All 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 ancient waste dumps contained less of what’s known today as household waste, such as pots, tools and ash, which demonstrates that people were, even back then, keen to reuse products at a time when natural resources were not so freely available.
Indeed it may 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 transforming the collected items into new stuff.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were necessary as natural resources became much more difficult to find. 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 satisfy manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
Due to rising power costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased during the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium uses much less energy within the production process than many other materials. Also it was much sought after due to its non rusting attributes. The demand for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal dealers who were willing to pay cash in exchange for the best quality metal. In addition, in the seventies in regions of the United States of America, the first trucks were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for recovery of recyclable materials being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for substantial bulky things like bedsteads and old carpets.
To the late eighties, early 1990’s and as the importance of handling the global environmental state increased amongst global governing bodies, the focus on recycling really began to collect momentum. In the UK, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of new legal guidelines upon the waste sector, recycling programmes really started to take off. The once commonly recognised waste disposal firms, began to call themselves waste management providers and demonstrated with the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste needed to be handled more effectively. Local skip companies needed to become better at what they did.
These days, many hundreds of materials and resources tend to 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 is Recycling?
The term recycling identifies the operation of reprocessing second-hand resources into new or nearly new products to avoid the need for potentially valuable materials or products to be dumped.
Recycling plays a key role in a world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It helps to reduce the requirement to avoidably send waste products and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this diminishes the demand or the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new natural resources, reduces energy usage and air and rain 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 contemporary waste management companies who typically provide a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions.
There will be many companies all around great britain who now provide paper recycling, cardboard recycling, glass recycling, energy from waste , collection services. But to be sure your waste is really going to be correctly recycled is it essential to find a well recognised and trustworthy company.
In the waste materials industry, the common marketing activity surrounds the waste material hierarchy - ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a straightforward message designed for a far reaching crowd. Look at ways to reduce your waste. Can the waste products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or recovered?
The waste material hierarchy is often a strategy which various waste management companies and local bodies look at when establishing new waste management schemes. The plan is designed to focus the thought process around precluding waste materials being generated in the first place. 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 focus is very much on the overall production process. The waste material hierarchy stretches much wider than to waste management businesses and local authorities. Working groups have been established to bring many industries together to look at the entire waste cycle. By way of example, the producer of a product has to consider how the product will be made. Could components be used that can eventually be recycled or reused? Can the quantity of packaging that surrounds the product be cut down? Once the product reaches the shop, is it required for the product to be left within an outer package? Once the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the purchaser do with the unwanted components of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be handled and where will it go? Can it return to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle will begin again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste material must be processed to divert the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste material going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has applied a landfill tax on all waste dumped 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 declared that this will increase further to £48 per ton from the end of 2010/11. This rate applies to all general waste materials streams, although there exists a lower rate for inert materials. Sending waste materials straight to landfill is an expensive choice and choosing acceptable methods to divert waste out of landfill is now important.
Therefore, the message to everyone is obvious, segregate your waste to cut back the volume of waste going to landfill. Typically, at home or in the office, the instant you place waste materials in the dustbin , it is forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. Today, in your own home and at your workplace, recycling is being encouraged via the supply of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials.
Perhaps the most common materials to be seen being gathered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the possiblity to recycle a vast number of materials or products keep increasing.
Due to immense quantities of rubbish accumulating, the process of anaerobic digestion is a much more ecological way of converting waste materials into a valuable resource.
The methods of collecting items or waste materials to be recycled is also growing and ever more noticeable within local communities. Specialist collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are popping up in supermarket car parks to encourage customers of the superstore to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the containers on their way into the store. Shoppers are therefore encouraged to bring back their recyclables.
Local Authority waste collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside typically in front of your property. Collection from domestic premises generally remains the duty of the local council 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 industrial and commercial category, waste materials management contractors offer different storage units in which the customer deposits the applicable waste materials stream or recyclable materials ready for collection. The particular bins will usually be plainly labeled as to which recyclable materials need to be placed within that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable wastes 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 informing the public about what can be recycled and how. In the commercial world getting the co-operation of office 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 introduction of any recycling scheme should be kept simple.
The Recycling Process
Several collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable products . No matter which collection method is used , the materials are taken to a recycling centre where they’ll be segregated from other waste materials.
To begin the recycling process from a collection point of view, the more recyclable material which can be segregated at source, 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 encourage separation at source. If card can be collected using a vehicle, that will collect no other waste materials, the card will be kept clean and as a consequence could have a higher value when it reaches the processing plant. In the same way, specialist glass collection vehicles are used to collect just glass. In addition to the obvious health and safety factors and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a greater value if the collected glass load is not mixed with other waste material. Uncontaminated recyclables will present a better value than contaminated products.
Once 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 mixed 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 allow the load to be segregated into individual paper and card bundles for onward transfer to a paper or card processing plant. Whichever approach is used, the recyclable material obtained will most likely be segregated or cleaned 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, such as shredded car tyres to help traction on access roads.
There can be different ways to generate green energy within the residence and now there are government schemes in the form of grants to help support these initiatives.
The Increasing Importance of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste material collected from households is recycled or composted. Whilst within the commercial and industrial community, the quantity of waste material delivered to landfill has dropped substantially in recent years as well as the amount of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has grown over the amounts going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to boost rates further in this sector.
Landfill continues to play a necessary role in the management of waste across the UK as not all waste products can be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other method. However, it’s not just the increasing expense of disposing of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a more attractive option for businesses. Landfill is now scarce, with certain authorities hinting that the amount of void in existence 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 kingdom.
In recent times, waste management companies have had to switch their focal point, and start to take into account and invest in new technologies, like energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities have also changed their approaches by undertaking detailed strategic reviews as to how waste under their jurisdiction should be dealt with. In some instances this means unitary authorities are implementing plans to introduce extended deals, usually around 25 years long, through which to manage their entire waste management requirements. These contracts will most likely include the need to build a facility through which to deal with all waste created throughout the county by sorting all waste materials streams. The deals could also include the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes throughout the region. So the face of waste management is beginning to change quickly. The days of merely throwing everything in the dustbin have vanished 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 carried out with no real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just attempting to make a living. Today, many blue chip organisations are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste plan, where the purpose is very straightforward - reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must wind up in landfill. Some companies have announced ambitious target dates by which to achieve such plans.
Many homes across the country now have some kind of bin in which to separate waste materials for recycling. The decision to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. Whilst in industrial and business sectors, there is an increasing selection of items to take into account for recycling such as printer cartridges, office paper, metal and electrical equipment.
Ideally the entire process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the time 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. There will always be a need for waste to be disposed of somewhere, somehow.