Have you ever seen a water bottle or an empty bag of Doritos on the ground, and you just kept walking?  Next time, pick it up, and see how big of a difference it can make.  Recycling is important and should be done because it reduces the need for landfills, reduces the amount of pollution, and protects the environment and animal habitats.  This issue is affecting the whole planet, and this is a big issue because if people don’t recycle, conditions could get worse, and people don’t recycle as often as they should.

Firstly, recycling reduces the need for landfills.  If we recycle, items don’t need to go to landfills because people will still be using them. (MidCityScrap)  This shows that recycling reduces need for landfills.  Next, 60 -75% of garbage in landfills can be recycled (MidCityScrap)  This shows that, if we just recycled more, landfills would be emptier.  Lastly, if we recycled more, more landfills wouldn’t have to be built around cities, which is affecting environment and wildlife. (ConserveEnergyFuture)  This shows that recycling more means that less landfills, and safer environments as an added bonus.
     

Secondly, recycling reduces the amount of pollution.  The more you recycle old products, the less you will need to buy any new products, which means you’ll be saving energy. (ConserveEnergyFuture)  Since energy is a major problem with pollution, saving energy means less pollution. Secondly, trees being converted into paper is the most water-intensive industrial process in the United States.  However, paper recycling mills almost always use less water, plus, they don’t pollute it as much. (Princeton)  This shows that if we recycled paper more often, we wouldn’t pollute as much.  Finally, incinerators let out many types of air pollutants, so recycling would reduce the need for incinerators. (Princeton)  This shows that incinerators wouldn’t be as common, so pollution wouldn’t be as common, either.
     

Lastly, recycling protects the environment and animal habitats. First off,  because we are constantly having to make new paper because paper isn’t being recycled, half of Earth’s trees are gone.  Around 90% of original forest in the United States has been chopped down. (Princeton)  Since many animals need trees to survive, trees are needed to protect the environment and ecosystem.  Second, using recycled materials lowers the need to use natural resources like timber or mineral ores.  (ConserveEnergyFuture)  Since many animals also need these to survive, these need to be kept to keep them living.  Finally, people cut down trees and destroy animal habitats in order to build landfills and pollutant-producing incinerators.  That means if we recycle, animal habitats and environments can be safe.
   

 Others may say that recycling is a waste of time.  However, recycling is not a waste of time because if one person recycles, and other people begin to recycle also, it will all add up.  Opponents may also say that recycling isn’t going to get us anyway.  However, recycling will get us somewhere because we will have less garbage, less pollution, and a better environment.

Reducing need for landfills, reducing the amount of pollution, and protecting the environment and animal habitats are all reasons why we recycling is important and why we need to do it.  Next time you see an empty water bottle on the ground, go throw it in the nearest garbage can, and you could have saved an animal, environment, or the whole planet.