Eight Great Myths Of Recycling

This book richly explores the issues surrounding recycling. It presents diversity of opinion on each topic, including both conservative and liberal points of view in an even balance. Does recycling save or waste resources? Is it necessary or unnecessary? What should we do with nuclear waste? Does electronics recycling pollute third world countries? Your readers will learn the answers to these and other essential questions. Essay sources include the Union of Concerned Scientists, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The Environmental Protection Agency states that in the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all of previous history. Recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing account for 3.1 million jobs in America, according to American Solar Energy Society, yet our garbage accounts for 42 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. This pertinent resource examines issues surrounding garbage and recycling in America. Chapters explore topics such as dealing with hazardous waste, the global challenge of waste management, and strategies for future waste management.

The study of narratives in a variety of disciplines has grown in recent years as a method of better explaining underlying concepts in their respective fields. Through the use of Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), political scientists can analyze the role narrative plays in political discourse.

The collection of essays that editor Viqi Wagner has compiled for your readers will get them thinking critically about our world and the things we need to be doing in relation to recycling. The Economist essay defines the benefits of recycling, insisting the benefits outweigh the costs. Another essay reports the exact opposite. By reading divergent viewpoints, readers will be able to form intelligent opinions about recycling.

Provides a proactive approach to recycling and reusing materials.

This book states the harsh truth: that despite best intentions, our current environmental practices are doing more harm than good, and that the solution lies in creating supply chains of the future that design, produce, consume, and reuse materials in a manner that is balanced economically and environmentally. One billion beverage containers are used on a daily basis in the United States, with at least 600 million of them ending up in landfills. Even the 400 million that are recycled—at a great cost—are not accomplishing the task of helping the environment. This economic and environmental catastrophe cannot be solved by recycling programs. From his experience as a leader in the American consumer beverage industry and a researcher in Sweden, author Jack Buffington has developed a transformational solution that seeks to not just mitigate the environmental damage but jumpstart the economy while actually achieving zero waste. The Recycling Myth tells the story of how our current environmental practices are unintentionally doing more harm than good and how we need to create a radically different supply chain of the future that must, as best as possible, copy the natural system of growth, decay, and regrowth, and discontinue a disastrous pattern of material design and use. Backed by irrefutable evidence, the book destroys our comfortable notions of the recycling status quo; explains why recycling will never work in the United States, despite decades of attempts; and introduces a new system that will actually work—without asking consumers to consume less.

This practical and enlightening book teaches readers about both the importance of recycling and how to properly do it. It covers recycling basics, such as what types of products can and can't be recycled. More importantly though, it addresses how one can recycle and reuse products at both home and school. This includes creative ways to reuse items such as giving prom dresses a second life, and encouraging one's school to reuse and recycle, particularly with the proliferation of laptops and smartphones. Also included is an engaging "Myths and Facts" section and a "10 Great Questions to Ask a Science Teacher" section.