Olive Bukuru

Professor Steve Johnson

UNST: Healthy People/ Healthy Places
November 22, 2015
Recycling in the environment
Im sure that by now, everyone knows the impacts our communities
have if we choose to recycle. The amount of waste we have created and put
into our environment keeps increasing. Eliminating some of these emission
and waste out of our environment is good because it keeps our environment
clean. Recycling is the better way to go because it reduces wastes and
pollution, it reduces the amount of materials that is being used therefore
reducing energy and finally, recycling preserves our environment. Although
recycling reduces the amount of waste in our environment, getting the
communities in participation would be costly, therefore, more educational
programs, specifically for children, should be established and reinforced in
schools and the communities because it is better to teach and shape the
minds of young people as they grow rather than teaching adults.
Recycling impacts the environment in many ways which are mostly
positive. We live in an environment filled with waste and pollution. This is
essentially causing a problem to our health, animal health and essentially
the environment. Environmental pollution such as air leads to respiratory

diseases such as bronchitis, it effects asthma attacks and it reduces lung

function (Gray). Reducing the amount of pollution put in landfills will
decrease the risk of getting illnesses and infections. One way to reduce the
amount of waste is to recycle plastic bottles, papers or anything that can be re-used.
The usage of natural resources has dramatically increased over the years. This has
caused a lot of green gases into the atmosphere. According to Gray, processing any
raw materials such as soil, iron and wood consumes a considerable amount of energy
resources. For example, recycling paper and plastic for the same purpose will reduce
the amount of energy put to make them from scrap with in return, will then benefit the
environment because less chemical will be emitted into air, water and soil. Finally,
recycling preserves the environment.
Creating a recycling network between schools, involving students and families
and the community is part of a community solution. Portland public schools such as
Glencoe, have created recycling programs that focuses in school as well as the
community. While in school, the Glencoe recycling team, gathers recyclable paper from
classrooms and the office every Friday morning. It then estimates the weight,
calculates the number of trees that they saved in that week. Students are encouraged
to recycle anything whether plastic bottles, paper bags or metal containers. The school
have also provided recycling bins specifically for water bottles and recyclable cans.
Glencoe reaches the community through parents. Each year, parents collect different
used items such as shoes and plastic gifts cards.

Bibliography
Anoop J Chauhan, Sebastian L Johnston. "British Medical Bulletin." Air pollution and
infection in respiratory illness (2015): 2.
http://bmb.oxfordjournals.org/content/68/1/95.full.
Gray, Irina. Tropical-Rain-Forest-Animal.com. October 2012. http://www.tropicalrainforest-animals.com/pollution-effects.html. 5 November 2015.
Portland Public Schools. n.d. http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools/glencoe/357.htm. 19
November 2015.