Recycling is an issue which I feel is important in society today.

Research has shown that on average UK households produce 30.5 million tonnes of rubbish per year. From this on average 17 per cent is collected for recycling.

Many items can be recycled and although this varies from council to council across the country dependent on the borough in which you live, most local councils should as a minimum give you the opportunity to recycle aluminium, glass, paper and certain grades of plastic.

My local council offers two different boxes to place recycling in - one black and one green. In the black bin items such as newspapers, envelopes, junk mail, egg cartons and cereal boxes go in while in the green box milk bottles, drink bottles, drink cans, glass bottles and jars go in.

These boxes are then collected free of charge by the council once every two weeks.

Aside from this recycling collection my council also offers to the public the collection of green garden waste, bulky items - such as unwanted household furniture - and two recycling centres.

As countries begin to develop economically increasing wealth means that people have the ability to buy more products and as a result of this create more waste, as well as this we are living on a planet where the population is constantly increasing so therefore there are more people on the planet to create waste.

Due to this recycling is key to providing a better life for people and the environment.

So how can recycling benefit people and the environment?

Recycling helps to reduce the pollution caused by waste.

Recycling reduces the need for raw materials so that the need for deforestation decreases.

The process of recycling requires less energy than making products from raw materials so therefore recycling helps to preserve natural resources.

Perhaps on top of everything else recycling preserves natural resources for future generations because it reduces the need for raw materials and also uses less energy, thus preserving natural resources for the future generations.

What is your opinion on recycling? Good or bad?

All comments are welcome.

By Hannah Smith, aged 16, from Hayes