Throughout history, recycling has existed in one form or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC indications of early recycling are recognized to have taken place. Archaeological reports show that historical waste dumps contained fewer of what is known today as household waste, including pots, utensils and ash, which demonstrates that men and women were, even back then, keen to reuse materials during a period when natural resources weren’t so freely available. Little did they know that what they were starting would play such a huge role in shaping society for future generations
Indeed it may be argued that the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collecting unwanted goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or turning the accumulated items into new stuff. The 60′s TV series, Steptoe and Son, brought this very much in to the public eye and greater attention.
During periods like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural materials became much more difficult to find. As well as food being rationed, certain materials including metal and fibre were largely allowed only for use by the government in support of military operations, to meet manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
Due to rising power costs, the need to recycle aluminium increased in the 1970′s.. As a material aluminium utilises much less energy in the production process than various other materials. Also it was much sought after owing to its non rusting attributes. The demand for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal dealers who were prepared to pay cash in exchange for good quality metal. In addition, in the 70′s in regions of the United States of America, the first vans 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 1990′s and as the awareness of handling the global environmental state increased amongst international authorities, the focus on recycling really began to gather energy. In the UK, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of the new legislation upon the waste market, recycling programmes really began to take off. The once widely knownwaste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management businesses and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste needed to be handled more effectively.
Currently, many hundreds of materials and resources can be recycled, ranging from paper, card, glass and plastics, to phones, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.
What Exactly is Recycling?
The term recycling identifies the process of reprocessing second-hand items into new or nearly new materials avoiding the need for potentially useable materials or products to be dumped.
Recycling performs an integral role in a world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It reduces the requirement to unnecessarily send waste material and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. As a result this diminishes the demand and the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural materials, lowers energy usage and air and water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling is probably mostnoticeable through the recycling solutions now provided by local councils for domestic refuse and recycling collections and by innovative waste management firms who typically offer a full range of waste and recycling collection services.
Local bodies have now woken up to the fact that paper recycling, cardboard recycling, glass recycling, energy from waste is good for the economy and also good for the environment.
In the waste materials industry, the common promotional activity surrounds the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a straightforward message designed for a far reaching target audience. Consider ways to lessen your waste material. Could the waste material products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or recovered?
The waste hierarchy is a strategy that many waste management companies and local bodies look at when developing new waste management procedures. The strategy is designed to focus the thoughts 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.
So the emphasis is very much on the entire production process. The waste material hierarchy expands much wider than to waste material management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have already been set up to bring many industries together to look at the entire waste cycle. For instance, the manufacturer of a product must think about the way the product is to be manufactured. Could components be used which could later be recycled or reused? Could the quantity of packaging that surrounds the product be cut down? Once the product gets to the retailer, is it required for the product to be located inside an outer box? Once the retailer sells the product, what will the buyer do with the excess elements of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be collected and where will it go? Will it go back to a recycling facility, for onward shipment to a reprocessing facility, where the cycle will begin again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste material needs to be processed to divert the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste material going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has applied a landfill levy on all waste disposed of within landfill. The rate of tax has increased considerably in recent years rising from the initial level of £8 per ton, to today’s 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 charge applies to all general waste streams, although there exists a reduced rate for inert materials. Dispatching waste materials directly to landfill is an expensive choice and locating appropriate solutions to divert waste out of landfill is now important.
Therefore, the message to everybody is obvious, segregate your waste materials to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. Traditionally, at home or in the office, as soon as you place waste materials in the dustbin , it’s forgotten about. Another person will collect it and take it away. Today, in your own home and at the office, recycling is being encouraged by the supply of containers in which to place specific recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.
Some common resources to be seen being collected for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the opportunity to recycle a vast number of materials or products keep increasing.
Many schools propose glass recycling initiatives because it is a material that pupils take for granted, but can simply learn how to recycle.
The methods of collecting resources or waste material to be recycled is also increasing and ever more apparent within local communities. Specialist collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are springing up in supermarket car parks to motivate customers of the superstore to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the bins on their way into the supermarket.
Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside normally in front of your property. Collection from household premises usually remains the duty of the local authorities and several have employed the supply of bins in which to collect specific recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the business and commercial market, waste management businesses offer different containers in which the customer deposits the applicable waste stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The bins will usually be plainly branded as to which recyclable product need to be put inside that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable wastes ought 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 homeowners about what can be recycled and how. In the commercial world getting the co-operation of office 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
A variety of collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable products . Regardless of what collection system is utilised , the materials are taken to a materials recycling facility where they will be segregated from other waste materials.
To begin the recycling process from a collection viewpoint, the more recyclable material which can be segregated at origin, i.e. at home or in the workplace, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. That’s the reason individual containers are provided to the waste producer to inspire separation at source. If card can be collected on a vehicle, which will collect no other waste material, the card can be kept uncontaminated and therefore will have an improved value when it gets to the processing plant. Similarly, dedicated 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 will have a much higher value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste materials. Uncontaminated recyclables will present a much higher value than contaminated materials.
Once collected, the recyclable resources may be taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that particular type of material. So a separate glass collection vehicle 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 compartment, it could be necessary 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 transfer to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what process is employed, the recyclable material gathered will usually be sorted or washed before proceeding through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new resource and ultimately used as something new or in manufacturing.
In critical monetary periods such as today, minimising food waste will make a large impact to the expenditure on a individual as well as a countrywide level.
The Increasing Importance of Recycling
In the UK close to 35% of waste material collected from households is recycled or composted. Whilst in the commercial and industrial market, the amount of waste delivered to landfill has declined significantly in recent years as well as the amount of waste now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this sector has risen above the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to help to increase rates even more within this sector.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the management of waste across the UK as not all waste materials are able to be recycled and some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other means. Nevertheless, it’s not only the increasing costs of disposing of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a far more attractive option for companies. Landfill is becoming scarce, with several experts indicating that the amount of void readily available across all UK landfill sites, has under 10 years existence remaining before all sites are reckoned to be full.
In recent years, waste materials management firms have had to alter their focal point, and start to take into consideration and put money into new technologies, like energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion plants and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities have adapted their views by commencing comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction should be taken care of. In some instances this means unitary authorities are progressing plans to bring in extended agreements, usually around 25 years long, through which to handle all of their waste management needs. These agreements will often include the need to develop a facility through which to deal with all waste material created across the county by sorting all waste material streams. The contracts could also include the collection of waste and recyclables from households throughout the region. So the issue of waste management is evolving rapidly. The times of simply throwing anything 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.
Summary
Recycling is now a lifestyle and is here to stay. It has evolved over the years from something which was carried out 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 intention is very clear – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must end up in landfill.
Many homes across the country now have some kind of container in which to divide waste for recycling. The decision to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and business sectors, there is an increasing list of items to take into account for recycling like 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 technology 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.
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