Recycling is not always environment protective

Recycling campaigns in some cities in the United States and in Western Europe encourage the population to take their recyclable domestic solid waste (glass, plastic, paper, cardboard paper, metal, etc.) to proper disposable units, usually large and colorful plastic containers installed in public places, to be removed to sorting centers or industries that will recover them into new products. Let’s take an imaginary residential house 10 kilometers from one of these sorting centers. If someone uses his car only to take his home waste to the sorting centers he may be taking an anti-ecological step, since the fuel used in this task may involve a higher amount of energy then that saved by the recycling of the waste, which he stored in his house led by the best of intentions. Besides, we must still consider the air pollution this same car will produce on this errand. Another case of misshapen is what occurred in Lodz, Poland, where many containers were installed in different parts of the city for the collection of recyclable materials. The result was that all kinds of waste were dumped into them, because as most of the population did not have private cars carrying the waste to the proper disposal places was impossible. Besides that, the average citizen lives in a small apartment with no room for storing garbage for longer periods of time.