Is recycling as innocent and green as we think? Or is it just a cover over the huge garbage mountains that we have done to comfort the environmentalist within us, which is no longer our problem after throwing our garbage into a recycle bin?

As a child, we were all taught that garbage should be thrown into the trash. At the time, the pollution was for us the streets. The climate crisis we faced was no more than a global warming an, whose details were not known.

As time passed, the recycling sector became more and more needed. The Garbage Mountains accumulated over the years were becoming a serious problem. However, no one needed to act. If your own house is clean, the dirt out is somebody else’s problem.

Now, a major climate crisis has already begun to destroy the Earth, our real home, and we will be moving towards rapid destruction if not prevented. It is no longer sufficient to dispose of your garbage ere or recycle your waste.

Why is recycling not enough? Recycling of raw materials into production and energy saving compared to the initial construction are the good points of recycling that are presented to us in gold letters. So, have you ever thought of looking at the dark side of the recycling industry, which will delay us by pulling a curtain in front of destruction in the long run, instead of leading us to salvation? Here are a few items:

1.     - Reduction in usage limit and quality

Recycling is the classification of wastes and then recycling them into raw materials. However, the quality of our raw material decreases during this conversion and is only suitable for use in Class 2 products. This means that there is still a need for first-generation products on the market and waste production never ends. However, any type of solid waste has a recyclable limit. That is, recycling dose not las forever, it only delays the process and our waste eventually takes its place in the Garbage Mountains.

2.      -Not suitable for every waste recycling

To be recycled, a waste must be suitable for separation into its original components and must also have a certain minimum weight. For example, paper coffee cups are made of a combination of paper and plastic and therefore do not apply to every recycling facility. The pipettes are very small and light, so they cannot take their place in the conversion process. In addition, the waste o be recycled must be clean, no separate energy is spent to clean the waste that you dispose of in a dirty way, it is discarded.

3.      -Inadequate facilities in our country, Turkey

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Turkey unfortunately, not a developed country regarding the waste management and conversion. Already the number of facilities is not enough, sufficient and strong. The average recycling rate of waste in our country is around 7 percent.

-What can we do?

70 thousand tons of waste per day are emerging in Turkey, but also affect greatly the amount of CO2 emitted into the air and soil are poisoned because they are soluble in accumulated trash unhealthy and stuffy environment in certain areas. The journey of some ends in the ocean. We cannot ignore waste since recycling is not enough for a sustainable life; then what can individuals do?

Zero Waste is a movement that aims to avoid as little or no waste during daily life. First of all, we should review the individual wastes we have generated and we should include alternatives that can be used for a long time instead of these wastes. To apply zero waste, we must think twice, buy and use that we have and repair it.