Right through history, recycling has been around in one way or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of early recycling are recognized to have occurred. Archaeological studies show that historical waste dumps contained fewer of what’s known today as household waste, such as pots, utensils and ash, which shows that individuals were, even back then, keen to reuse products at a time when natural resources were not 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 could be argued how 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 something new.
During periods like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural materials became much more difficult to come by. As well as food being rationed, certain materials such as metal and fibre werenormally permitted just for use by the government to support military operations, to meet manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
Thanks to rising power costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased in the seventies.. As a material aluminium uses much less energy in the production process than many other materials. Plus it was much prized due to its non rusting properties. The need for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal merchants who were willing to pay money in return for the best quality metal. Additionally, in the seventies in parts of the United States of America, the first vehicles were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for recovery of recyclable resources being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for large bulky objects including bedsteads and old carpets.
Towards the late 1980’s, early nineties and as the importance of managing the worldwide environmental state accelerated amongst worldwide governing bodies, the debate upon recycling really began to collect momentum. In the United Kingdom, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of new legislation upon the waste market, recycling schemes really started to take off. The once widely recognised waste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management providers and demonstrated with the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste needed to be managed more successfully.
Currently, many hundreds of materials and resources may be recycled, ranging from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phone handsets, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete. The demand for different types of collection receptacles has increased dramatically.
What Exactly is Recycling?
The word recycling describes the operation of reprocessing second-hand products into new or nearly new materials to avoid the need for potentially useful materials or products to be discarded. Essentially it is diverting waste away from landfill.
Recycling performs an integral role in a world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It reduces the need to unnecessarily send waste products and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. As a result this diminishes the demand or the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new natural resources, decreases energy usage and air and water supply pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the environment.
Recycling would probably be most evident through the recycling services now provided by local authorities for household refuse and recycling collections and also advanced waste management organisations who commonly offer a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions. Some companies, that have in the past concentrated exclusively on the collection of recyclable products, are now extending their service offering to collect general waste material at the same time.
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In the waste materials industry, the most popular marketing activity surrounds the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a basic message created for a far reaching crowd. Consider some ways to lessen your waste material. Can the waste material 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 often a strategy that many waste management firms and local authorities think about when developing new waste management procedures. The plan is meant to concentrate the thoughts around preventing 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 production process. The waste materials hierarchy extends much wider than to waste material management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have already been set up to bring many sectors together to look at the entire waste cycle. For instance, the manufacturer of a product needs to think about the way the product will be fabricated. Could parts be used that can 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 placed inside an outer box? Once the retailer sells the product, what will the purchaser do with the excess components of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be collected and where will it go? Could it go back to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing facility, where the cycle will begin once again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste should be processed to avoid the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste material heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has applied a landfill levy on all waste material dumped within landfill. The rate of tax has increased considerably recently rising from the original 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 fee applies to all general waste streams, although there’s a reduced rate for inert materials. Dispatching waste material straight to landfill is an expensive choice and choosing acceptable 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 to reduce the volume of waste material going to landfill. Typically, both at home and in the office, the instant you place waste materials into the bin , it’s forgotten about. Someone else will collect it and take it away. These days, in the home and at your workplace, recycling is being encouraged via the provision of containers in which to place certain recyclable materials.
Some common resources to be seen being recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the possiblity to recycle a large amount of materials or products keep increasing.
Corporations like ours are fast providing energy recovering facilities to sustain the ongoing difficulty of what to do with all the level of waste we, as a nation, generate.
The means of collecting items or waste material to be recycled is also escalating and ever more noticeable within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are cropping up in superstore car parks to encourage clientele of the store to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or card to the bins on their way into the supermarket.
Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside normally at the front of your house. Collection from household premises generally remains the responsibility of the local authorities and several have employed the provision of bags in which to collect particular recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the business and commercial market, waste material management businesses offer standalone storage units where the customer deposits the appropriate waste stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The particular bins will often be plainly labeled as to which recyclable product need to be put inside that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to identify which recyclable materials 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 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 productivity of what employees should be doing in their work.
The Recycling Process
A variety of collection solutions exist for the collection of the recyclable products . Regardless of what collection system is used , the resources are taken to a drop off point where they will be segregated from other waste materials.
To start the recycling process from the collection perspective, the more recyclable material which can be separated at origin, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. That is why individual storage units are provided 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 will be kept clean and as a consequence could have an improved value when it gets to the processing plant. In the same way, specialist glass collection vehicles are used to collect solely glass. In addition to 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 contaminated with other waste.
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 truck could take the load straight 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 have been collected such as paper and card within the same container, it could be a necessity for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and permit the load to be segregated into distinct paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. Whichever approach is employed, the recyclable material collected will most likely be sorted or washed before going through to a reprocessing plant to be processed to a new resource and ultimately used as a new product or in manufacturing.
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The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK close to 35% of waste material collected from households is recycled or composted. Whilst in the business and industrial area, the amount of waste material sent to landfill has declined substantially in recent years plus the amount of waste now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has grown above the volumes going to landfill.
Landfill continues to play a necessary role in the control of waste across the UK as not all waste products are able to be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other method. However, it is not just the increasing costs of disposing of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a far more appealing option for companies. Landfill is becoming scarce, with several specialists hinting that the amount of space available across all UK landfill sites, has under ten years existence remaining before all sites are reckoned 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 the past few years, waste material management firms have had to alter their focus, and begin to consider and invest in technology, like energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities also have adapted their approaches by undertaking comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction should be dealt with. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are progressing plans to bring in long-term contracts, usually around 25 years in length, through which to manage their waste management requirements. These deals will most likely include the need to develop a facility through which to take care of all waste material generated throughout the region by sorting all waste material streams. The deals might also include the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes throughout the region. So the issue of waste management is beginning to change quickly. The times of simply throwing everything in the dustbin have vanished and the advent of new technologies are upon us.
Conclusion
Recycling is now a way of life and is maturing all the time. It has evolved through the years from something which was performed 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 objective is very clear – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must finish up in landfill. Some companies have announced ambitious target dates by which to accomplish such policies.
Many houses across the country now have some kind of container in which to isolate waste materials for recycling. The need to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and commercial sectors, 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.
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