Recycling smarter, more efficient

To most people, the correlation between the waste they produce daily and the state of our environment is the last thing on their minds. As people living in a busy society, we have to make money and feed our families, or, in the case of my classmates and me at Mead high school, create a future for ourselves. There are so many things that preoccupy our lives.

But we should all be reminded to start paying more attention to the things we throw away, and take recycling seriously. In Spokane, our trash is processed at a Waste-To-Energy plant, where it is converted to electricity. That must be good, right? The plastic and garbage we throw away is being turned into energy.

However, the materials we throw away still affect not only the environment but the resources we use to live our daily lives. Manufacturing products like paper and plastic use up valuable resources and energy. Millions of trees are cut down to make paper products, and nonrenewable substances like coal and crude oil are used to manufacture plastic.

Recycling items made of paper and plastic so that they can be reused is a smarter, more efficient alternative to throwing them away. We should all make a conscious effort to not only recycle as often as possible, but to recycle the correct items properly.

Olivia Ferraro

Spokane