> Recycling plastic is a myth, other recycling may be of some benefit.
Some?! That's just a gross understatement.
For paper, recycling saves 50% of energy and 66% of water compared to pure fresh paper [1].
Glass saves about 33% of energy [2].
Iron scrap is at 72% energy savings [3], copper at 80% [4].
Aluminium is the most insane example - there, recycling saves utterly astonishing 95% (!) of the energy you'd need to create new virgin aluminium from raw ore [5].
Add to all of that: the more you recycle from these groups of valuable materials, the less environmental destruction you have from mining the ores - and the less chance there is for shit to go seriously wrong, e.g. dam breaks like [6].
The case of plastics recycling is still open, but everything else? It's just so much more efficient.
Some?! That's just a gross understatement.
For paper, recycling saves 50% of energy and 66% of water compared to pure fresh paper [1].
Glass saves about 33% of energy [2].
Iron scrap is at 72% energy savings [3], copper at 80% [4].
Aluminium is the most insane example - there, recycling saves utterly astonishing 95% (!) of the energy you'd need to create new virgin aluminium from raw ore [5].
Add to all of that: the more you recycle from these groups of valuable materials, the less environmental destruction you have from mining the ores - and the less chance there is for shit to go seriously wrong, e.g. dam breaks like [6].
The case of plastics recycling is still open, but everything else? It's just so much more efficient.
[1] https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/umwelttipps-fuer-den-alltag/h...
[2] https://www.bvse.de/glasrecycling/themen/glasrecycling-schon...
[3] https://www.bvse.de/dateien2020/2-PDF/06-Publikationen/04-Br...
[4] https://www.gdb-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Factsh...
[5] https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/35...
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumadinho_dam_disaster