Right through history, recycling has been around in some guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of early recycling are known to have occurred. Archaeological studies show that historical waste dumps contained less of what is known today as household waste, like pots, tools and ash, which shows that individuals were, even back then, keen to reuse materials 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 the world for future generations
Indeed it could be argued how the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or turning the accumulated items into something new.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural materials became a lot more difficult to come by. Along with food being rationed, certain materials such as metal and fibre werenormally allowed just for use by the government in support of military operations, in order to meet manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.
Due to rising energy costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased during the seventies.. As a material aluminium utilises a reduced amount of energy within the production process than alternative materials. Plus it was much prized as a result of its non rusting attributes. The demand for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal dealers who were ready to pay money in exchange for the best quality metal. In addition, in the 70’s in regions of the USA, the first vehicles were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the gathering of recyclable materials being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for large bulky items including bedsteads and old carpets.
Towards the late eighties, early 1990’s and as the awareness of managing the intercontinental environmental state heightened amongst international authorities, the attention on recycling really started to collect 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 community, recycling initiatives really began to take off. The once commonly well known waste disposal firms, began to call themselves waste management specialists and demonstrated by the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be managed more successfully.
These days, many hundreds of materials and products are easily recycled, including 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 operation of reprocessing second hand items into new or nearly new products to avoid the need for potentially useful materials or products to be dumped. Essentially it is diverting waste material away from landfill.
Recycling plays a key role in a modern world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It removes the need to avoidably send waste products and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this reduces the demand or the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural resources, decreases energy usage and air and drinking 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 facilities now provided by local authorities for domestic refuse and recycling collections and by advanced waste management companies who commonly give a full range of waste and recycling collection services.
As we now have the expertise to make our waste to energy , great savings can be made on the materials that are steadily running out and so becoming much more expensive.
Within the waste materials sector, the regular marketing activity surrounds the waste material hierarchy - ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a basic message designed for a far reaching audience. Think about some ways to lessen your waste materials. Could the waste material products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved? Many questions to take into consideration.
The waste hierarchy is usually a strategy which a lot of waste material management firms and local bodies consider when creating new waste management schemes. The strategy is intended to concentrate the thought process around avoiding waste material being generated 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 whole production process. The waste material hierarchy expands much wider than to waste material management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have been set up to bring many sectors together to consider the entire waste cycle. For instance, the manufacturer of a product must consider how a product will be made. Can parts be used which can later be recycled or reused? Could the quantity of packaging which often surrounds the product be decreased? When the product reaches the store, is it required for the product to be placed within an outer box? If the retailer sells the item, what will the consumer do with the unwanted elements of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be stored and where will it go? Should it go back to a recycling facility, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle starts all over again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste needs to be processed to divert the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has applied a landfill levy on all waste discarded within landfill. The rate of levy has increased considerably recently 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 from the end of 2010/11. This rate applies to all general waste materials streams, although there’s a reduced rate for inert materials. Sending waste material directly to landfill is an expensive course of action and locating acceptable processes to divert waste out of landfill is now a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
So, the message to everybody is clear, sort your waste materials to scale back the amount of waste going to landfill. Traditionally, both at home and in the office, as soon as you place waste material in the container , it’s forgotten about. Someone else will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in your own home and at the office, recycling is being stimulated via the supply of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.
Perhaps the most common products to be seen being recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the possiblity to recycle many materials or products keeps growing.
One of many methods to be sure we do not disappear below a mountain of waste products is to construct a lot more energy recovering facilities so that our level of waste turns into a valuableresource.
The methods of collecting materials or waste materials to be recycled is also growing and becoming more noticeable within local communities. Specialist collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are springing up in superstore car parks to encourage clientele of the supermarket to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or card to the containers on their way into the store.
Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside usually at the front of your house. Collection from domestic premises typically continues to be the responsibility of the local authorities many have employed the supply of baskets in which to collect specified recyclable materials or products.
In the industrial and commercial market, waste material management companies offer separate storage containers in which the customer deposits the appropriate waste stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The particular bins will usually be clearly branded as to which recyclable materials should be put within that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to distinguish which recyclable materials need to be placed within which bins. Waste management companies also may have to deal with special requests from the customer.
The key to a successful recycling initiative is educating 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 productivity of what employees should be doing in their work. The introduction of any recycling scheme should be kept simple.
The Recycling Process
Various collection solutions exist for the collection of the recyclable material . Regardless of what collection method is employed , the resources are taken to a recycling centre where they’ll be segregated from other wastes.
To start the recycling process from the collection point of view, the more recyclable material 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. That is why individual containers are provided to the waste producer to inspire 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 for that reason will have a greater value when it reaches 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 contaminated with other waste materials.
When collected, the recyclable resources can be taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a dedicated glass collection vehicle could take the load on 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 being collected such as paper and card within the same container, it could be required for the collector to take the load to a recycling centre to unload and allow the load to be segregated into separate paper and card bundles for onward transfer to a paper or card processing plant. Whichever approach is used, the recyclable material collected will often be sorted or washed before traveling through to a reprocessing plant to be converted to a new useful resource and eventually used as something new or in manufacturing. Inert materials can be a useful by product at landfill, for example shredded tyres to help grip on access roads.
Most mega supermarkets have now introduced waste recycling schemes as an solution to the large volume of packaging material used on products.
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste material collected from homes is recycled or composted. Although in the commercial and industrial area, the amount of waste materials sent to landfill has declined considerably in recent years plus the volume of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has risen above the volumes going to landfill.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the control of waste across the UK as not all waste materials can be recycled and some are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other method. Nevertheless, it’s not just the increasing expense of disposing of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a more attractive option for companies. Landfill is becoming scarce, with certain specialists indicating that the volume of void available across all UK landfill sites, has less than ten years existence left before all sites are deemed to be full.
In recent times, waste material management companies have had to alter their focal point, and begin to take into consideration and invest in technology, like energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities also have adapted their approaches by commencing detailed strategic reviews as to how waste material under their jurisdiction must be taken care of. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are implementing plans to bring in long term deals, usually around 25 years long, through which to regulate all of their waste material management demands. These deals will most likely include the need to build a facility through which to take care of all waste materials created throughout the county by segregating all waste materials streams. The deals could also incorporate the collection of waste and recyclables from homes throughout the area. So the issue of waste management is beginning to change quickly. The times of just throwing anything in the dustbin have disappeared and the advent of new technologies are upon us.
Summary
Recycling is now a lifestyle and is here to stay. It has evolved over the years from a thing that was undertaken with no real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just attempting to make a living. Today, many blue chip companies are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste strategy, where the intention is very straightforward - reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must end up in landfill. Some companies have announced ambitious target dates by which to attain such plans.
Many houses across the country now have some form of container in which to separate waste for recycling. The decision to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. Whilst in industrial and commercial areas, there is an increasing selection of items to consider for recycling like 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 time 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 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.