Is it more cost efficient to recycle or mine?

The production, transportation and storage of these materials as solid waste after completion of their lifetime or burning of the sample by burning causes greenhouse gas emissions as well as energy costs. In addition, the production of products from raw materials often requires the use of fossil fuels in both purification and production processes. For example, almost all plastic materials are produced from crude oil. Approximately 5% of crude oil is used for this purpose worldwide. However, due to the fact that there are more than 20 different types of plastic materials and other non-plastic wastes, separation causes the costs to increase in recycling plastics. Because of all these effects, recycling plastics instead of raw materials reduces energy costs by only 20%.

It is quite difficult and costly to purify the aluminum we use in many areas in daily life from ore. For this reason, recycling aluminum requires 95% less energy than its production from ores. The energy requirement in the recycling of the glass, which causes significant greenhouse gas emissions, is half of the energy required for its production from raw material. A similar situation applies to paper.

Recyclable materials are separated and stored instead of separating them in the landfills, making the recycling process easier.