PinLinkedIn

Sustainability and environmental consciousness are increasingly important topics in today’s world. As individuals and businesses strive to reduce their carbon footprint, two popular methods of waste management emerge: recycling vs composting. While both are considered eco-friendly solutions, they differ in their approach to waste management. In this article, we’ll explore the key differences between recycling and composting and which is better for the environment.

Recycling: A Brief Overview

Recycling is the process of converting waste into reusable materials. It involves collecting, sorting, and processing materials like paper, glass, metal, and plastic to create new products. Recycling is essential because it reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and conserves natural resources like trees, oil, and minerals.

What Can You Recycle?

Recycling is an important step on the road to a circular economy. By properly recycling plastic, glass and polyethene, we prevent a large amount of waste from ending up in landfills.

What you can (and cannot) recycle varies from municipality to municipality. That’s why you need to review your community’s policies to know exactly what you can put in sidewalk trash cans.

Composting: A Brief Overview

Composting is the process of breaking down organic waste like food scraps, yard trimmings, and leaves into nutrient-rich soil. It is an excellent way to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and to create a natural fertilizer for plants.

What Can You Compost?

To get started, here is the list of things that go into composting:

  • Grass cuttings
  • Shredded leaves
  • Newspapers
  • Fruit clippings
  • Coffee grounds
  • and other similar items

What Are the Difference Between Recycling and Composting?

  1. Materials: Recycling deals with non-organic waste, while composting deals with organic waste.
  2. Process: Recycling involves breaking down materials to create new products, while composting involves breaking down organic waste to create soil.
  3. Benefits: Recycling conserves natural resources and reduces landfill waste, while composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves soil health, and conserves water.

Environmental Benefits of Recycling and Composting

Both recycling and composting techniques help in keeping tons of materials away from being treated at municipal landfills. Recycling helps in releasing pressure on a wide range of environmental fronts. When these are recycled, less composting space is consumed and fewer landfills are required to be done in the long run. This also means that fewer raw materials, energy and other resources are used in manufacturing new items from recycled materials in comparison to the energy and raw materials used after being extracted from the earth. Composting naturally treats the material and gives back to the earth the materials that initially came from it. It certainly helps in soil remediation as well as enrichment and avoids causing any kind of soil erosion. Moreover, it doesn’t contribute towards pollution, which is one serious point of concern with landfills.

Economic Benefits of Recycling and Composting

Recycling, on its own, is a very large industry that employs more than a million workers who are paid about $37 Billion per year, and employed by companies that are making a profit of over $236 billion every year. Composting, on the other hand, helps in saving an organization’s or individual’s monetary resources by reducing the expenses incurred for acquiring fertilizers and pesticides.

Conclusion

It is quite clear how recycling and composting, despite being environmentally sound methods of waste management, are completely different from each other. It solely depends upon the individuals or society, to choose an ideal method of managing the discarded items and solid municipal waste in the best possible and environment-friendly manner.