The Essential of Recycling for the Future
Throughout history, recycling has existed in some way or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of early recycling are recognized to have occurred. Archaeological studies show that ancient waste dumps contained fewer of what is known nowadays as household waste, including pots, utensils and ash, which demonstrates that men and women were, even back then, keen to reuse products at a time when natural resources weren’t so freely available. Little did they know that the things they were starting would play such a huge role in shaping the world for future generations
Indeed it may be argued how the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collecting unwanted goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or converting the accumulated items into new things.
During periods like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural resources became considerably more difficult to find. Along with food being rationed, certain materials such as metal and fibre were largely permitted just for use by the government to support military operations, in order to meet manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
As a result of rising power costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased in the 1970′s.. As a material aluminium utilises a reduced amount of energy during the production process than many other materials. Plus it was much coveted on account of its non rusting properties. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were willing to pay good money in return for good quality metal. Also, in the seventies in regions of the United states, the first vans were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the collection of recyclable materials being towed behind the vehicle.
Towards the late eighties, early 1990′s and as the importance of managing the intercontinental environmental state increased amongst world-wide governments, the attention on recycling really began to gather momentum. In the United Kingdom, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of fresh new legal guidelines upon the waste industry, recycling schemes really started to take off. The once commonly recognised waste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management providers and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be handled more effectively.
Currently, many hundreds of materials and resources can be recycled, starting from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phone handsets, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.
What is Recycling?
The term recycling identifies the process of converting second hand items into new or nearly new materials to avoid the need for potentially useful materials or products to be dumped.
Recycling plays an integral role in a world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It helps to reduce the need to unnecessarily send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this lessens the need or the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural materials, decreases energy use and air and water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the natural environment.
Recycling would probably be mostnoticeable through the recycling solutions now provided by local councils for household refuse and recycling collections and by contemporary waste management companies who commonly give a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions.
Recently the recovery of energy from waste has become a major environmental for the advantage of all of us.
Within the waste materials industry, the common promotional activity is all around the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a straightforward message devised for a far reaching audience. Think about ways to lessen your waste material. Could the waste materials products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved? Many questions to consider.
The waste material hierarchy is often a strategy that a lot of waste material management organisations and local authorities look at when establishing new waste management schemes. The strategy is meant to concentrate the intellect around preventing waste materials being produced to start with. Consider the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle. The slogan has been adopted particularly well in the public sector.
And so the emphasis is very much on the entire manufacturing process. The waste materials hierarchy expands much wider than to waste management firms and local bodies. Working groups have been established to bring many industries together to look at the complete waste cycle. For instance, the manufacturer of a product needs to consider how a product is to be manufactured. Could components be used that can later be recycled or reused? Could the volume of packaging which often surrounds the item be reduced? Once the item reaches the shop, is it required for the product to be left inside an outer package? If the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the buyer do with the unwanted elements of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be recovered and where will it go? Does it return to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing facility, where the cycle will begin yet again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that most waste material needs to be treated to avoid the quantity of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has enforced a landfill tax on all waste materials disposed of within landfill. The rate of levy has increased considerably lately rising from the initial level of £8 per ton, to the current rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has previously declared that this will increase further to £48 per ton by the end of 2010/11. This cost applies to all general waste streams, although there is a reduced rate for inert materials. Dispatching waste straight to landfill is an expensive course of action and finding acceptable processes to divert waste away from landfill has become a priority.
Thus, the message to everyone is obvious, sort your waste materials to cut back the volume of waste going to landfill. Ordinarily, both at home and at the office, the instant you place waste in the dustbin , it is forgotten about. Another individual will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in the home and at your workplace, recycling is being encouraged through the provision of bins in which to place certain recyclable materials.
Perhaps the most common materials to be seen being collected for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. Even so the possiblity to recycle many materials or products keeps growing. Although technically not seen as recycling, food waste and garden waste collections are increasing, where the food or garden waste is taken back to a plant for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.
Organisations like ours are fast supplying energy recovering facilities to keep up with the endless problem of what to do with all the waste we, as a country, generate.
The systems of collecting items or waste material to be recycled is also growing and ever more apparent within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are cropping up in superstore car parks to encourage clientele of the superstore to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or card to the bins on their way into the store.
