We usually talk about the benefits for the environment brought about by us recycling waste, but how much are we talking about? Is recycling really good for the environment? Sometimes it’s important to know how much we mean exactly, to put it in “black on white,” with concrete cases and data.
Within the scope of waste prevention –generating less garbage –one of the current main battles is the huge quantity of food waste that we produce. We’re not aware of it, but FAO[1] has established that, worldwide, 1/3 of the food produced for human consumption is wasted.
After reviewing the importance of biowaste recycling lets put some data and precise benefits of the it’s recycling process, as we saw for the papel plastic, metal and glass recycling:
Vegetable and food leftovers (mostly from vegetable or animal origin) are called the “organic fraction” or biowaste. Biowaste consists of water (80% of its weight) and organic matter (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats). This waste is generally quite heavy and small in volume as it occupies little space, therefore, it is a high-density type of waste.
“Recycle” comes, etymologically speaking, from the Greek word kýklos, which means “orbit or circle,” and by extension, “ordered repetition or recurrence of phenomena.” In Latin, the term becomes cyclus-cycli, adding the prefix: “Re.” (which means repetition). Therefore, the original meaning of the verb “recycle” is “to circulate something or put it back into orbit” (waste …