The Growing Importance of Recycling
Posted April 27th, 2010 by adminThroughout history, recycling has existed in one way or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of early recycling are known to have taken place. Archaeological studies show that historical waste dumps contained less of what is known nowadays as household waste, including pots, utensils and ash, which demonstrates that individuals were, even in those days, keen to reuse materials at a time when natural resources weren’t so freely available. Little did they know that the things they were starting would play 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 collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or converting the accumulated items into new stuff. The 60’s TV series, Steptoe and Son, brought this very much to the public eye and greater attention.
During periods like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural resources became considerably more difficult to find. As well as food being rationed, certain materials such as metal and fibre werenormally permitted only for use by the government in support of military operations, to satisfy manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
Thanks to rising power costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased in the seventies.. As a material aluminium uses much less energy during the production process than many other materials. Also it was much prized owing to its non rusting properties. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were willing to pay good money in exchange for the best quality metal. Additionally, in the 70’s in parts of the United states, the first vans were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the collection of recyclable resources being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for substantial bulky items such as bedsteads and old carpets.
Towards the late 1980’s, early nineties and as the awareness of handling the worldwide environmental state accelerated amongst international authorities, the debate on recycling really started to gather impetus. In the United Kingdom, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of fresh legal guidelines upon the waste market, recycling schemes really started to take off. The once widely recognised waste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management firms and demonstrated with the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be managed more efficiently.
Currently, many hundreds of materials and resources may be recycled, including paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phone handsets, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.
What Exactly is Recycling?
The word recycling identifies the operation of converting used materials into new or nearly new materials avoiding the need for potentially useable materials or products to be discarded. Essentially it is diverting waste materials from landfill.
Recycling performs an important role in a modern world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It helps to reduce the need to unnecessarily send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this reduces the demand and the reliance upon consuming fresh or new raw resources, lowers energy usage and air and rain water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling would probably be mostnoticeable through the recycling services now provided by local authorities for household refuse and recycling collections and also modern waste management firms who commonly provide a full range of waste and recycling collection services.
Practically all of your rubbish collected today will head to some type of energy from waste handling unit where any recyclables may be extracted for reprocessing. The left over waste material may go to land fill or may be utilised for energy recovery.
Within the waste material industry, the normal advertising activity is all around the waste materials hierarchy - ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a straightforward message designed for a far reaching crowd. Look at some ways to reduce your waste. Can the waste products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved?
The waste materials hierarchy is usually a strategy which many waste management organisations and local bodies consider when developing new waste management procedures. The system is intended to concentrate the thought process around avoiding waste material being generated in the first place. Think about the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle.
And so the emphasis is very much on the entire manufacturing process. The waste materials hierarchy extends much wider than to waste materials management businesses and local authorities. Working groups have already been set up to bring many sectors together to consider the complete waste cycle. By way of example, the manufacturer of a product needs to think about how the product will be designed. Could components be used that can later be recycled or reused? Could the volume of packaging which surrounds the product be reduced? Once the item gets to the retailer, is it required for the product to be left within an outer package? If the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the purchaser do with the excess components of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be stored and where will it go? Will it return to a recycling plant, for onward transfer to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle will begin all over again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste material needs to be processed to divert the quantity of recyclables and unnecessary waste material 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 duty has increased considerably in recent years rising from the original level of £8 per ton, to today’s rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has previously announced that this will increase further to £48 per ton by the end of 2010/11. This charge applies to all general waste materials streams, although there’s a reduced rate for inert products. Delivering waste material straight to landfill is an expensive choice and choosing appropriate ways to divert waste out of landfill has become a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
Thus, the message to everybody is crystal clear, segregate your waste materials to scale back the volume of waste going to landfill. Ordinarily, at home or at the office, the instant you place waste material into the dustbin , it is forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. Today, in the home and at work, recycling is being encouraged with the supply of containers in which to place certain recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.
Perhaps the most common resources to be seen being gathered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the opportunity to recycle a vast number of materials or products continues to grow.
