Final answer:
The primary purpose of recycling is to reduce waste and conserve natural resources, which saves energy and minimizes environmental impact. The Three R's of Garbage - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle - serve as a guide for effective waste management that benefits both the environment and the economy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The purpose of recovering discarded materials and finding ways to recycle them is essentially to reduce waste and conserve resources. This helps to lessen the environmental impact in several significant ways. Firstly, it reduces the amount of waste that is sent to landfills and incinerators, which can help minimize the adverse effects on the surrounding land and air quality. Secondly, recycling conserves natural resources, such as timber, water, and minerals, by mitigating the need to extract and process new raw materials. Moreover, it increases economic security by utilizing domestic sources of materials and preserving them for future use.
Furthermore, the Three R's of Garbage: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle highlight that reducing the production of waste at its source and reusing products are the most effective methods for conserving natural resources and saving energy. This in turn leads to less pollution and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change. Additionally, it benefits the community economically by saving money and creating jobs in the recycling and manufacturing industries.
Recycling is also considered to be part of a sound environmental policy. It's relatively inexpensive compared to the costs associated with environmental cleanup and it can greatly reduce environmental contamination from materials like plastics and glass. Consequently, some argue that it could be a sound policy to make recycling mandatory, as it encourages responsible waste management and stewardship of the environment.