Are There Any Disadvantages of Recycling?

There is plenty of information online and elsewhere that espouses the benefits of recycling. It saves on energy, it encourages us to reuse things, it cuts down on waste sent to landfills… and on it goes.

But what about disadvantages? It would be foolish to assume there are none, but this is not an area many people think about. We thought we’d cover some of the disadvantages to even up the balance.

It takes time

Separating recyclables from non-recyclables takes time. It’s also easy to throw something away you think isn’t recyclable when it is, and vice versa. The more you know about recycling in this way, the easier it gets, but it is a point worth noting.

It takes up more room

If we threw away everything, as we used to in years gone by, we’d only ever need one bin. Nowadays, most people have at least three bins to sort their waste into, sometimes more. Glass, plastic, paper, regular rubbish… all these things must be cleaned, sorted, and put into the correct receptacle.

It costs more to start with

To recycle plastic, the right processes must be in place to make it happen. That means investing in vehicles to collect and transport the waste. It also means making sure the right machinery is provided to make it possible to recycle the waste. However, once these are in place, the long-term cost would be very different.

Recycled products are not always safe or of good quality

This varies enormously from one product to the next. However, it is worth noting some recycled products are of a poorer quality than ones that are made from new. The original products must be cleaned, melted, pulped, or otherwise dealt with to make it possible to recycle them. That isn’t always a good thing.

Putting best practices in place

While there are many benefits to recycling as much as we can, it makes sense that we would need to adopt best practices from start to finish to create the ideal scenario. Everyone wants to do their bit for the environment, so it is vital that we find the best ways to recycle products without causing further harm to the world around us. Learning more about the products we use, how we use them, and how we dispose of what’s left, is very important. It makes sense to do what we can to preserve the world we live in.