Recycling College Essay

Recycling has been around for centuries. Recycling was not just in forms of items we know of and use today. People centuries back would use dust and ash from fires for basic materials for their brick making ("The History of Recycling”). During the pre-industrial era scrap metals were reused in Europe ("The History of Recycling”). Paper recycling was first started in 1921 in Britain when the British Waste Paper Association began doing it ("The History of Recycling”). Recycling is an environmental friendly process that anyone of any age can participate in to benefit the future of our planet for generations. A major advantage of recycling is it conserves our planet’s natural resources. Examples of natural resources are oil, water, coal,

The first step of recycling is the collection process. That starts by people collecting and placing their recyclables curbside to be picked up by a recycling company ("Recycling Basics”). There are many ways to collect recyclables that involves drop off centers and deposit and refund stations ("Recycling Basics”). Once recyclables are collected they are sent to a facility to be cleaned and sorted ("Recycling Basics”). They can also be sold to the highest bidder to be bought and sold. Recyclables are then manufactured into new products ("Recycling Basics”). Products such as newspapers, plastic, detergent bottles are turned into new items used to pave roads or plastic carpeting ("Recycling Basics”). The process of recycling does not stop there. Consumers then buy new products made from recycled products. Consumers are asked to look for products such as carpeting, egg cartons, trash bags, and newspapers ("Recycling Basics”). The whole process starts from just recycling to manufacturing all the way to repurchasing these products. That way people are not using up natural resources. Instead people are using a material many times over and over. They are reusing it and recycling

In California they have the California Refund Value also known as CRV. This was brought on by the Bottle Bill to encourage people to recycle for a cash refund ("California Pays You to Recycle"). The CRV was started in 1987 due to the California Beverage Container Recycle and Litter Reduction Act ("Beverage Container Recycling”). This beverage act is administered by Cal Recycle ("Beverage Container Recycling”). In 2013 Californians purchased more than 21 billion CRV-eligible drinks and 18.2 billion were recycled ("Beverage Container Recycling”). This saves on the planet’s natural resources and conserves energy. In California with the CRV more than 300 billion aluminum, glass, and plastic items have been recycled ("Beverage Container