Now I will tell you that recycling is also beneficial and that making recycling compulsory not only helps your local neighbourhood, your environment and the world but it also keeps you and others healthy. David shall also take to you about the positives of recycling and the huge variety of forms of recycling there are, which all help the environment in a big way.
Recycling should be made compulsory in this country at least, because Britain is so far behind in the recycling stakes. In Germany, there are four bins rather than one so it is easier for people to recycle on the move. In Disneyland, Orlando, there are recycling bins located around the park and in Switzerland and the Netherlands, the recycling rate of glass is 80%, which is much higher than here. The UK has a plastic recycling rate of a dismal 3%, which looks petty compared to Germany’s 70%. It’s not just recycling – it’s reusing too! In Denmark, 98% of bottles are refillable and 98% of those are returned by customers. The English have got to get their act together as we’re stinking out the whole of Europe!
When we don’t recycle, our rubbish is moved elsewhere. They are either burnt in incinerators, which produce vast amounts of carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas, increasing the speed of global warming and can spread other toxins into the air when dangerous chemicals are burnt.
Or more commonly, our rubbish is sent to landfills. As well as filling up our beautiful countryside, it destroys animal habitats and causes water and air pollution. Toxins from landfills seep into our water supplies, killing fish and possibly affecting us by contaminating the water that comes from our taps. The unsightly landfills also provide a dead end for eventually we will run out of space to place all our rubbish.
Recycling also decreases the effects of the whole system that leads up to everyday items such as plastic bags and paper. This is a system, which grinds up 2000 year old trees thoughtlessly for paper that will be useful for a few minutes; a system that creates radioactive waste that will be dangerous for 100,000 years in order to cool a room several degrees.
And this system values people as consumers almost exclusively.
Producing new plastics uses fossil fuels, which are running low, and the fumes made by factories gives workers liver cancer in later life. Why don’t you ask a retired chemical worker with liver cancer if a plastic cup is worth suffering excruciating pain for?
People who object to recycling are selfish. They have been brought up in a world of consumerism where the individual is the most important thing. Who cares? Who cares what happens when our descendants run out of fossil fuels? Who cares what happens when the landfills eventually fill up? Who cares what happens when the polar ice caps melt and parts of the world are completely submerged at the cost of uncountable lives? Who cares what happens when the climate changes and many animals are made extinct? Who cares what happens when our grandchildren and great-grand children have to deal with the consequences of its decadent, indulgent ancestors? I do – and I think that you should do too! Just because these issues may not affect the world in your lifetime or mine doesn’t mean we should ignore it.
It is time to stop thinking someone else will clear up our mess. We have a responsibility to look after this world – the only planet we can survive on. The first step is recycling. Although compulsory may seem harsh, our ancestors have had to suffer much more than sorting through their rubbish weekly and being aware of how much packaging the products they buy have. Through this speech, I have shown in numerous ways how recycling is very important so you now know that recycling should be made compulsory.
Thank you for listening.
