The Earth is a giant recycling machine. Every year, a portion of the seafloor merges into the Earth’s crust. As these materials travel downward, they cause earthquakes. The land surface does not wear down because in other areas, mountains are uplifted, roughly balancing the volume of materials lost from the sea floor. The Earth is thus a recycling machine on a grand scale.
Recycling is constantly taking place in our forests. Trees drop leaves and twigs into the soil, where they decompose, releasing nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. A mature forest recycles about 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre each year. In the spring, tree uses these nutrients to fuel new growth.
Seeing how nature recycles should motivate us to recycle our own materials. Indeed, recycling bins, nearly unknown a few decades ago, are ubiquitous on streets across the United States. According to a recent study from Yale University, nearly 50% of the important metals in modern commerce—iron, copper, zinc—are recovered for reuse each year.
Recycling is a success story for the environmental movement. Still, there is room for improvement. Some specialty metals are not recycled at all, and they could be. Recycling saves virgin land from mining, saves energy in material processing, and saves us from new landfills. In fact, there would seem to be no losers.
So, remember the three-Rs: Reduce, reuse and recycle, just as nature does.
Photo, taken on June 12, 2010, courtesy of Flickr.