Editing Recycling (section)

=== Environmental impact ===
Economist [[Steven Landsburg]], author of a paper entitled "Why I Am Not an Environmentalist",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Landsburg |first1=Steven E. |chapter=Why I Am Not An Environmentalist |pages=279–290 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTBgMMxeJ5IC&pg=PA279 |title=The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life |date=2012 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4516-5173-7 |access-date=10 April 2021 |archive-date=20 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230220183208/https://books.google.com/books?id=qTBgMMxeJ5IC&pg=PA279 |url-status=live }}</ref> claimed that [[paper recycling]] actually reduces tree populations. He argues that because paper companies have incentives to replenish their forests, large demands for paper lead to large forests while reduced demand for paper leads to fewer "farmed" forests.<ref name="armchair economist">{{cite book | author = Steven E. Landsburg | date = May 2012 | title = The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life | publisher = Simon and Schuster | page = 98 | isbn = 978-1-4516-5173-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qTBgMMxeJ5IC | access-date = 10 April 2021 | archive-date = 20 February 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230220183215/https://books.google.com/books?id=qTBgMMxeJ5IC | url-status = live }}</ref>
[[File:Agbogbloshie Ghana.jpg|thumb|A metal [[scrap]] worker is pictured burning insulated copper wires for copper recovery at [[Agbogbloshie]], Ghana.]]
When foresting companies cut down trees, more are planted in their place; however, such farmed forests are inferior to natural forests in several ways. Farmed forests are not able to fix the soil as quickly as natural forests. This can cause widespread [[soil erosion]] and often requiring large amounts of [[fertilizer]] to maintain the soil, while containing little tree and wild-life [[biodiversity]] compared to virgin forests.<ref name="baird">Baird, Colin (2004). ''Environmental Chemistry'' (3rd ed.). W. H. Freeman. {{ISBN|0-7167-4877-0}}.{{page needed|date=April 2021}}</ref> Also, the new trees planted are not as big as the trees that were cut down, and the argument that there would be "more trees" is not compelling to forestry advocates when they are counting saplings.

In particular, wood from tropical rainforests is rarely harvested for paper because of their heterogeneity.<ref>{{Cite journal |url = http://www.fao.org/docrep/f7795e/f7795e02.htm |title = How to make paper in the tropics |last = de Jesus |first = Simeon |date = 1975 |journal = Unasylva |issue = 3 |volume = 27 |access-date = 31 July 2015 |archive-date = 1 October 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181001142546/http://www.fao.org/docrep/f7795e/f7795e02.htm |url-status = live }}</ref> According to the [[United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change]] secretariat, the overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is [[subsistence farming]] (48% of deforestation) and [[commercial agriculture]] (32%), which is linked to food, not paper production.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://unfccc.int/files/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/application/pdf/pub_07_financial_flows.pdf |author = UNFCCC |title = Investment and financial flows to address climate change |website = unfccc.int |publisher = UNFCCC |page = 81 |year = 2007 |access-date = 7 July 2016 |archive-date = 10 May 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080510090003/http://unfccc.int/files/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/application/pdf/pub_07_financial_flows.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref>

Other non-conventional methods of material recycling, like Waste-to-Energy (WTE) systems, have garnered increased attention in the recent past due to the polarizing nature of their emissions. While viewed as a sustainable method of capturing energy from material waste feedstocks by many, others have cited numerous explanations for why the technology has not been scaled globally.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Towie |first1=Narelle |title=Burning issue: are waste-to-energy plants a good idea? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/28/burning-issue-are-waste-to-energy-plants-a-good-idea |work=The Guardian |date=28 February 2019 |access-date=23 December 2019 |archive-date=4 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204200051/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/28/burning-issue-are-waste-to-energy-plants-a-good-idea |url-status=live }}</ref>