We hear all the time that using recycled materials is an excellent way to help the environment. The simplest and most common part of this picture that many of us think of first is reducing waste in landfills. Plastics take decades or centuries in some cases to biodegrade and can be harmful to the environment when they finally do. Our team at Becher Plastics is here to help you learn more about how you can help the environment by recycling plastics, so we’ve put together this short list of some other ways you might not have considered.

Protects ecosystems and wildlife

Plastic waste has almost become an endemic part of our environment. Oceans are littered with plastic bottles and soda can rings, landfills are overflowing with detergent bottles, and more plastics continue to pour into homes every day of the year. For some, they simply try to put the long-term effects of plastic waste out of their minds because it’s difficult to think about what it does to the ecosystem and wildlife when it’s dumped into a landfill. However, recycling goes a long way toward reducing the amount of plastic that’s deposited into the environment. This can help wildlife as animals aren’t tempted to eat the waste and they’re less likely to get trapped in soda rings or plastic bottles. What’s more, chemicals from plastics aren’t allowed to seep into the soil as they slowly biodegrade.

Saves energy

Plastic production takes a considerable amount of energy and outputs exhaust that’s harmful to the environment and contributes to greenhouse gases. While it’s not realistic to completely eliminate plastics from our daily lives, we can help to reduce the amount of energy that goes into making new materials. By reducing energy to produce new plastics, we can help to reduce greenhouse gases while becoming more reliant on clean energy sources.

Conserves natural resources

Plastic is a material that’s made of synthetic products. However, recycled plastics can often be used as an alternative to natural resources like wood or metal. This allows producers to limit the amount of new natural resources that they use to create their products. While there are times that natural resources need to be used, plastics can be integrated with them to reinforce the material while lessening the amount that’s used. For instance, it’s not uncommon for fence manufacturers to create a composite material that’s made of a combination of wood and plastic to build a more durable fence.

Promotes sustainability

Using sustainable products is a great way to ensure that companies aren’t overusing natural resources and creating new materials unnecessarily. Recycling encourages sustainable practices that go beyond plastic. As we previously mentioned, it helps to supplement the use of natural resources in new products, which limits deforestation and the energy output required to process resources.

Cheaper than traditional waste disposal

Waste management is an important part of keeping our communities clean and green. Dumping into a landfill requires significant amounts of manpower with the collection, landfill management, and additional dumping. The process of recycling plastics is much more energy-efficient for companies than dumping and the costs associated with it are much easier to manage as well. Many companies that recycle bring in revenue that plays a major role in subsidizing the costs of sorting, breaking down, and processing recycled plastic.

Get in touch for more

Recycling materials and using recycled materials are significant parts of things we can do collectively to help the environment. Learn more about how recycling helps the environment and things that you can do on your own to help by getting in touch with us at Becher Plastics. Reach out to our team by calling 920-809-4778 or send a message using our online contact form. We recycle plastics and would love to help you recycle yours.