The environmental benefits of recycling

We get it—recycling can be confusing. From knowing what items go in your blue bin to how your trash is processed, you might question whether recycling is worth the effort. Here’s the good news: Recycling is worth it! Choosing to recycle your trash over sending it to landfills or incinerators/waste-to-energy is good for the planet—especially when you recycle with an audited, accredited, and accountable leader like TerraCycle. Read on to learn more about the environmental benefits of recycling and why it’s a crucial part of the circular economy.

Recycling reduces the need to extract virgin materials from the planet

The vast majority of goods produced by society are made by extracting virgin materials from our planet. This depletes valuable natural resources and disrupts ecosystems, all while using high amounts of energy and creating pollution in the process. But it doesn’t end there. Once these virgin materials are extracted, they still need to be processed, which uses more energy and creates more pollution. 

When recycled material is used to make a new product, natural resources and energy are conserved. For example, making recycled aluminum only takes about 5% of the energy needed to make new aluminum. 

Recycling reuses valuable materials

By recycling material that’s already in circulation into new items, we reuse the original material instead of casting it aside. Throwing trash “away” means we’re sending it to landfills and incinerators, and all of the natural resources, energy, and material used to create it are wasted. Recycling gives materials new life and conserves natural resources at the same time. 

Recycling prevents trash from being littered, landfilled, or incinerated

Globally, most trash is disposed of through landfills and incinerators, which are harmful to the planet. Landfills are not designed to break down and decompose materials. When trash is sent to landfills, it is tightly compacted and buried, creating an oxygen-poor environment. As organic materials break down with this lack of oxygen, they release methane, a primary contributor to global warming that is over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Additionally, as landfills break down, they produce “leachate,” which is a liquid that is then pumped out of landfills and treated as hazardous waste. However, many landfills leak leachate, which seeps into the ground and can flow into our waterways. 

Incineration and waste-to-energy (WtE) both involve burning waste. WtE, also referred to as energy recovery, is burning waste to create energy (like heat or electricity). Although there is some energy output from WtE incineration, it’s not recycling, and it has a negative impact on our planet as it releases pollutants into the air, and the remaining ash is sent to landfills. It also destroys valuable resources that could be repurposed through recycling and composting. Because these valuable resources are destroyed, they can not be recycled, reused, or repurposed, making WtE incompatible with a circular economy where resources are used many times. 

TerraCycle guarantees to recycle all compliant waste sent to us. We will only use waste-to-energy for the small percentage of non-compliant waste we receive, fallout from the recycling process, and hazardous waste that must be incinerated by law. At this time, only 1.7% of the waste we receive is sent WtE.

Discover TerraCycle’s better-for-the-planet recycling solutions

As we continue to support the transition to a circular economy (in which materials are kept in circulation through recycling and reuse), TerraCycle will be here to help you give your hard-to-recycle trash a new purpose. 

While recycling does have a footprint, as it involves transporting and processing waste, it is much better for the planet than landfills and waste-to-energy/incineration. Our rigid plastic LCA found that TerraCycle models are 69% better for the planet than landfills and 56% better than waste-to-energy when looking at key impact categories like global warming, freshwater toxicity, and ozone toxicity.

Want to keep your hard-to-recycle trash out of landfills and incinerators? Discover our recycling solutions:

  • Free recycling programs – FREE recycling for many different brands of hard-to-recycle products and packaging.  
  • Zero Waste Box™ – The simple, all-in-one solution to #RecycleEverything.
  • Zero Waste Pouch –  Recycle hard-to-recycle trash in smaller quantities with the same convenience of a Zero Waste Box!