Why recycle at school

Recycling saves money, energy and resources, reduces both our impact on our natural environment and the amount of waste which goes to landfill. Recycling creates jobs within sorting and processing of recyclables and can be used as a tool to teach kids within the national curriculum.

Recycling Saves Money.

It is free to have recycling collected from schools in Devon, making it a great way to reduce the refuse collection costs of your school. Some recyclables not collected by your local authority may be used to gain recycling credits which can earn extra cash for your school.

Research by Eco-schools found UK schools spend £39 million a year on collecting litter, £56 million on emptying bins and £150 million on stationery. Which means a lot of potential for recycling, even when the figures are less substantial. 

Recycling Saves Energy and Resources.

Using recycled materials in the manufacturing process uses considerably less energy than that required for producing new products from raw materials – even when comparing all associated costs including transport etc.

• 1 recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours,
• 1 recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes.
• 1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours.
• 70% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.

Plus there are extra energy savings because more energy is required to extract, refine, transport and process raw materials ready for industry compared with providing industry-ready materials.

When we recycle, used materials are converted into new products, reducing the need to consume natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting fresh, raw material from the Earth, through mining and forestry.

In a world with an expanding population the worlds limited (finite) resources have to be spread thinner and thinner. To then bury these resources in the ground or to burn them to make electricity and deny futures generations these resources is both short sighted and selfish.

Recycling helps conserve important raw materials and protects natural habitats for the future. 

Recycling reduces our impact on our natural environment. 

Recycling reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials all of which create substantial air and water pollution.

As recycling saves energy it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change. Current UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of C02 a year – the equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road.

Even materials that are renewable can have severe effect upon our environment. For example cotton covers 2.5% of the world's cultivated land yet uses 16% of the world's insecticides, more than any other single major crop.

Recycling reduces the amount of waste which goes to landfill and incineration.

Devon currently has planning consent for enough landfill to last less than 10 years. Filling the landfill space at a slower rate costs less in planning, building and taxes and means we have more time to work on alternative technologies such as incineration.

There are over 1,500 landfill sites in the UK, and in 2001, these sites produced a quarter of the UK’s emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas 21 times as powerful as carbon dioxide.