Renewable resources offer ready sources of raw materials for the production of new products. Every day, you use these types of resources, making their importance hard to overestimate. Renewable resources are materials produced by natural forces in a reasonable amount of time. Non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels differ in that the time to reproduce new materials is far too long to meet market demands. This fact makes renewable sources ideal substitutes.
Benefits
The primary benefit of renewable resources is their availability. Alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power have an inexhaustible supply. What's more, they are essentially free once these systems have been installed. A renewable resource can be replenished quickly enough to keep up with the demand. Other renewable resources, such as timber, can offer a steady supply of materials to satisfy consumer demand.
Types
Renewable resources include several types, all of which are able to provide the benefits of continued availability. In addition to solar and wind, other energy sources include biomass, hydroelectricity and geothermal. Timber supplies the raw materials necessary for construction, paper products and other items. Renewable resources also include food supplies such as meat and produce. Other sources include game such as waterfowl and deer, whose populations are managed by government and natural resources managers.
Significance
Renewable energy sources can potentially supply the energy needs of significant portions of the United States. For example, hydroelectricity supplies over 60 percent of the energy needs of the Pacific Northwest, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A 1991 report by Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory estimates that wind power can fulfill almost one-quarter of the United States' energy needs.
Renewability
Several processes ensure the availability of renewable sources. For example, sunlight, water and carbon dioxide provide the raw materials for plants to produce food in a process called photosynthesis. Game management controls factors such as harvest and habitat management to maintain optimal population levels. Natural processes such as the recycling of water through the ecosystem ensure that weather systems function.
Prevention/Solution
The primary threat to renewable resources is depletion of the supply. With sources such as water, oxygen and sunlight, this is a non-issue. However, if timber is harvested at levels quicker than trees can grow, the resource may dwindle. Proper monitoring and management is therefore vital to the existence of renewable resources of those types in which humans can affect availability. Recycling is one method that helps protect the resource by supplementing its supply. The EPA estimates that over 75 percent of paper industry businesses use recycled raw materials to create new product.
References
- Eco-Pros: Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources
- "Ecology and Field Biology"; Robert Leo Smith; 1990
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Non-Hydroelectric Renewable Energy
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Hydroelectricity
- "An Assessment of the Available Windy Land Area and Wind Energy Potential in the Contiguous United States"; Pacific Northwest Laboratory; 1991
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