Recycling is a great idea indeed!

Ever since sense came into our minds and wisdom resided, the slogan of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle has been echoing in the vicinity of our eardrums recurringly. These three canons of living a non wasteful lifestyle by reducing the carbon footprint of individuals thus preventing an unsustainable future for our civilizations works well as a rhetoric, but do we actually know what does recycling mean and how great an idea it is for our future together?

According to wikipedia, recycling is the process of converting waste materials into reusable objects to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials and energy thereby utilised for this new production. Recycling has umpteen number of added advantages to it such as it reduces the need for having conventional waste management techniques and thus reducing the waste footprint that causes air and water pollution through toxin generation. Recycling thus effectively reduces the net greenhouse gas emissions, and thus prevents the environment from the ills of climate change and overheating of its protective layer.

Recycling has been internationally recognized as the defining principle for a sustainable lifestyle wherein we often see the three concluding arrow pyramid that forms the recycling hierarchy. This is probably the reason why recycling has been standardized globally with ISO 15270:2008 for plastic recycling, and ISO 14001:2004 for environmental management and control of recycling practice.

Although a lot of materials and commodities can be recycled, but profitable extraction and reusing of only a widely used non degradable material is feasible such as cardboard, glass, paper, electronics, tires, plastics and metals. Moreover composting of biodegradable waste from farm or garden for extracting manure or energy is also categorized under recycling which is widely practices in rural India.

More recently, e-waste and its dumping at the shores of developing world is considered a major problem, and the only solution to such an issue is recycling of this e-waste. Basel convention was ratified by different countries including India for reducing this silicon hazard to get dumped in poorer countries from the developed world where its use has already exploded. Keeping in line, the Govt. of India also introduced e-waste management rules which serves as guiding principles for recyclers across the country which reduce its price, silicon footprint and reduces the possibility of release of such hazardous substance in the natural ecosystem of India.

Moreover, India is the world’s 3rd largest consumer of plastic, which is non-biodegradable waste, which is, when once thrown in the environment, would remain their for centuries before changing its chemical structure. Thus recycling plastics is a quintessential need as it causes many biohazards if left untreated. Thus both physical and chemical recycling of plastics must be pursued in order to reduce the demand of plastic in the market in concurrent with proving lesser incentive to produce more plastic in future.

Studies in state of Ohio in USA have shown that recycling of waste made 6.7 billion $ positive impact in this small state alone and also in addition creating 14,000 jobs to the employment status of the state. Imagine what impact adapting recycling in letter and practice will have on a large country like India wherein we need 100 million jobs in the next decade and have a high economic growth concurrently to sustain the livelihood of our 1.3 billion population. Hence if effective and positive Governmental support is provided in the form of skills, capacity, capital and requisite technical assistance then globally we can become a model country that can boastfully project its recycling credentials thereby creating a sustainable and prosperous future pursued through India’s quest for green growth.