Lauren Young

Professor Ryan Myers

English Comp. II

18 Jan 2019

What are possible consequences if people do not recycle?

Currently I am enrolled in a technology prep class called environmental engineering. This

class consists of two periods where we learn about the environment, its organisms, and all of its

effects. This class inspired me to write about this topic because recently we began a recycling

program in our school. Our high school had not been acting very efficient upon its recycling so

we took it into our hands; it only made sense for the environmental class to take this

responsibility. Every wednesday we started to collect recycling bins from every classroom that

wanted to participate and we took them out to the recycling trash can (not the actual trash can).

Environmental Engineering (my class) has taught me so much about recycling that I don’t even

know what to start talking about first!

For starters I didn’t even know that you couldn’t recycle all “basic items”. By this I mean

that if the company who picked up our recyclables only took paper, then we could not recycle

plastic or other materials that can be recycled/reused. Some companies only use certain

materials. If we wanted to recycle plastics, cans, and whatnot, we would have to find another

company that caters to these desires; in which there are several, but not in our case. I thought that

this topic fit my knowledge well and would provide an opportunity for me to expand my

knowledge even more about something that I am involved with. Especially since this topic

makes me most certainly happy because I know that recycling is good. I feel good that we as a
class started this program, because I know that it will cause change. For example, the first

wednesday we went to go pick up the recycling bins almost everyone was full to the brim! This

filled me with joy because I know that all of that paper was going straight to the trash (and

landfills) and now it is going to be reused!

Before I begin my research I feel confident in the fact that If people do not

participate in recycling, negative effects on the environment will increase; and that is just using

my common sense. I know that if trash/paper and cans and glass are thrown into landfills they

will only take up space. These items are able to breakdown, yes, but it is simple to send them

straight to recycling plants so that they are not harming the environment even more than they

should. I believe that the more people do not recycling they will be harming themselves because

the quicker they solve this problem the quicker things can start to be more beneficial towards the

environment. I already know that more people are seeing the benefits of recycling, but it feels

like even more are not. There are still pollution problems, and the environment is still being

destroyed by landfills and recycling is just one small step to fix these issues.

Through my research I am hoping to learn more about how all materials that go

into landfills can be recycled. If almost all materials would be able to be recycled landfills could

be reduced by so much; part of the pollution problem could decrease!