds to be
melted or crushed into one hunk of plastic. (Terry,Beth page 73) On the contrary,
the plastic we recycle, does not stay in the U.S.A, we send it to China, to then be
used to resell back to us ( Made in China: Our Toxic, Imported Air Pollution ). Not
only do we do the main processing, the machines often get clogged with the thin
plastic bags, so most of them do not even get to the melting stage. Plastic bags
really are just a nuisance, with no positive attributes. Washington D.C. even put a
tax on plastic bags, in hopes to reduce the amount being distributed. It worked, but
too well. ( No Paper, No Plastic. The Tax That Works Too Well. ) According to a
survey made by councilman Tommy Wells, the use of plastic bags by shoppers has
dropped 50% ( No Paper, No Plastic. The Tax That Works Too Well ). In even better
news, for the supporters of a clean Earth, the funds that were made by the tax, are
now being used toward clean up efforts for the Anacostia River, which is a polluted
urban waterway clogged with plastic bags. Since the clean up began, the amount of
plastic found in the river have significantly decreased. Legislature members are
arguing though, that with the decreased amount of plastic bags being used, so will
the contamination in the river, thus making the clean up crew pointless. The tax
created to help reduce the amount of plastic bags, is slowly making its way around,
California tried the bill, but was not passed. Getting involved in your community, can
help the government pass bills, like the plastic bag