New Focus on recycling and healthy living!

The Impact of Recycling on Health 

Each person in the United States produces more than 1,780 pounds of trash on average each year, which is more than the average individual from any other country.

The waste produced by humans not only takes up space, it also releases chemicals and greenhouse gasses.

Not only does that take up a space, it also releases harmful chemicals and greenhouse gasses as it sits in landfills. Decomposing garbage produces carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. These all contribute to the air pollution that causes various respiratory diseases.

Increases in the risk of low birth weight, birth defects have been reported near landfills. Certain types of cancers including those of the pancreas, larynx, liver, kidney, as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma are also more common near these sites. An increase of symptoms such as fatigue, sleepiness, and headaches among residents near waste sites has also consistently been reported.

Sites that are badly managed can also attract germ-spreading vermin. Rats can carry and spread diseases including hantavirus, a serious, respiratory disease; salmonella, a bacterial infection of the intestine; and rat-bite fever, a bacterial illness, among others. 

It’s not just the people living near landfills who are affected. Houseflies are attracted to waste, whether it’s in a garbage can or a landfill. Flies have long been linked to at least 65 diseases including typhoid, dysentery, cholera, poliomyelitis, and tuberculosis.

Recent research at  Penn State’s Department of Entomology found that H. pylori, a type of bacteria that can survive in your digestive system, can be transmitted by flies. H. pylori can cause peptic ulcers in humans.

Garbage that doesn’t end up in a landfill is usually burned. Several studies suggest the pollution from incinerators is linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and soft tissue tumors. Congenital problems including urinary tract defects, preterm births, and miscarriages are also related to incinerator-generated air pollution.

Clearly, garbage has a huge impact on our bodies as well as our planet. Reducing the amount of trash we create in turn reduces all of the health risks associated with garbage.

Recycling is one of the easiest and simplest ways to save energy and reduce air and water pollution. For example, recycled paper reduces energy use by 31% and reduces wastewater by 53% [Environmental Paper Network].Recycling reduces the health risks of disease and birth defects associated with landfills and incinerators. It also has a positive impact on our personal health and that of our planet in several other ways.

Recycled materials save energy because making new products from raw materials uses a lot more energy than using recycled ones, even when comparing all the associated costs such as transportation. 

It therefore also reduces the need for extracting, refining, and processing those raw materials, which themselves create a lot of air and water pollution. This energy efficiency reduces greenhouse gas emissions, minimizes climate change, and conserves natural resources — all of which protect the health of our planet and our personal health as well. 

In fact, recycled steel saves 60% on production energy. Recycled plastics save 70%. And it takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminium than it takes to make it from raw materials. Using scrap steel instead of virgin ore to make new steel uses 40% less water and creates 97% less mining waste. 

Making new products from raw materials uses a lot more energy than using recycled ones.

To put your efforts into perspective, in the US, recycling just plastics could save between 30 and 170 million tons of carbon each year, which is the equivalent of taking between six and 30 million vehicles off US roads.8 When you recycle just 10 plastic bottles, you save enough energy to power a laptop for over 25 hours because of the energy saved from not having to create new bottles.

Amy Myers, M.D.