All the way through history, recycling has been around in some guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of earlier recycling are known to have taken place. Archaeological studies show that ancient waste dumps contained fewer of what is known nowadays as household waste, including pots, tools and ash, which shows that individuals were, even back then, keen to reuse materials during a period 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 society for future generations
Indeed it could be argued that the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or transforming the collected 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 like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural materials became considerably more difficult to find. In addition to food being rationed, certain materials including 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.
As a result of rising energy costs, the need to recycle aluminium increased in the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium utilises a lesser amount of energy during the production process than some other materials. Also it was much coveted as a result of its non rusting qualities. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were ready to pay cash in return for good quality metal. Additionally, in the seventies in areas of the United States of America, the first vans were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the collection of recyclable items being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for substantial bulky objects such as bedsteads and old carpets.
To the late eighties, early nineties and as the importance of handling the global environmental state heightened amongst international governments, the debate on recycling really started to collect energy. In the United Kingdom, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of the new legislation upon the waste product community, recycling schemes really began to take off. The once widely well known waste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management companies and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste had to be handled more efficiently.
Nowadays, 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 Exactly is Recycling?
The term recycling identifies the operation of converting second hand materials into new or nearly new materials avoiding the need for potentially useable materials or products to be thrown away.
Recycling takes on a key role in a world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It reduces the need to avoidably send waste products and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. As a result this diminishes the need and the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new raw resources, decreases energy usage and air and water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling would probably be most evident through the recycling services now provided by local authorities for domestic refuse and recycling collections and also innovative waste management organisations who typically give a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions.
Recently the recovery of energy from waste is becoming an essential green process for the advantage of all.
Within the waste sector, the most popular advertising activity surrounds the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a simple message designed for a far reaching audience. Consider some ways to get rid of your waste material. Could the waste products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved?
The waste hierarchy is a strategy that various waste management organisations and local authorities think about when creating new waste management approaches. The plan is intended to focus the intellect around precluding waste material being generated at all. 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.
And so the focus is very much on the entire production 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 look at the entire waste cycle. By way of example, the manufacturer of a product needs to think about the way the product is to be made. Could parts be used which could later be recycled or reused? Can the quantity of packaging which surrounds the product be decreased? Once the product gets to the store, is it necessary for the product to be located inside an outer package? If the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the consumer do with the excess elements of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be handled and where will it go? Can it go back to a recycling facility, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, in which the cycle starts yet again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste should be treated to avoid the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has enforced a landfill tax on all waste material discarded within landfill. The rate of tax has increased considerably recently 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 charge applies to all general waste streams, although there is a lower rate for inert products. Delivering waste straight to landfill is an expensive option and finding appropriate solutions to divert waste out of landfill has become important.
Therefore, the message to everybody is obvious, segregate your waste material to reduce the volume of waste materials going to landfill. Typically, both at home and at the office, the instant you place waste materials into the container , it is forgotten about. Someone else will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in the home and in the office, recycling is being encouraged with the provision of bins in which to place certain recyclable materials.
Some common products 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 keep increasing. Although technically not seen as recycling, food waste and garden waste collections are increasing, where the food or garden waste materials is taken back to a plant for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.
Many schools propose paper recycling incentives because it is a material which pupils take for granted, yet can easily learn to recycle.
The means of collecting materials or waste to be recycled is also growing and ever more noticeable within local communities. Specialist collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are cropping up in supermarket car parks to inspire clientele of the superstore to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or card to the containers on their way into the store. Shoppers are therefore encouraged to return with their recyclables.
Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside usually at the front of your home. Collection from domestic premises usually remains the responsibility of the local council and several have now employed the provision of baskets in which to collect particular recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the business and commercial category, waste materials management businesses offer separate storage containers where the customer deposits the appropriate waste materials stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The bins will often be plainly tagged as to which recyclable materials ought to be put inside that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will probably be colour coded to identify which recyclable products should be placed within which bins.
The real 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 Recycling Process
Numerous collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable material . Whichever collection system is used , the resources are taken to a recycling centre where they will be segregated from other wastes.
To begin the recycling process from the collection point of view, the more recyclable materials which can be segregated at source, i.e. at home or in the workplace, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. For this reason separate containers are supplied to the waste producer to encourage segregation at source. If card can be collected using a vehicle, that will collect no other waste material, the card can be kept uncontaminated and therefore could have an increased value when it gets to the processing plant. Likewise, dedicated glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect only glass. Apart from 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 mixed with other waste material.
Once collected, the recyclable materials may be taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a dedicated glass collection vehicle could take the load straight to a glass processing plant.
If mixed recyclables have been collected like paper and card within the same compartment, it might be required for the collector to take the load to a materials recycling facility to unload and permit the load to be sorted into individual paper and card bundles for onward transfer to a paper or card processing plant. Whichever approach is employed, the recyclable material gathered will usually be segregated or cleaned before going through to a reprocessing plant to be converted to a new resource and eventually used as something new or in manufacturing.
In critical financial instances similar to now, bringing down food waste will make a considerable difference to the finances on a private as well as a nationwide level.
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste materials collected from homes is recycled or composted. Whilst within the business and industrial area, the volume of waste material delivered to landfill has dropped substantially in recent years and the amount of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this sector has grown above the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to increase rates further within this sector.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the control of waste throughout the UK as not all waste products are able to be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other method. However, it is not just the increasing expense of getting rid of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a far more attractive option for companies. Landfill is becoming scarce, with several authorities hinting that the volume of space available across all UK landfill sites, has less than ten years existence remaining 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 country.
In recent years, waste material management firms have had to vary their focus, and start to think about and put money into new technologies, like energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities also have changed their approaches by commencing comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction needs to 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 regulate their waste materials management demands. These contracts will most likely include the need to develop a facility through which to handle all waste material produced throughout the city by segregating all waste materials streams. The contracts might also incorporate the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes across the region. So the face of waste management has been evolving quickly. The times of just throwing anything in the dustbin have disappeared and the development of new technologies are upon us.
Summary
Recycling has become a lifestyle and is maturing all the time. It has evolved over the years from something 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 organisations are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste plan, where the intention is very obvious – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must end up in landfill.
Many households across the country now have some type of bin in which to separate waste materials for recycling. The decision to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. 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.
