Right through history, recycling has been around in some form or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC indications of earlier recycling are known to have happened. Archaeological reports show that ancient waste dumps contained fewer of what is known nowadays as household waste, including pots, utensils and ash, which shows that people were, even back then, keen to reuse products at a time when natural resources were not so freely available. Little did they know that the things they were starting would play such a huge role in shaping society 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 turning the recovered items into something new. The 60′s TV series, Steptoe and Son, brought this very much to the public eye and greater attention.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were vital as natural resources became a lot more difficult to come by. Along with food being rationed, certain materials like metal and fibre were largely allowed only for use by the government to support military operations, to satisfy manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
Due to rising energy costs, the requirement to recycle aluminium increased during the seventies.. As a material aluminium utilises a lesser amount of energy during the production process than alternative materials. Plus it was much sought after on account of its non rusting attributes. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were ready to pay good money in exchange for the best quality metal. Also, in the 70′s in parts of the United states, the first vehicles were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for recovery of recyclable items being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for substantial bulky things such as bedsteads and old carpets.
Into the late 1980′s, early 1990′s and as the importance of handling the global environmental state heightened amongst worldwide governing bodies, the attention on recycling really started to get momentum. In the UK, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of fresh legislation upon the waste products sector, recycling programmes really began to take off. The once widely recognised waste disposal firms, began to call themselves waste management companies and demonstrated with the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste needed to be managed more successfully.
Currently, many hundreds of materials and products tend to be recycled, which range from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phones, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete. The demand for different types of collection receptacles has increased dramatically.
What is Recycling?
The term recycling describes the operation of converting used items into new or nearly new products and avoid the need for potentially useful materials or products to be dumped.
Recycling performs an important role in a modern world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It reduces the requirement to unnecessarily send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. This in turn lessens the demand or the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new raw resources, decreases energy usage and air and rain water pollution, that all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the environment.
Recycling would probably be mostnoticeable through the recycling facilities now provided by local authorities for household refuse and recycling collections and by modern waste management firms who commonly offer a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions. Some firms, who have traditionally focused exclusively on the collection of recyclable products, are now increasing their operations offering to collect general waste materials at the same time.
As there are now the systems to convert our waste to energy , great savings can be made on the resources which are slowly but surely running out and so becoming much more pricey.
Within the waste sector, the normal marketing activity surrounds the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a simple message made for a far reaching audience. Consider some ways to reduce your waste materials. Could the waste products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or recovered?
The waste material hierarchy is usually a strategy that many waste material management companies and local authorities think about when developing new waste management procedures. The strategy is meant to concentrate the mind around avoiding waste material being produced to start with. Take into account 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 expands much wider than to waste management firms and local authorities. Working groups have already been established to bring many industries together to look at the entire waste cycle. For instance, the manufacturer of a product must think about how the product is to be manufactured. Could components be used which could eventually be recycled or reused? Could the volume of packaging which often surrounds the product be decreased? Once the product gets to the shop, is it necessary for the product to be located within an outer box? Once the retailer sells the product, what will the purchaser do with the excess components of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be collected and where will it go? Should it return to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing facility, in which the cycle begins yet again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that most waste needs to be treated to divert the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has enforced a landfill levy on all waste material disposed of within landfill. The rate of levy has increased considerably lately rising from the initial level of £8 per ton, to today’s rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has recently declared that this will increase further to £48 per ton from the end of 2010/11. This rate applies to all general waste streams, although there is a lower rate for inert materials. Dispatching waste material directly to landfill is an expensive option and choosing suitable solutions to divert waste out of landfill is now important. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
Therefore, the message to everyone is obvious, segregate your waste to scale back the amount of waste materials going to landfill. Typically, both at home and at the office, the instant you place waste material into the dustbin , it’s forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in the home and at your workplace, recycling is being stimulated by the provision of bins in which to place certain recyclable materials.
Some common resources to be seen being recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. However the opportunity to recycle a large amount of materials or products keeps growing.
Through training, individuals may be inspiried think ‘green energy’ so that they will take part in energy recovery operations and enhance the use of their level of waste.
The means of collecting resources or waste to be recycled is also increasing and ever more noticeable within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are cropping up in superstore car parks to motivate clientele of the store to return such items as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the containers on their way into the store. 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 kerbside normally at the front of your house. Collection from household premises generally continues to be the responsibility of the local council and many have employed the supply of boxes in which to gather specific recyclable materials or products.
In the industrial and commercial field, waste materials management businesses offer individual containers where the customer deposits the correct waste material stream or recyclable material ready for collection. The containers will usually be clearly branded as to which recyclable materials ought to be put inside that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will probably be colour coded to distinguish which recyclable products should be placed within which bins.
The real key to a successful recycling initiative is homeowners 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 employees 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 products . Regardless of what collection system is utilised , the resources are taken to a drop off point where they will be segregated from other waste materials.
To start the recycling process from the collection perspective, the more recyclable materials which can be segregated at origin, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more useful it will be for the waste collector. For this reason separate containers are supplied to the waste producer to stimulate segregation at source. If card can be collected on a vehicle, which will collect no other waste materials, the card can be kept uncontaminated and therefore will have a greater value when it gets to the processing plant. In the same way, dedicated glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect only glass. In addition to the obvious health and safety reasons and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a greater value if the collected glass load is not mixed with other waste. Uncontaminated recyclables will have a much higher value than contaminated materials.
When collected, the recyclable materials may be taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a separate glass collection truck could take the load directly 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 are collected such as paper and card within the same container, it could be required for the collector to take the load to a materials recycling facility to unload and allow the load to be sorted into distinct paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. Whichever approach is used, the recyclable material obtained will usually be segregated or washed before going through to a reprocessing facility to be processed to a new resource and ultimately used as a new product or in manufacturing. Inert materials can be a useful by product at landfill, for example shredded old tyres to aid traction on access roadways.
There is a charity scheme currently in place where food waste from supermarkets which might usually be thrown away, is obtained and redistributed for the poor and needy members of the community.
The Increasing Value of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste material collected from households is recycled or composted. Whilst within the commercial and industrial sector, the amount of waste material sent to landfill has dropped considerably recently as well as the volume of waste now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has grown above the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to boost rates even more within this sector.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the management of waste throughout the UK as not all waste products can be recycled and some are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other method. However, it’s not only the increasing expense of getting rid of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a more appealing option for corporations. Landfill is now scarce, with some authorities suggesting that the amount of void in existence across all UK landfill sites, has under 10 years existence left before all sites are deemed to be filled.
In recent times, waste management companies have had to vary their focal point, and begin to take into account and spend money on new technologies, like energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities have adapted their approaches by undertaking comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction must be dealt with. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are progressing plans to introduce long-term deals, usually around two-and-a-half decades in length, through which to handle their waste materials management needs. These agreements will often include the need to develop a facility through which to deal with all waste material produced throughout the city by segregating all waste materials streams. The deals may also incorporate the collection of waste and recyclables from homes throughout the region. So the face of waste management is changing rapidly. The days of merely throwing everything in the dustbin have disappeared and the advent of new technologies are upon us.
Summary
Recycling has become a lifestyle and is maturing all the time. It has evolved through the years from a thing that was performed with no real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just trying to make a living. Today, many blue chip companies are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste plan, where the intention is very clear – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must wind up in landfill.
Many houses across the country now have some form of bin in which to isolate waste materials for recycling. The decision 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.
Ideally the whole process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the time of the horse. However the advent of new technologies 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.