Why Should We Recycle Plastic, Paper, Glass, and Metal?

And that’s not because of the surface reasons that governments or recycling companies would give you when it comes to why we should recycle. (Recycling is good for the environment! It reduces landfill waste! It conserves energy and resources!)

Though you may have doubts, it really is important that we keep recycling — even the skeptics out there. Here are a few real reasons why you should recycle.

But think of all the plastic produced each year — it’s roughly 300 million tons worldwide. 9 percent of that is a lot.

Not to mention, certain types of plastics have much higher recycling rates. For instance, in 2018, the recycling rate of PET bottles and jars (plastic No. 1) was 29.1 percent, and the recycling rate for HDPE bottles (plastic No. 2) was 29.3 percent.

In 2018, about 46 million tons of paper and paperboard were recycled, giving the material a recycling rate of 68.2 percent, as per the EPA. Other types of paper had even higher recycling rates, such as corrugated boxes, which had a recycling rate of 96.5 percent that year!

In 2018, glass containers had a recycling rate of 31.3 percent, and the total recycling rate for aluminum containers, packaging, and foil was 34.9 percent.

The only way for recycling rates to go up (or even for them to stay constant) is for people to actually put recyclable items in the correct recycling bins. If people rely on these figures as a defense for not recycling, recycling rates will only become even lower.

In certain areas, it’s actually illegal to throw items that are recyclable in the trash, as it wastes landfill space. For instance, in New York City, businesses can be fined for trashing recyclable items from excess textiles to construction waste.

Yes, the recycling system is imperfect. So is the law. But if you have the extra 30 seconds to wash your takeout container, let it dry, and place it in your recycling bin rather than your trash can, why wouldn’t you?

Look, we’re not saying recycling is the No. 1 thing you can do for the environment, but it should at least be the baseline. If you wouldn’t litter, you shouldn’t put recyclable items in the trash, especially in instances when it would only take about 30 extra seconds to get it to a recycling bin.

As silly as it sounds, making the effort to recycle can normalize recycling to the people around you, prompt others to ask you questions about recycling rules (we know, they can be confusing), and ultimately influence them to recycle more and trash less.

On more than one occasion, friends and acquaintances have rolled their eyes at me for going slightly out of my way to recycle something, telling me that this tiny action can’t make a difference.

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, a vegan and environmental activist known as the Joyful Vegan, has a simple response to defeatist attitudes like this: “Everything we do has an impact on something or someone else. It’s not that we CAN make a difference in this world. It’s that we DO make a difference. The question is: do we want that difference to be negative or positive?”

The average U.S. resident produces 4.9 pounds of municipal solid waste per day, according to the EPA. That’s more than 1,780 pounds per year — certainly enough to make a difference when it comes to clogging our nation’s landfills. Attempting to recycle your recyclable trash can certainly make a positive difference, especially when you add everything up.