Despite widespread recycling, landfills are still used to store waste

The argument

Proponents of this position argue that the continued existence of landfills is itself the measure of recycling's failure: recycling clearly isn't very effective because there are still landfills. Landfills exist for materials that can't be recycled, which includes plastic, styrofoam, and even shredded paper. These materials usually end up being incinerated, deposited in landfills, or washed into the ocean — three destinations, none of which is recovery. While incineration is sometimes used to produce energy, waste-to-energy plants have been associated with toxic emissions in the past, so even the option that most resembles a solution carries a cost of its own. Landfills emit carbon dioxide, methane, volatile organic compounds, and other hazardous pollutants into the air, and our oceans are drowning in plastic waste. Each disposal route, on this account, converts the waste problem into an emissions problem rather than ending it. The trend inside the recycling stream itself is the sharper point. In fact, on average, about 25 percent of the stuff we try to recycle is too contaminated to go anywhere but the landfill, according to the National Waste and Recycling Association, a trade group. Just a decade ago, the contamination rate was closer to 7 percent, according to the association. That is not a system gradually capturing more material; it is one whose losses are growing quickly, so that a quarter of what households sort in good faith arrives at exactly the destination the sorting was meant to avoid. Taken together, both ends of the process point the same way. Materials that were never recyclable go to landfill, to incineration or to the sea by design, and a rising share of what is recyclable joins them through contamination. Because landfills are still used to store waste despite widespread recycling, proponents conclude, recycling isn't as effective as it seems.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Just because some materials take a while to degrade or must be reused in different ways, doesn’t mean recycling is worthless. People should still recycle. The most important benefit of recycling is that we recover the raw materials used to make the stuff we use. It takes a lot of energy and water to extract and refine virgin materials from the earth. The process can also cause land degredation and even social upheaval in the local communities it affects. Recycling these raw materials can help us prevent this from occuring. Recycling also helps us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. When products are dumped in landfill, the energy used to make them is lost. Recycling them can help us recover some of this energy. Recycling organic waste also helps us reduce our impact on our climate by reducing the amount of methane gas released into the atmosphere. Despite the continued existence of landfills, people should still recycle. It takes a long time to implement change. If people continue to recycle and develop new innovations in recycling, eventually landfills will become a thing of the past.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Although some items can’t be recycled, others can. Therefore, people should recycle at least those items.