Recycling is good for the environment for a number of reasons, including reducing landfill waste and pollution to recycling and reusing items to conserve resources. By recycling and reusing, the amount of non-biodegradable materials being manufactured is reduced. While it may be good for the environment, it is not always good for businesses.
Believe it or not, many businesses are not in favour of recycling. Not to say that they want things to go to landfill, it’s just that they want consumers to keep buying their products. To combat the loss of business, companies that make recyclable items are offering an increasing number of takeback programmes. Other companies make their products cheaper or less durable so that consumers will have to purchase replacement items.
For the purposes of this article, many of the items listed below are scary in that recyclers can cause harm to themselves if not careful.
Chemical components
Surprisingly enough, there are a great number of chemical components in both traditional and non-traditional recyclable items. This is especially true of electronics, including mobile phones, computers, televisions, radios, DVD and CD players, and so on.
DVD Players can harbour some nasties
It has been proven that being exposed to these chemicals in quantity can be fatal. Mercury, cadmium, and lead are only a few of the more dangerous metals. Recently, there was an article about a group of prison workers who were routinely expose to dust from the salvaging process of these components and many have become gravely ill. Lead is a commonly known toxin that used to be found in a great number of items, including house paint and toys. Mercury, a silvery liquid chemical, is still used often despite the fact that overexposure can create a wide array of physical ailments, even death. Have you ever heard of The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland? The name came from the fact that mercury was often used in hat manufacturing factories, and it was quite common for workers to be afflicted with mental problems due to overexposure.
Theft
Theft is a very big, very scary issue in the recycling world. This can cover everything from actual property theft to identity theft. Some recyclable items are very desirable; therefore, some people will go out of their way to procure them, whether or not they are owned by other people. This is extremely common in the construction industry where people have access to excess materials, including high value items such as copper. In both the building and estate industries, the theft of wiring, copper, and fixtures is growing exponentially. Many estate agents are having a difficult time with empty houses being stripped and torn apart by thieves who want to get their hands on saleable goods. There are often stories in the news about people breaking into businesses, warehouses, and factories to steal anything that can be sold to a recycler.
Identity theft is also a huge issue that can be quite scary. A great number of computers could be recycled if it wasn’t for this issue. Even if a computer hard drive is erased, information can still be pulled off of it. When charities or recycling firms only want computers that are completely in tact, would-be donors are afraid that someone will hack into the existing hard drive and steal vital information. There are new and improved packages out there that guarantee complete file sanitising, but the best bet may be to only take your old computers to companies that will accept them without the hard drive. Then you can take it upon yourself to see that the old drive is destroyed.
Not recycling properly can lead to identity theft
Electrocution
Electrocution is a good possibility when recycling electrical appliances and wiring. Contrary to popular belief, even low currents of electricity can be fatal.
Foreign agents
One of the scariest things about sending recycling overseas is that many countries don’t have stringent recycling and waste disposal policies. Therefore, those items that were so carefully and diligently collected may very well end up being dumped into a landfill anyway. Before donating any recyclable items, be sure that the company knows what happens to the item after it leaves their hands. If at all possible, utilise the services of an actual recycler.
Where do your recycled goods end up?
Landfill
There are many items that end up in a landfill that don’t belong there. These include hazardous and medical waste, toxic chemicals, plastics, glass, paper, and more. If people were more responsible, the amount of refuse being carted to landfills would be drastically reduced. For people who don’t seem to care about what goes into the landfill, there are two things to consider: One is that we will eventually run out of space. Considering that many items will not biodegrade for hundreds of years, if at all, it’s not as if the sites will be reusable any time soon. Also, toxic waste can still leach into the ground and taint the groundwater that is used by everything from livestock to people to crops.
Sewer
As appalling as it may be, there are still many businesses and households that dump contaminates down the drain and into the sewer systems. Be award of exactly what you’re flushing down your pipes.
Some people still throw nasty things down the Sewer
Littering
Littering may seem more like a nuisance than a threat until one thinks of what happens to the waste once it has been cast aside. The waste can cause disease, infestation, and even death to animals.
Hazardous waste
Hazardous waste can be anything from medical waste (needles, diseased body parts, blood, and pathogens) to chemicals made for home and industrial use. Two items in the latter category that are surprising to many are window cleaner and antifreeze. Both are highly toxic and can be fatal.
Pestilence
Everyone has seen a movie in which rodents, maggots, insects, and wildlife flock to improperly disposed waste. This isn’t something that happens in the typical home, but litter and unattended waste can attract quite a lot of undesirable attention and with that attention often comes disease.
Rats of the sky - they carry all manner of horrible things
Child safety
Children are curious little creatures. If there is something to see or somewhere to explore, a kid will find it. This is one reason why it is imperative to properly dispose of items that can be harmful to children, particularly large appliances or heavy objects that may fall over on top of them.
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