Right through history, recycling has existed in one form or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of earlier recycling are known to have taken place. Archaeological studies show that historical waste dumps contained less of what is known today as household waste, like pots, utensils and ash, which demonstrates 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 that the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or converting 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 such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were essential as natural materials became a lot more difficult to get. In addition to food being rationed, certain materials like metal and fibre were largely allowed only for use by the government in support of military operations, to satisfy manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.
Due to rising power costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased during the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium utilises much less energy in the production process than many other materials. Also it was much sought-after as a result of its non rusting qualities. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were ready to pay good money in return for good quality metal. Also, in the seventies in areas of the USA, the first trucks were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for gathering of recyclable items being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for substantial bulky items including bedsteads and old carpets.
To the late eighties, early 1990’s and as the importance of managing the intercontinental environmental state increased amongst worldwide governments, the attention upon recycling really began to get momentum. In the UK, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of fresh legislation upon the waste product community, recycling programmes really began to take off. The once commonly well known waste disposal corporations, began to call themselves waste management providers and demonstrated with the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be handled more effectively.
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 Exactly is Recycling?
The word recycling identifies the operation of reprocessing used products into new or nearly new materials to avoid the need for potentially useful materials or products to be dumped.
Recycling takes on a key role in a modern world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It reduces the need to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. This in turn reduces the need and the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural materials, reduces energy use and air and drinking water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the natural environment.
Recycling is probably mostnoticeable through the recycling services now provided by local councils for domestic refuse and recycling collections and also innovative waste management firms who typically provide a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions.
One of the most well know British professional in waste products management is Biffa Waste Ltd, it is easy to visit their website to get more detailed information on all aspects of waste and poisonous waste management.
Within the waste material market, the regular advertising activity surrounds the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a basic message designed for a far reaching target audience. Think about some ways to reduce your waste material. Could the waste products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or recovered? Many questions to take into consideration.
The waste hierarchy is usually a strategy that a lot of waste management firms and local authorities look at when establishing new waste management schemes. The strategy is designed to concentrate the thought process around avoiding waste materials 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. The slogan has been adopted particularly well in the public sector.
So the emphasis is very much on the whole production process. The waste material hierarchy expands much wider than to waste management companies and local bodies. Working groups have already been established to bring many industries together to consider the complete waste cycle. For instance, the producer of a product needs to consider how a product is to be designed. Could components be used that can eventually be recycled or reused? Can the amount of packaging which surrounds the product be decreased? Once the product gets to the shop, is it required for the product to be left inside an outer package? Once the retailer sells the item, what will the consumer do with the excess components of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be recovered and where will it go? Can it go back to a recycling facility, for onward transfer to a reprocessing plant, in which the cycle will begin all over again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste material must be processed to reduce the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has applied a landfill levy on all waste materials dumped 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 recently declared that this will increase further to £48 per ton by the end of 2010/11. This rate applies to all general waste material streams, although there is a lesser rate for inert products. Sending waste materials straight to landfill is an expensive course of action and selecting appropriate solutions to divert waste out of landfill is now a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
Thus, the message to everyone is crystal clear, segregate your waste materials to scale back the volume of waste going to landfill. Typically, at home or in the office, the instant you place waste into the dustbin , it’s forgotten about. Another person will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, at home and at work, recycling is being stimulated through the provision of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials.
Some common materials to be seen being gathered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the possiblity 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 is taken back to a plant for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.
Practise of anaerobic digestion introduces micro- organisms within biodegradable matter, that performs in the absence of oxygen and cuts down the emissions of landfill gas.
The systems of collecting items or waste materials to be recycled is also increasing and becoming more visible 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 supermarket to return such items as bottles, newspapers or card to the containers on their way into the supermarket.
Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside commonly at the front of your property. Collection from household premises typically continues to be the responsibility of the local council and many have now employed the provision of boxes in which to collect particular recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the industrial and commercial field, waste materials management businesses offer individual storage containers in which the customer deposits the correct waste material stream or recyclable materials ready for collection. The containers will often be plainly branded as to which recyclable materials ought to be put inside that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to identify which recyclable wastes need to 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 educating 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 productivity of what employees should be doing in their work.
The Recycling Process
Numerous collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable material . No matter which collection method is utilised , the materials are taken to a materials recycling facility where they will be segregated from other waste items. This could be done manually or by making use of mechanical separators.
To start the recycling process from a collection perspective, the more recyclable materials which can be separated at origin, i.e. at home or in the workplace, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. That’s the reason separate containers are supplied to the waste producer to inspire separation at source. If card could be collected using a vehicle, which will collect no other waste materials, the card is going to be kept clean and therefore 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. Apart from the obvious health and safety factors and the weight of collected glass, it will have a greater value if the collected glass load is not mixed with other waste materials.
When collected, the recyclable materials are generally taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a dedicated glass collection truck could take the load directly to a glass processing plant.
If blended recyclables are collected such as paper and card within the same compartment, it could be required for the collector to take the load to a recycling centre to unload and permit the load to be segregated into individual paper and card bundles for onward transfer to a paper or card processing plant. Whatever approach is used, the recyclable material collected will most likely be sorted or washed before proceeding through to a reprocessing plant to be processed 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 big supermarkets have now introduced waste recycling schemes as an answer to the high quantities of packaging material used on goods.
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste material collected from homes is recycled or composted. Although in the business and industrial area, the quantity of waste sent to landfill has dropped substantially recently plus the amount of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has increased above the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to help to increase rates even more in this sector.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the control of waste throughout the UK as not all waste items can be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other method. Nonetheless, it’s not only the increasing costs of disposing of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling an even more attractive option for corporations. Landfill is starting to become scarce, with many experts suggesting that the amount of void accessible across all UK landfill sites, has under ten years existence left before all sites are reckoned to be full.
In the past few years, waste material management companies have had to change their focus, and begin to take into account and invest in new technologies, such as energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion plants and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities have changed their views by commencing detailed strategic reviews as to how waste material under their jurisdiction needs to be handled. In some cases this has meant that unitary authorities are progressing plans to bring in long-term deals, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to regulate all of their waste management demands. These agreements will most likely include the need to create a facility through which to handle all waste produced across the county by segregating all waste materials streams. The deals could also include the collection of waste and recyclables from homes across the region. So the issue of waste management is changing quickly. The times of just 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 has become a lifestyle 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 working to make a living. Today, many blue chip companies are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste policy, where the objective is very clear – 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 policies.
Many properties across the country now have some form of bin in which to divide waste 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 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 technologies 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.
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