Recycling

Doing your part by recycling what can be recycled is an important part of being a responsible human. When trash is burned, a chemical is released that makes the air bad to take in. If it goes into the ground, there is bad substances in the dirt. Most cities just bury the trash. If you recycle what can be recycled, less trash will be piled up at the dump.

Composting is a way to make very nutritious soil. When you eat a banana you can take a paper bag and collect your leftover natural food materials. When your bag is full, take it outside and dump it in some dirt in your yard. Over time, the materials should become dirt. This dirt is good for planting plants in. This process is called composting.

The U.S. used to ship all of their recyclables into China. This means that the U.S. put crates full of recyclables on ships, to send them to China. Most of the worlds materials are made in China, so they use the recyclables to make their products. Now, it costs a lot to ship the recyclables.

Now, machines separate the recyclables into groups (plastic bottles, cardboard, paper, glass, etc.). Well, things that aren't recyclables totally shut down the machines. It costs a lot of money to just fix the machine again. Non-recyclable materials can sneak their way in there. Some people forget to take the non-recyclable tape off the boxes, and the tape shuts down the machines. If you take off tape and take out styrofoam from cardboard boxes, you can help prevent this.