Companies like ours are fast supplying energy recovering facilities to keep up with the constant difficulty of what to do with all the waste we, as a world, generate.
The methods of collecting materials or waste materials to be recycled is also growing and becoming more visible within local communities. Specialist collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are cropping up in superstore car parks to motivate customers of the store to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the bins on their way into the supermarket. Shoppers are therefore encouraged to bring back their recyclables.
Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside usually in front of your home. Collection from household premises typically continues to be the duty of the local council and several have employed the supply of boxes in which to gather particular recyclable materials or products.
In the industrial and commercial market, waste material management businesses offer different storage units in which the customer deposits the correct waste stream or recyclable material ready for collection. The particular bins will often be clearly tagged as to which recyclable materials ought to be put within that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to distinguish which recyclable products need to be placed within which bins. Waste management companies also may have to deal with special requests from the customer.
The real key 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 factory employees is crucial. The introduction of any recycling scheme must ensure that in asking staff to separate waste for recycling, it does not become time consuming and affect the effectiveness of what employees should be doing in their work.
The Recycling Process
Numerous collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable material . No matter which collection method is used , the materials are taken to a materials recycling facility where they’ll be segregated from other waste products. This may be done by hand or by employing mechanised separators.
To begin the recycling process from a collection perspective, the more recyclable materials which can be separated at origin, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more useful it will be for the waste collector. For this reason individual containers are supplied to the waste producer to encourage segregation at source. If card can be collected on a truck, which will collect no other waste materials, the card can be kept clean and as a consequence will have a greater value when it actually reaches the processing plant. Likewise, specialist glass collection vehicles are employed to collect only 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 material.
When collected, the recyclable materials are generally taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a separate glass collection vehicle 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 compounded recyclables have been collected such as paper and card within the same container, it may be necessary for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and allow the load to be sorted into individual paper and card bundles for onward transfer to a paper or card processing plant. No matter which technique is used, the recyclable material collected will most likely be segregated or washed before proceeding through to a reprocessing plant to be processed to a new useful resource and eventually used as something new or in manufacturing. Inert materials can be a useful by product at landfill, such as shredded old tyres to help grip on access roads.
Because of high density populations, the issue of waste materials disposal necessitates extra progressive systems than the old landfill ideas. power in waste is just the kind of solution, turning waste products into electricity.
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste material collected from homes is recycled or composted. Whilst in the commercial and industrial area, the amount of waste material sent to landfill has declined substantially recently plus the amount of waste now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has risen above the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to increase rates even more within this sector.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the control of waste throughout the UK as not all waste products can be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other means. Nevertheless, it is not just the increasing expense of getting rid of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling an even more attractive option for businesses. Landfill is becoming scarce, with many experts suggesting that the amount of void in existence across all UK landfill sites, has under 10 years existence remaining before all sites are reckoned 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 country.
In the past few years, waste materials management companies have had to switch their focus, and start to think about and spend money on new technologies, like energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities also have changed their approaches by commencing comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste material under their jurisdiction must be taken care of. In some instances this means unitary authorities are progressing plans to introduce long term contracts, usually around two-and-a-half decades in length, through which to handle their entire waste management demands. These contracts will most likely include the need to create a facility through which to handle all waste created across the city by segregating all waste streams. The agreements might also incorporate the collection of all waste and recyclables from households throughout the area. So the issue of waste management is beginning to change quickly. The times of just throwing everything in the dustbin have disappeared and the arrival of new technologies are upon us. The introduction of new technologies will play a huge role in the future of waste management.
Conclusion
Recycling is now a way of life and is maturing all the time. It has evolved over time from a thing that was undertaken without any real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just working to make a living. Today, many blue chip companies are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste strategy, where the objective is very obvious - reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must finish up in landfill. Some companies have announced ambitious target dates by which to accomplish such plans.
Many households across the country now have some form of container in which to separate waste for recycling. The requirement to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and business 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 whole process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the days of the horse. However the advent of new technology will increase 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.