How does the law of conservation od mass explain the need for recycling programs?

Answer 1

The law states that matter can not be created nor destroyed.

This impacts production and waste in two ways. Assuming that nobody recycled, we would eventually run out of resources to make goods with (because we cannot create matter) as well as the fact that what we throw away does not disappear (because we cannot destroy matter), it builds up everywhere, and, as one can imagine, that would be a big problem.

Recycling helps solve both problems because it reduces the amount of waste and, at the same time, increases the resources available to make things out of.

Answer 2

Answer: The law of conservation of mass or of matter, also known as the Lomonosov-Lavoisier law, states that the mass of substances in a closed system will remain constant, no matter what processes are acting inside the system. It is a different way of stating that though matter may change form, it can be neither created nor destroyed. The mass of the reactants must always equal the mass of the products.

This law works fine for anything that is not approaching the speed of light; at high speeds, mass begins transforming to energy (for which reason, we now have the Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy). However, this means that in most situations the law of conservation of mass can be assumed valid.

This law was first formulated by Antoine Lavoisier in 1789, but Mikhail Lomonosov in 1748 had also expressed similar ideas earlier. It was the key to making chemistry into a real science instead of an offshoot of alchemy; prior to this, buoyancy of gases made it difficult to determine before and after measurements of weight. After this, the ideas of chemical elements, process of fire and oxidation, and many other basic chemical principles could be understood.

In nuclear reactions and in very large astronomical objects, this law

Answer: It is considered a law, because as far as we know, this rule is always valid. No exceptions have been found.