The Rising Importance of Recycling

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Right through history, recycling has been around in some way or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC signs of early recycling are known to have happened. Archaeological reports show that historical waste dumps contained fewer of what is known nowadays as household waste, such as pots, tools and ash, which shows that individuals were, even back then, keen to reuse materials during a period when natural resources were not 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 transforming the accumulated items into something new. The 60′s TV series, Steptoe and Son, brought this very much in to the public eye and greater attention.

During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were crucial as natural materials became considerably more difficult to find. Along with food being rationed, certain materials including metal and fibre were largely 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.

Due to rising energy costs, the need to recycle aluminium increased during the 1970′s.. As a material aluminium utilises a lesser amount of energy in the production process than various other materials. Also it was much sought-after owing to its non rusting properties. The need for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were willing to pay cash in exchange for the best quality metal. Also, in the seventies in regions of the USA, the first vans were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for recovery of recyclable materials being towed behind the vehicle.

Into the late 1980′s, early nineties and as the importance of managing the intercontinental environmental state increased amongst global authorities, the attention on recycling really started to gather impetus. In the United Kingdom, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of fresh legislation upon the waste market, recycling schemes really started to take off. The once widely knownwaste disposal corporations, began to call themselves waste management firms and demonstrated with the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste needed to be managed more efficiently.

Currently, many hundreds of materials and resources may be recycled, ranging 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 word recycling describes the process of reprocessing second-hand resources 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 takes on an important role in a modern world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It removes the need to unnecessarily send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this reduces the demand or the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new natural materials, cuts back energy usage and air and drinking water 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 assistance now provided by local authorities for household refuse and recycling collections and also modern waste management companies who commonly provide a full range of waste and recycling collection services.

Many offices and retail outlets require a commercial collection service go to www.biffa.co.uk for information of the expert services offered.

In the waste materials industry, the normal promotional activity surrounds the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a basic message made for a far reaching target audience. Think about some ways to reduce your waste materials. Can the waste products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or recovered?

The waste hierarchy is a strategy which various waste management companies and local authorities look at when producing new waste management schemes. The strategy is designed to focus the intellect around preventing waste being generated to start with. Consider 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.

And so the focus is very much on the whole manufacturing process. The waste hierarchy stretches much wider than to waste materials management firms and local authorities. Working groups have already been established to bring many industries together to look at the whole waste cycle. For instance, the producer of a product needs to take into account how a product will be designed. Can parts be used which could later be recycled or reused? Can the volume of packaging which surrounds the product be decreased? Once the item reaches the shop, is it necessary for the product to be placed within an outer box? If the retailer sells the merchandise, 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? Will it go back to a recycling facility, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, in which the cycle will begin yet again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.

How are Materials Collected for Recycling?

Legislation now dictates that all waste needs to be treated to avoid the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has applied a landfill levy on all waste materials discarded within landfill. The rate of duty 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 announced that this will increase further to £48 per ton from the end of 2010/11. This charge applies to all general waste material streams, although there exists a lesser rate for inert products. Delivering waste material directly to landfill is an expensive course of action and locating appropriate methods to divert waste away from landfill is now important. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.

Thus, the message to everyone is obvious, sort your waste materials to reduce the volume of waste going to landfill. Traditionally, at home or at the office, the instant you place waste materials into the dustbin , it is forgotten about. Another individual will collect it and take it away. These days, in your own home and in the office, recycling is being encouraged with the supply of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.

Some common resources to be seen being collected for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. However the opportunity to recycle a large amount of materials or products keep increasing.

Because of the large quantities of waste accumulating, the process of anaerobic digestion is a much more ecological method of transforming level of waste into a very important resource.

The systems of collecting resources or waste material to be recycled is also increasing and ever more noticeable within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are popping up in supermarket car parks to motivate customers 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 roadside typically in front of your property. Collection from domestic premises typically continues to be the responsibility of the local council and several 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 sector, waste management contractors offer standalone storage units in which the customer deposits the correct waste material stream or recyclable material ready for collection. The bins will often be plainly branded as to which recyclable materials need 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.

The true secret to a successful recycling initiative is residents 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

A variety of collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable material . No matter which collection method is employed , the materials are taken to a drop off point where they’ll be segregated from other wastes.

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 efficient it will be for the waste collector. For this reason individual storage units are provided to the waste producer to stimulate separation at source. If card could be collected on a truck, which will collect no other waste materials, the card can be kept clean and as a consequence could have a higher value when it reaches the processing plant. Similarly, specialist glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect solely glass. Apart from the obvious health and safety reasons 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. Uncontaminated recyclables will present a much higher value than contaminated materials.

When collected, the recyclable resources may be 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 mixed recyclables have been collected like paper and card within the same container, it may be required for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and allow the load to be sorted into separate paper and card bundles for onward transfer to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what process is used, the recyclable material obtained will most likely be sorted or cleaned before proceeding through to a reprocessing plant to be processed to a new useful resource and ultimately used as something new or in manufacturing.

In severe economic times similar to now, cutting down food waste will make a large difference to the finances on a private as well as a national level.

The Increasing Significance of Recycling

In the UK close to 35% of waste collected from households is recycled or composted. While in the business and industrial community, the volume of waste material sent to landfill has dropped substantially in recent years and the volume of waste material now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this sector has increased over the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to boost rates further in this sector.

Landfill continues to play an important role in the control of waste across the UK as not all waste items can be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other method. Nonetheless, it’s not only the increasing expense of disposing of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a far more appealing option for businesses. Landfill is starting to become scarce, with many experts indicating that the quantity of void accessible across all UK landfill sites, has less than 10 years existence left before all sites are deemed to be filled.

In the past few years, waste materials management firms have had to change their focus, and start to take into account and spend money on technology, such as energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities also have adapted their attitudes by undertaking detailed strategic reviews as to how waste material under their jurisdiction should be handled. In some cases this means unitary authorities are progressing plans to bring in long-term agreements, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to control all of their waste materials management demands. These contracts will often include the need to develop a facility through which to take care of all waste created across the county by segregating all waste materials streams. The contracts may also incorporate the collection of all waste and recyclables from households throughout the area. So the face of waste management has been evolving rapidly. The days of simply throwing every little thing in the dustbin have gone 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.

Conclusion

Recycling is now a way of life and is here to stay. It has evolved through the years from something which 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 firms are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste policy, where the intention 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 realize such policies.

Many homes across the country now have some form of bin in which to separate waste materials for recycling. The requirement to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and commercial areas, there is an increasing list of items to take into account for recycling such as 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 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.