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Added benefits of reducing methane emission are that many reductions come with little or no cost, reductions lower ozone concentrations near Earth's surface, and methane emissions can be reduced immediately while it will take time before the world's carbon-based energy infrastructure can make meaningful reductions in net carbon. enussions (Platt et al., 2008. pg7). Regardless of how much methane is captured front a 3andfrll or ho~v many BTUs are generated froze an incinerator, waste does not generate nearly as much energy as recycling conserves. Overall, recycling produces a net reduction in energy 3.b times larger than the amount of energy generated by incineration and 1.1 times larger than the energy generated by methane recovery at a landfill (Choate, 2005}. You simply cannot capture enough energy front landfills or incinerators to offset the energy required to make new products from natural resources to replace those we waste. 3. A Better Choice: Climate Change Benefits of Recycling & Composting Recycling is an effective way to reduce greenhouse gases. ~ ~ . _ ~ ~ ' When we recycle, we avoid the greenhouse gas emissions from ~., ~'' 1 ~• _- .,~, = landfills and incinerators. We also reduce the need to extract new ,' ~ '~ , resources from the earth and replace logging, drilling, and mining of ~~ - --{/- '• ~~ virgin materials with recycled materials that we no longer want. This s ! e greatly reduces the energy it takes to process and manufacture new `T goods. About 94%~ of the materials extracted for use in manufacturing durable products become waste before the product is rnantrfactured,...80% of what we make is thrown away within six months of production. For every rubbish bag placed at the curb, the equivalent of 71 rubbish bags worth of waste is created in mining, logging, agriculture, oil and gas exploration; and the industrial processes used to convert raw materials into finished products and packaging. This doesri t even include the extra energy usage and climate change impacts resulting from resource extraction and processing (Hawkers, A. Lovins, L:H. Lovins, 1999). Every product we use has embedded energy, which is the energy ~ ~ { ~ it took to extract, transport, and transform the materials needed ~~ to produce the product. Every single item we recycle results in r~ , ~ ~~' ~r s ~ significant energy savings because recycling takes advantage of t , ; -. i, ~ ! ~ this embedded energy. For some items, like an aluminum can, "~ ~~ .~' ~ the energy savings are tremendous. Making a new aluminum. can. ,1 `=` ~~~, from. o]d cans results in 90-97% energy savings compared to making a new can front bauxrte and other raw n~.aterials, according to (Choate, 2005). Similarly, it takes 30% less energy to make a glass bottle from recycled glass than from silica, sand, soda ash, limestone, an d feldspar. Recycling paper results in a 44% energy savings (Choate, 2005). Virtually every recycled material uses less energy than its virgin component. Page 4