Is recycling good or bad

Answer 1

the machines that recycle use more energy than they save.

I say that it is bad yeah ok its helping the nature but its not helping the world even the vans that take the waste for recycling add CO2 to the world.

Answer 2

Recycling is good, but it's only one step. There are three 'Rs', don't forget to reduce and reuse as well. Recycling is only one step in an effort to improve the environment around the world. In fact, the three 'Rs' are only a way to slow down the proliferation of manufacture, transport, a disposal of consumer goods. Those efforts only slow the growth, they don't reduce it, they don't reverse it.

The next time you go to a supermarket, look around at all the things in containers, bottles, boxes, bags, etc. Just those in that supermarket that day had to be manufactured and transported to the store. Consumers will buy each one, take it home and empty the contents; everything that is not eaten will enter into the water system or be sprayed into the air. Now, multiply that by all of the supermarkets in your city, your state or province, your country, your continent. Then add in all of the other stores filled with consumer products that fit the same profile.

Once you add up all of the things that consumers 'need', then add in the 'need' of producers to grow or die; to do that, they sell all the 'new' products (called systems) that require two, three, or four bottles or packages of product to do the work of the 'old' single package product; manufacturers that figure out that you can sell twice as many oatmeal cookies at twice the price if you put them in little packages of one or two and call them 'healthy' or 'nature's', etc. There is some great new packaging out there, your cookies can stay fresh through the next generation of two with new combo materials, layering paper, plastics, foils all in one thin sheet. But how to recycle that? Cleaning/grooming 'systems' and cookies and their packaging are only examples of the part that fill the manufacturers need and that consumers buy in droves. This doesn't even cover the need (?) of everyone for an individual, independent vehicle for transportation and the need (?) of replacing electronic devices because the new models have new features.

Recycling is good, the three 'Rs' are good, but are only band-aid measures until consumers rethink what they need and revise how they're willing to live and what they're willing to buy. Manufacturers also need to get on board, their 'green' claims range from hype to ingenuous; manufacturers have to find way to make a profit, to grow their market share without filling the markets with more and more things for consumers to buy and by. They need to do that soon because most 'third world' societies are quickly catching up to the consumer societies and all of the above will apply to the entire world population.