Editor’s note: Today’s letters to the editor are from Southwest Junior High students learning about persuasive writing.

To the editor:

I believe that recycling is an important thing to do because recycling saves materials and makes it into new and improved material. Recycling costs less money and less energy, than having to use new materials. It only takes a few minutes to make a pile of recyclable stuff, and go to a recycling center like Wal-Mart and put the stuff in the right section.

Two very important materials that I think should be recycled are things made out of aluminum, and things that are made out of steel. Aluminum is important, because the U.S. aluminum industry, said, that 97 percent of all soft drink cans are made out of aluminum.

Steel is also important if you use a company that recycles with the basic oxygen furnace method, because it makes automobiles, planes and ships. It involves mixing molten scraps of steel with new steel. About 30 percent of new steel products are made out of recycled steel.

More recycling means less land for trash dumps and reduced the volume of thrown away trash. That would mean that there won’t be as much water pollution. There also won’t be as much air pollution because it reduces manufacturing processes and demand for high-pollution alternatives.

I strongly encourage you to start recycling. It’s better to recycle, than to not recycle. I think every time you recycle you are doing the right thing.

Jesse Ohtake

Southwest Junior High