Throughout history, recycling has been around in some guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC indications of early recycling are recognized to have occurred. Archaeological reports show that ancient waste dumps contained less of what is known nowadays as household waste, like pots, tools and ash, which shows that people were, even back then, keen to reuse products during a period when natural resources weren’t so freely available.
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 transforming the recovered items into something new. The 60’s TV series, Steptoe and Son, brought this very much in to the public eye and greater attention.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were essential as natural resources became considerably more difficult to find. In addition to food being rationed, certain materials like metal and fibre werenormally allowed just for use by the government to support military operations, to satisfy manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
Because of rising power costs, the requirement to recycle aluminium increased during the seventies.. As a material aluminium utilises a reduced amount of energy in the production process than various other materials. Also it was much sought-after owing to its non rusting properties. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were prepared to pay cash in exchange for the best quality metal. Additionally, in the 70’s in areas of the United States of America, the first trucks were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the recovery of recyclable materials being towed behind the vehicle.
Towards the late 1980’s, early nineties and as the importance of managing the global environmental state increased amongst world-wide governments, the debate on recycling really began to gather momentum. In the United Kingdom, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of the new legislation upon the waste materials market, recycling programmes really started to take off. The once commonly recognised waste disposal corporations, began to call themselves waste management companies and demonstrated by the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be handled more effectively. Local skip companies needed to become better at what they did.
Nowadays, many hundreds of materials and resources can be recycled, which range from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phone handsets, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.
What is Recycling?
The term recycling describes the operation of reprocessing second-hand products into new or nearly new materials avoiding the need for potentially valuable materials or products to be thrown away.
Recycling takes on an integral role in a modern world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It reduces the need to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. This in turn diminishes the need or the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural materials, cuts back energy usage and air and rain water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling is probably mostnoticeable through the recycling facilities now provided by local authorities for domestic refuse and recycling collections and by contemporary waste management organisations who generally give a full range of waste and recycling collection services. Some companies, who have in the past focused exclusively on the collection of recyclable products, are now increasing their service offering to collect general waste material at the same time.
Local authorities have now realized the fact that paper recycling, cardboard recycling, glass recycling, energy from waste is good for the country as well as good for the environment.
In the waste market, the common promotional activity surrounds the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a basic message made for a far reaching crowd. Look at how you can get rid of your waste material. Can the waste materials products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved? Many questions to take into consideration.
The waste material hierarchy is usually a strategy that many waste material management firms and local bodies think about when producing new waste management strategies. The system is meant to concentrate the thought process around avoiding waste being produced at all. 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 focus is very much on the entire manufacturing process. The waste hierarchy expands much wider than to waste materials management companies and local authorities. Working groups have already been established to bring many sectors together to consider the entire waste cycle. For instance, the producer of a product needs to consider how a product is to be made. Can components be used which can eventually be recycled or reused? Can the quantity of packaging which often surrounds the item be decreased? When the product gets to the store, is it essential for the product to be placed within an outer box? If the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the consumer do with the unwanted components of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be collected and where will it go? Could it return to a recycling facility, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle starts again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste material must be treated to avoid the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has applied a landfill tax on all waste materials dumped within landfill. The rate of duty has increased considerably in recent years rising from the original level of £8 per ton, to the current 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 rate applies to all general waste streams, although there exists a reduced rate for inert products. Sending waste directly to landfill is an expensive option and finding acceptable solutions to divert waste away from landfill is now a priority.
Therefore, the message to everybody is clear, sort your waste to reduce the amount of waste materials going to landfill. Traditionally, at home or at work, as soon as you place waste materials into the container , it is forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in the home and in the office, recycling is being encouraged by the provision 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 recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. However the opportunity to recycle a vast number of materials or products keeps growing.
Many schools introduce paper recycling initiatives as it is a substance which pupils take for granted, yet can easily learn how to recycle.
The methods of collecting items or waste materials to be recycled is also escalating and ever more apparent within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are springing up in superstore car parks to motivate customers of the superstore to return such items as bottles, newspapers or card to the bins on their way into the store. Shoppers are therefore encouraged to return with their recyclables.
Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside typically in front of your property. Collection from domestic premises generally remains the responsibility of the local authorities and several have employed the supply of bins in which to collect particular recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the industrial and commercial field, waste material management businesses offer separate containers where the customer deposits the correct waste materials stream or recyclable materials ready for collection. The particular containers will usually be plainly labeled as to which recyclable materials need to be put inside that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to identify which recyclable wastes should 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 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 introduction of any recycling scheme should be kept simple.
The Recycling Process
Numerous collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable products . No matter which collection method is employed , the materials are taken to a recycling centre where they’ll be segregated from other wastes. This may be done by hand or through the use of mechanised separators.
To start the recycling process from a collection perspective, the more recyclable material that can be separated at source, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more useful it will be for the waste collector. For this reason individual storage units are supplied to the waste producer to stimulate segregation at source. If card could be collected on a vehicle, that will collect no other waste material, the card is going to be kept clean and for that reason will have a greater value when it reaches the processing plant. Similarly, specialist glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect just glass. In addition to the obvious health and safety reasons and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a much higher value if the collected glass load is not mixed with other waste materials.
When collected, the recyclable materials can be taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a separate glass collection truck could take the load on to a glass processing plant.
If blended recyclables have been collected such as paper and card within the same compartment, it could be required for the collector to take the load to a materials recycling facility to unload and permit the load to be segregated into individual paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. No matter which technique is employed, the recyclable material obtained will often be segregated or washed before going through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new resource and ultimately used as something new or in manufacturing.
There can be many ways to generate green energy in the your own home and now one can find government schemes in the form of grants to help support these initiatives.
The Increasing Importance of Recycling
In the UK close to 35% of waste collected from households is recycled or composted. While in the business and industrial community, the volume of waste material sent to landfill has declined significantly in recent years and also the amount of waste material now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has increased above the volumes going to landfill.
Landfill continues to play an important role in the management of waste throughout the UK as not all waste products can be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other means. However, it is not just the increasing expense of getting rid of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling an even more attractive option for businesses. Landfill has started to become scarce, with many experts suggesting that the quantity of space in existence across all UK landfill sites, has under 10 years existence left before all sites are deemed 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 kingdom.
In recent years, waste material management firms have had to vary their focal point, and start to consider and put money into new technologies, such as energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities also have changed their views by undertaking comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste under their jurisdiction should be handled. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are implementing plans to introduce long term deals, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to control all of their waste materials management requirements. These agreements will most likely include the need to create a facility through which to handle all waste materials created throughout the county by segregating all waste streams. The agreements may also include the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes throughout the region. So the face of waste management is changing rapidly. The days of just throwing every little thing in the dustbin have vanished and the development of new technologies are upon us. The introduction of new technologies will play a huge role in the future of waste management.
Summary
Recycling is now a way of life and is here to stay. It has evolved over the years from something 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 firms are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste plan, where the objective is very obvious – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must wind up in landfill. Some companies have announced ambitious target dates by which to attain such policies.
Many homes across the country now have some kind of container in which to isolate waste materials for recycling. The requirement to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. Whilst in industrial and business areas, there is an increasing list 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 improbable that we will ever reach the ultimate waste free society. There will always be a need for waste to be disposed of somewhere, somehow.