Environmental Committee

January 2007
RECYCLING REDUCES GLOBAL WARMING!

You knew recycling was a good idea, but it is actually a GREAT idea.  In a recent article, Scott Smithline, Policy Analyst, writes in the California Progress Report that, “Garbage is a major contributor to Global Warming. Solid waste landfills are the single largest man-made source of methane gas in the United States. Methane (CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas that is 23 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than the most-prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2). Every time you “throw away,” you are contributing to global warming.”

It turns out that ton for ton, recycling reduces more pollution, saves more energy and reduces GHG emissions more than any other activity besides source reduction. Californians currently throw away millions of tons of recyclable materials every year. According to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, over 60 percent of the “garbage” in California landfills can be composted or recycled. Increasing recycling should be California’s priority strategy for reducing global warming effects associated with solid waste management.

Recycling reduces GHG emissions in two important ways. First, recycling keeps materials out of the landfill. Landfills are designed to be anaerobic, meaning that once waste has been dumped, very little air remains below the surface. Landfill gas is generated as a byproduct of the digestion of organic materials by organisms that thrive in these anaerobic conditions. Food waste, paper, grass, and other organic matter is readily digested and turned into landfill gas- which is 50 percent methane. While most modern landfills are required to capture some of their methane emissions, significant quantities continue to escape into the atmosphere.

Recycling also reduces GHG emissions by reducing the need to continually mine and refine virgin resources for product production. Everyday consumer products such as an aluminum soda can are made from resources mined from the earth, transported great distances, and eventually processed with industrial machinery requiring massive energy inputs. This all results in significant GHG emissions. Recycling one ton of aluminum cans results in four tons of GHG reductions.

The VWC recycling centers recycled about 30 tons of aluminum in 2006.  So we prevented 120 tons of greenhouse gas emissions!  Spread the word.

©2007 Valley Women's Club