All through history, recycling has existed in some guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC indications of early recycling are recognized to have occurred. Archaeological reports show that historical waste dumps contained fewer of what’s known today as household waste, like pots, tools 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.
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 things.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were necessary as natural resources became much more difficult to get. As well as food being rationed, certain materials including metal and fibre werenormally permitted just for use by the government in support of military operations, to fulfill manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.
As a result of rising energy costs, the requirement to recycle aluminium increased during the 1970′s.. As a material aluminium uses significantly less energy during the production process than some other materials. Plus it was much sought-after because of its non rusting properties. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were prepared to pay cash in return for good quality metal. Also, in the seventies in regions of the United states, the first trucks were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the recovery of recyclable resources being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for big bulky items including bedsteads and old carpets.
Towards the late eighties, early 1990′s and as the awareness of handling the global environmental state heightened amongst global authorities, the attention on recycling really started to get momentum. In the UK, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of new legislation upon the waste materials sector, recycling schemes really started to take off. The once commonly well known waste disposal corporations, began to call themselves waste management businesses and demonstrated by the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste had to be managed more effectively.
These days, many hundreds of materials and products can be recycled, starting from paper, card, glass and plastics, to 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 process of converting second-hand products into new or nearly new materials avoiding the need for potentially useable materials or products to be discarded.
Recycling performs an important role in a world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It helps to reduce the requirement to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this diminishes the demand and the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new raw materials, lowers energy use and air and rain water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling is probably most evident through the recycling assistance now provided by local authorities for domestic refuse and recycling collections and by innovative waste management firms who commonly give a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions.
There will be many companies throughout the UK who now offer paper recycling, cardboard recycling, glass recycling, energy from waste , recycling services. But to be certain your waste is really going to be correctly recycled is it crucial to find a well known and reliable company.
In the waste material industry, the common promotional activity is all around the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a basic message suitable for a far reaching crowd. Look at ways to eliminate waste materials. Could the waste material products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved?
The waste materials hierarchy is often a strategy that many waste material management firms and local authorities look at when creating new waste management schemes. The strategy is designed to focus the intellect around avoiding waste materials being generated to begin 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 entire production process. The waste hierarchy stretches much wider than to waste materials management companies and local bodies. Working groups have already been established to bring many sectors together to consider the whole waste cycle. By way of example, the producer of a product has to consider how the product will be fabricated. Could components be used which can later be recycled or reused? Could the quantity of packaging which often surrounds the product be decreased? When the item reaches the retailer, is it required for the product to be left within an outer package? Once the retailer sells the product, what will the consumer do with the excess elements of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be collected and where will it go? Could it return to a recycling facility, for onward shipment to a reprocessing facility, in which 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 most waste material should be processed to reduce the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has applied a landfill levy on all waste material discarded within landfill. The rate of duty has increased considerably in recent years rising from the initial level of £8 per ton, to the current rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has previously announced that this will increase further to £48 per ton from the end of 2010/11. This cost applies to all general waste material streams, although there’s a lesser rate for inert products. Sending waste material directly to landfill is an expensive course of action and choosing appropriate processes to divert waste away from landfill has become a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
So, the message to everyone is crystal clear, sort your waste materials to reduce the volume of waste material going to landfill. Traditionally, both at home and at work, as soon as you place waste material into the bin , it is forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in the home and at your workplace, recycling is being stimulated with the supply of containers in which to place certain recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.
Some common resources to be seen being gathered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. Even so the possiblity to recycle a vast number of materials or products keeps growing. 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.
Inside sizeable buildings, various recycling schemes can easily be introduced to get used or unwanted recyclable items.
The systems of collecting resources or waste materials to be recycled is also increasing and becoming more noticeable within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are popping up in superstore car parks to encourage customers of the superstore to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or card to the bins on their way into the store.
Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside typically in front of your property. Collection from household premises typically continues to be the duty of the local authorities many have employed the provision of bags in which to gather specific recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the business and commercial field, waste material management contractors offer separate containers where the customer deposits the applicable waste stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The containers will often be clearly tagged as to which recyclable product need to be put inside that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will be colour coded to distinguish which recyclable products need to be placed within which bins. Waste management companies also may have to deal with special requests from the customer.
One of the keys 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 effectiveness of what employees should be doing in their work.
The Recycling Process
Various 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 wastes. This can be done manually or by employing mechanical separators.
To begin the recycling process from a collection perspective, 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. For this reason individual storage units are provided to the waste producer to promote segregation at source. If card can be collected on a vehicle, which will collect no other waste material, the card will be kept clean and for that reason could have an improved value when it reaches the processing plant. In the same way, dedicated glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect just glass. Apart from the obvious health and safety factors 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.
Once collected, the recyclable resources are generally taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific 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 blended recyclables have been collected such as paper and card within the same compartment, it could be required for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and permit the load to be segregated into separate paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what technique is employed, the recyclable material gathered will most likely be sorted or washed before proceeding through to a reprocessing plant to be converted to a new useful resource and ultimately used as something new or in manufacturing.
There is a charity programme at present in place where food waste from supermarkets which would otherwise be thrown away, is gathered and redistributed for the struggling and needy members of the community.
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste collected from households is recycled or composted. Whilst in the commercial and industrial community, the quantity of waste materials sent to landfill has dropped considerably recently and also the volume of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has risen over the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to boost rates even more within this sector.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the management of waste across the UK as not all wastes are able to be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other means. However, it’s not just the increasing expense of getting rid of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a more attractive option for corporations. Landfill is becoming scarce, with some specialists suggesting that the amount of space in existence across all UK landfill sites, has less than 10 years existence left before all sites are reckoned to be full. Such countries as Dubai have filled parts of the coastline with their waste and created useful land area to extend the boundaries of their kingdom.
In the past few years, waste materials management companies have had to change their focus, and start to take into account and put money into new technologies, such as energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion plants and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities have also changed their approaches by undertaking detailed strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction should be taken care of. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are implementing plans to bring in long-term deals, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to regulate their waste materials management needs. These deals will most likely include the need to develop a facility through which to handle all waste material generated throughout the county by segregating all waste material streams. The agreements may also incorporate the collection of waste and recyclables from households across the area. So the face of waste management is changing quickly. The days of merely throwing every little thing in the dustbin have gone and the advent 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 not going anywhere soon. It has evolved over the years from something 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 firms are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste strategy, where the objective is very straightforward – 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 realize such plans.
Many properties across the country now have some form of bin in which to divide 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 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.
