Research Paper Outline

Recycling Paper Outline

I. Introduction

1.     Hook: Do you really think about what happens when you throw that water bottle in the recycling bin? What about when you toss away the newspaper from this morning?

2.     Thesis: The cost effectiveness adds to the environmental benefits of recycling, it is not only good for the earth, but it is good for the pockets of the people.

3.     Implications: What was the conventional thought before? Why did people think that recycling was costly? Was it before and now after new improvements in the process is it not? How does it help the environment/economy? (just a few possibilities not go completely into it)

II. The Background Behind Recycling

o   History of recycling, how it all began, who thought of it, why, where it got started

o   The ‘advertisement’/enticement to get people to recycle à what’s the point? Why did people think it would be a good idea to start reusing things

III. Economics/Environmental Implications (split up into multiple paragraphs)

1.     How recycling helps the environment while saving money à landfills can stay open longer, meaning less money spent building new landfills (source 2)

2.     The different factors helping/hurting the effectiveness of recycling à introduce counter argument, in how if these factors don’t line up it’s not effective (source 1)

a.     How some types of recycling are cheaper than others à glass and plastic isn’t economical where as aluminum and paper are money saving (source 4)

b.     Make sure to fully define the counter argument here à how certain times recycling can be highly ineffective/costly

3.     Taxpayer’s money & how the government spends in on recycling à goes with 1, possibly put in together with #1 (source 3)

4.     Give numerical data about the costs of recycling/the routes and what they are picking up in the routes. Bigger bins & how many bins at each house can cut down on costs (source 5)

IV. Conclusion

o   Summarize the main arguments of the paper

o   So what? à recycling does help the environment but also can help the economy of the cities/towns that put in place these programs (qualifying argument?)

o   Many people pass judgment on recycling before knowing the actual facts, not exactly a bad thing but can hurt the overall image of recycling

Research Summary

So far most of my sources have helped support my claim one way or another. I have a lot of information from both primary and secondary sources about how some recycling programs (like those of aluminum, glass, and newspaper) are cost effective and how others are not (like those of steel and plastic). A couple of my sources also give statistics and numbers on the cost effectiveness of certain programs, which helps to solidify my argument. Some of my sources also have given me possible counterarguments to include in my essay. While I still should research a bit more about these counterarguments I have most of what I should say about them in order to make my opinion stronger and more valid. I still need to create an outline and to find a few more academic sources that completely back my claim, but many of the sources I have already found have been really helpful. While I still think my thesis needs some work, here is what I have so far: The cost effectiveness of recycling sometimes outweighs the environmental benefits it provides.

Annotated Bibliography Pt. 2

"Exploring the Cost of Recycling." Environmental Nutrition 1 Aug. 2011, 34th ed., sec. 8: 3. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.

• This source gives me information about both sides of my argument. It goes into a lot of the factors that can determine the effectiveness of recycling, like if towns or cities have multiple bins, if there is high or low participation, and the type of processing system they use for recyclables. I can use some of the information, like how when all of the factors presented are aligned make recycling both cost and environmentally effective, and research it further to get numerical data and cold, hard facts to add to my argument. I can also talk about how each factor they talk about really affects the overall process of recycling and which costs the most, etc, etc.

"Recycling Economics: Higher Costs Are An Illusion - DNR." Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Web. 02 Oct. 2011.

• This source summarizes a lot of the main points as to why recycling is economical, as well as environmental. It also gives some more information debunking a lot of the claims made by those against recycling. It also explains a little bit more about the energy savings and monetary savings that go along with recycling. For instance, recycling allows landfills to be open longer, which in turn saves tax payers money because it is more expensive to open a new landfill than it is to recycle and help keep old ones functioning.

Schulze, Peter C. "LexisNexis® Academic & Library Solutions." Business Solutions & Software for Legal, Education and Government | LexisNexis. The Globe and Mail, 2 May 1992. Web. 8 Oct. 2011.

• Although short, this source did give me some valuable information about certain costs of recycling and how it can save people money. It also gave me some information as to where the taxpayer's money goes/how they are saving when the government puts in place a recycling program. Not only that but it did give a glimpse into environmental savings that come along with recycling.

Earth Talk. "Do the Benefits of Recycling Outweigh the Costs?" Environmental Issues - News and Information about the Environment. About.com. Web. 9 Oct. 2011.

• This source could be considered unreliable (even though About.com is a part of the New York Times Company), however it did offer me some valuable information/pointed me in the right direction to expand on what it gave me. This source helped me outline possible counter arguments as well as ways to debunk them. It talks about how some forms of recycling, like glass and plastic, often times cost more than paper and aluminium which is why those specific programs are the first to go.

Jablonowski, Ed. "Cutting the cost of recycling." American City & County Apr. 1995: 46.Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Oct. 2011.

• This article gives a lot of quantitative data/facts about the costs of recycling. It goes into how much it costs for each route that is driven for what they are picking up (is it glass? or newspaper? if so those are the cheapest. Steel and plastic appear to be the most expensive) and compares it to the cost to hire the crew to do this job. This source also talks about how if there are bigger bins for recycling that would cut down on the number of trips the crew would have to make at each house when collecting (from 2 to one), which would in turn cut down on costs because by spending less time picking up bins at one house, the crew would spend more time making stops. This would in turn increase their productivity for the day.

Annotated Bibliography

After deciding on my final topic (the effectiveness of recycling on both the economy and earth) I've found a few sources to base my information/argument on. Here are a couple:

"Exploring the Cost of Recycling." Environmental Nutrition 1 Aug. 2011, 34th ed., sec. 8: 3. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 Oct. 2011. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=AONE&userGroupName=clemson_itweb&tabID=T003&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=2&contentSet=GALE|A263040958&&docId=GALE|A263040958&docType=GALE&role=>.

• This source gives me information about both sides of my argument. It goes into a lot of the factors that can determine the effectiveness of recycling, like if towns or cities have multiple bins, if there is high or low participation, and the type of processing system they use for recyclables. I can use some of the information, like how when all of the factors presented are aligned make recycling both cost and environmentally effective, and research it further to get numerical data and cold, hard facts to add to my argument. I can also talk about how each factor they talk about really affects the overall process of recycling and which costs the most, etc, etc.

"Recycling Economics: Higher Costs Are An Illusion - DNR." Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://dnr.mo.gov/env/swmp/pubs-reports/rececon.htm>.

• This source summarizes a lot of the main points as to why recycling is economical, as well as environmental. It also gives some more information debunking a lot of the claims made by those against recycling. It also explains a little bit more about the energy savings and monetary savings that go along with recycling. For instance, recycling allows landfills to be open longer, which in turn saves tax payers money because it is more expensive to open a new landfill than it is to recycle and help keep old ones functioning.