Local Authority waste collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside typically at the front of your home. Collection from domestic premises normally remains the duty of the local council and several have employed the provision of baskets in which to gather specified recyclable materials or products.
In the business and commercial market, waste materials management contractors offer different containers in which the customer deposits the correct waste material stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The bins will usually be plainly tagged as to which recyclable materials should be put inside that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable products ought to be placed within which bins. Waste management companies also may have to deal with special requests from the customer.
The true secret to a successful recycling initiative is informing the public about what can be recycled and how. In the commercial world getting the co-operation of shop floor employees is crucial. The introduction of any recycling scheme must ensure that in asking employees to separate waste for recycling, it does not become time consuming and affect the efficiency of what employees should be doing in their work. The introduction of any recycling scheme should be kept simple.
The Recycling Process
Several collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable material . Regardless of what collection system is employed , the resources are taken to a materials recycling facility where they will be segregated from other wastes. This could be done by hand or through the use of mechanical separators.
To begin the recycling process from the collection perspective, the more recyclable material that can be segregated at origin, i.e. at home or in the workplace, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. For this reason separate containers are provided to the waste producer to inspire segregation at source. If card can be collected on a truck, that will collect no other waste material, the card can be kept uncontaminated and for that reason could have a higher value when it reaches the processing plant. Similarly, dedicated glass collection vehicles are employed to collect just glass. In addition to the obvious health and safety factors and the weight of collected glass, it will have a greater value if the collected glass load is not mixed with other waste. Uncontaminated recyclables will have a better value than contaminated products.
Once collected, the recyclable materials are generally taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a dedicated glass collection truck could take the load straight to a glass processing plant. It is more likely that the glass will have to be bulked up for onward shipment to the processor.
If mixed recyclables are collected like paper and card within the same compartment, it might be necessary for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and permit the load to be segregated into distinct paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. Whichever method is used, the recyclable material gathered will most likely be sorted or cleaned before traveling through to a reprocessing plant to be converted to a new resource and eventually used as a new product or in manufacturing.
Recycling has now develop into a way of life and it is pretty straightforward to establish waste recycling systems at home or indeed in a organisation or work place.
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste collected from homes is recycled or composted. Whilst in the business and industrial market, the volume of waste materials delivered to landfill has dropped significantly recently plus the amount of waste material now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has risen over the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to help to increase rates further within this sector.
Landfill continues to play an important role in the control of waste across the UK as not all waste products can be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other means. Nonetheless, it’s not just the increasing costs of getting rid of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a far more attractive option for companies. Landfill has started to become scarce, with certain authorities hinting that the quantity of void accessible across all UK landfill sites, has less than ten years existence left before all sites are considered to be filled. Such countries as Dubai have filled parts of the coastline with their waste and created useful land area to extend the boundaries of their state.
In recent times, waste material management companies have had to switch their focal point, and start to consider and spend money on technology, such as energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities have also adapted their approaches by undertaking comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction must be taken care of. In some cases this has meant that unitary authorities are implementing plans to introduce long term contracts, usually around two-and-a-half decades in length, through which to manage their entire waste management requirements. These deals will often include the need to develop a facility through which to handle all waste materials generated throughout the county by segregating all waste materials streams. The contracts could also include the collection of waste and recyclables from homes throughout the area. So the issue of waste management has been evolving quickly. The times of just throwing everything in the dustbin have vanished and the advent of new technologies are upon us. The introduction of new technologies will play a huge role in the future of waste management.
Conclusion
Recycling has become a lifestyle and is here to stay. It has evolved through the years from a thing that was performed without any real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just working to make a living. Today, many blue chip organisations are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste policy, where the purpose is very straightforward – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must finish up in landfill.
Many houses across the country now have some type of bin in which to separate waste for recycling. The decision to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and commercial areas, there is an increasing selection of items to think about for recycling such as printer cartridges, office paper, metal and electrical equipment. Even on street corners and airports you see bins to recycle such items as newspapers and drink cans.
Ideally the entire process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the days of the horse. However the advent of new technologies will accelerate further the way in which our waste is to be managed in the future, but it is highly unlikely that we will ever reach the ultimate waste free society. There will always be a need for waste to be disposed of somewhere, somehow.