Right through history, recycling has been around in some form or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC indications of earlier recycling are known to have happened. Archaeological reports show that historical waste dumps contained less of what is known nowadays as household waste, such as pots, utensils and ash, which demonstrates that men and women were, even back then, keen to reuse products during a period when natural resources weren’t so freely available.
Indeed it could 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 transforming the collected items into something new.
During periods like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural resources became a lot more difficult to come by. Along with food being rationed, certain materials including metal and fibre were largely permitted only for use by the government in support of military operations, in order to meet manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.
Thanks to rising energy costs, the need to recycle aluminium increased during the seventies.. As a material aluminium uses much less energy during the production process than many other materials. Also it was much prized on account of its non rusting qualities. The demand for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal merchants who were willing to pay good money in return for good quality metal. Also, in the 70’s in regions of the United States of America, the first vehicles were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for recovery of recyclable items being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for big bulky things including bedsteads and old carpets.
Towards the late eighties, early 1990’s and as the importance of handling the global environmental state accelerated amongst world-wide authorities, the debate upon recycling really began to get impetus. In the UK, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of the fresh new legislation upon the waste products industry, recycling schemes really started to take off. The once commonly knownwaste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management companies and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste needed to be managed more efficiently.
Currently, many hundreds of materials and products are easily 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 describes the process of reprocessing second hand resources into new or nearly new products and avoid the need for potentially valuable materials or products to be discarded.
Recycling performs a key role in a modern world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It reduces 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 natural materials, cuts back energy usage and air and water supply pollution, that all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling is probably most evident through the recycling assistance now provided by local councils for domestic refuse and recycling collections and also advanced waste management companies who commonly provide a full range of waste and recycling collection services.
There are many companies all around great britain 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 properly recycled is it essential to look for a well recognised and reliable company.
In the waste materials sector, the regular advertising activity is all around the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a straightforward message created for a far reaching crowd. Look at ways to lessen your waste material. Can the waste material products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or recovered? Many questions to think about.
The waste material hierarchy is often a strategy which a lot of waste material management companies and local bodies think about when developing new waste management approaches. The system is meant to focus the intellect around precluding waste being produced at all. Take into account the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle.
So the emphasis is very much on the whole manufacturing process. The waste materials hierarchy extends much wider than to waste materials management companies and local authorities. Working groups have been established to bring many sectors together to consider the complete waste cycle. For example, the producer of a product needs to think about how the product is to be manufactured. Can parts be used that can later be recycled or reused? Could the quantity of packaging which surrounds the product be reduced? When the product gets to the retailer, is it essential for the product to be located inside an outer box? Once the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the buyer do with the unwanted elements of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be collected and where will it go? Should it go back to a recycling plant, for onward transfer to a reprocessing facility, in which the cycle begins once again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste material should be treated to reduce the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has enforced a landfill tax on all waste material dumped within landfill. The rate of levy has increased considerably in recent years rising from the original 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 rate applies to all general waste material streams, although there exists a reduced rate for inert products. Sending waste material straight to landfill is an expensive option and finding appropriate ways to divert waste away from landfill has become important. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
Thus, the message to everyone is obvious, sort your waste material to reduce the amount of waste material going to landfill. In the past, both at home and at work, the instant you place waste material in the container , it’s forgotten about. Another person will collect it and take it away. Today, at home and in the office, recycling is being stimulated by the supply of containers in which to place certain recyclable materials.
Perhaps the most common materials to be seen being recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. Even so the possiblity to recycle a vast number of materials or products keeps growing.
There is a substantial choice of paper recycling containers should be set at high usage points for instance close to photocopying machines to collect unwanted paper.
The methods of collecting materials 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 cropping up in supermarket car parks to motivate customers of the supermarket to return such items as bottles, newspapers or card to the bins on their way into the store.
Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside typically in front of your property. Collection from domestic premises typically remains the duty of the local authorities many have now employed the supply of bags in which to gather particular recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the business and commercial field, waste material management businesses offer individual storage containers in which the customer deposits the applicable waste stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The containers will usually be plainly labeled as to which recyclable materials ought to be placed inside that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable products should 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 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 efficiency of what employees should be doing in their work. The introduction of any recycling scheme should be kept simple.
The Recycling Process
Several collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable products . Regardless of what collection system is employed , the resources are taken to a recycling centre where they will be segregated from other wastes.
To start the recycling process from the collection point of view, the more recyclable material that can be segregated at origin, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. That’s the reason individual containers are supplied to the waste producer to inspire segregation at source. If card can be collected on a vehicle, which will collect no other waste materials, the card will be kept uncontaminated and therefore will have a greater value when it gets to the processing plant. Likewise, dedicated glass collection vehicles are 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 contaminated with other waste.
Once collected, the recyclable materials may be taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a dedicated glass collection vehicle could take the load on to a glass processing plant.
If blended recyclables have been collected such as paper and card within the same compartment, it might 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 separate paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. Whichever technique is employed, the recyclable material obtained will usually be sorted or cleaned before going through to a reprocessing plant to be converted to a new resource and eventually used as a new product or in manufacturing.
There is a charity programme now in place where food waste from supermarkets which might otherwise be thrown away, is collected and redistributed to the struggling and needy members of the neighborhood.
The Increasing Importance of Recycling
In the UK close to 35% of waste materials collected from homes is recycled or composted. Whilst within the business and industrial market, the quantity of waste sent to landfill has dropped considerably in recent years as well as 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 management of waste across the UK as not all waste products are able to be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other method. Nonetheless, it’s not just the increasing expense of getting rid of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a far more appealing option for businesses. Landfill has started to become scarce, with many experts suggesting that the volume of void available across all UK landfill sites, has under ten years existence remaining before all sites are deemed to be full.
In recent years, waste management companies have had to switch their focal point, and begin to consider and put money into new technologies, such as energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities have also adapted their views by undertaking comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste under their jurisdiction needs to be handled. In some instances this means unitary authorities are progressing plans to introduce extended agreements, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to regulate their entire waste management demands. These deals will most likely include the need to build a facility through which to handle all waste material produced across the city by segregating all waste material streams. The contracts could also include the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes across the region. So the issue of waste management is evolving quickly. The times of simply throwing every little thing in the dustbin have disappeared 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.
Conclusion
Recycling has become a way of life and is here to stay. It has evolved over time from something that 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 firms 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 finish up in landfill.
Many properties across the country now have some kind of bin in which to separate waste for recycling. The requirement to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. Whilst in industrial and commercial sectors, there is an increasing list of items to take into account 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 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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