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Wise up to resource recovery

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

NATURAL resources are useful materials from the Earth, such as coal, oil, natural gas and trees. People depend on natural resources for basic survival and use them as raw materials to manufacture or create modern conveniences.

For example, water and food provide humans with sustenance and energy. Fossil fuels generate heat as well as energy for transportation and industrial production. Many of the natural resources used by people are important to plants and wildlife for survival as well.

Virgin versus recovered

Resources used for the first time are considered virgin resources. Their extraction, processing and use requires a great deal of energy and can create pollution. Natural resource extraction, along with other human activities, increases the rate at which species of plants and animals vanish.

Resource recovery is the practice of extracting used materials (e.g. paper, glass and metals) from the rubbish collection and processing them to be used again. Using recovered resources reduces threats to biodiversity.

Biodiversity refers to the variety of organisms that live on Earth.

Renewable or non-renewable

Non-renewable resources are those that become depleted quicker than they can naturally regenerate, for example, mineral ore.

Renewable resources can be replenished at approximately the same rate at which they are used, for example, energy from the sun and wind.

Trees are considered a renewable resource because their supply can be replenished (e.g. more trees can be planted). If, however, an entire forest of 400-year-old trees is cleared and a new-growth forest is planted, the supply of old-growth trees has not been replenished. It takes many generations for an old-growth forest to mature, and so, old-growth trees are considered non-renewable.

Trees are a complex resource because, as a forest, their environmental and economic contributions often depend on their age.

For example, clearing a forest of 200-year-old Redwoods (unlike clearing a forest of new-growth pines) diminishes high levels of biodiversity only developed in old-growth forests.

Key points

* Natural resources are vital to all forms of wildlife and the ecosystems in which they live.

* Human beings use natural resources for such modern conveniences as electricity, transportation, and industrial production, as well as basic survival.

* Rapid population growth, a higher standard of living and technology all contribute to increased use of natural resources.

* Extracting, processing and using natural resources can cause environmental problems, such as the disruption or destruction of ecosystems; a decrease in biodiversity; and land, water and air pollution.

* Using renewable natural resources affects the environment less than using non-renewable resources because their supply can be regenerated.

* Using recovered resources prevents natural resources being wasted.

* Using recovered rather than virgin resources decreases greenhouse gas build-up, which can result in global climate change.

* Resource recovery and conservation, as well as buying recycled products, are emerging trends that reduce consumption of natural resources.

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