All the way through history, recycling has been around in one form or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC signs of earlier recycling are recognized to have happened. Archaeological studies show that historical waste dumps contained fewer of what’s known nowadays as household waste, like pots, utensils and ash, which demonstrates that individuals were, even in those days, keen to reuse products during a period 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 collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or transforming the accumulated items into new things.
During periods like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural materials became much more difficult to find. Along with food being rationed, certain materials like metal and fibre were largely allowed only for use by the government to support military operations, in order to meet manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
Due to rising energy costs, the requirement to recycle aluminium increased during the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium uses much less energy in the production process than alternative materials. Also it was much sought after owing to its non rusting qualities. The need for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal merchants who were prepared to pay money in return for the best quality metal. Additionally, in the 70’s in areas of the United states, the first vehicles were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the gathering of recyclable materials being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for big bulky things including bedsteads and old carpets.
To the late 1980’s, early 1990’s and as the importance of managing the worldwide environmental state increased amongst world-wide governing bodies, the attention upon recycling really started to collect energy. In the United Kingdom, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of fresh legal guidelines upon the waste product industry, recycling programmes really started to take off. The once commonly recognised waste disposal firms, began to call themselves waste management businesses and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste needed to be handled more successfully. Local skip companies needed to become better at what they did.
These days, many hundreds of materials and resources can be recycled, starting from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phone handsets, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.
What is Recycling?
The word recycling describes the process of converting second hand products into new or nearly new products avoiding the need for potentially useful materials or products to be discarded. Essentially it is diverting waste materials away from landfill.
Recycling plays an integral role in a world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It helps to reduce the need to unnecessarily send waste material and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. As a result this diminishes the demand and the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural materials, reduces energy usage and air and water pollution, that all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the natural environment.
Recycling is probably most evident through the recycling solutions now provided by local authorities for domestic refuse and recycling collections and also innovative waste management firms who generally provide a full range of waste and recycling collection services.
Some factories will release into the water hazardous waste, so visit www.biffa.co.uk and hire the specialists to be sure of secure disposal and compliance with the regulations.
Within the waste sector, the regular advertising activity surrounds the waste materials hierarchy - ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a basic message created for a far reaching target audience. Think about some ways to get rid of your waste material. Could the waste materials products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or recovered?
The waste material hierarchy is often a strategy that a lot of waste management organisations and local bodies look at when establishing new waste management strategies. The strategy is intended to focus the mind around preventing waste material being generated to begin with. Consider 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 whole manufacturing process. The waste materials hierarchy expands much wider than to waste materials management businesses and local authorities. Working groups have been set up to bring many industries together to look at the entire waste cycle. For instance, the producer of a product has to take into account how the product will be made. Could parts be used which can eventually be recycled or reused? Can the quantity of packaging which surrounds the product be cut down? Once the item gets to the retailer, is it essential for the product to be placed within an outer box? If the retailer sells the product, what will the buyer do with the unwanted elements of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be handled and where will it go? Does it go back to a recycling facility, for onward transfer to a reprocessing facility, in which the cycle starts again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that most waste needs to be treated to reduce the quantity of recyclables and unnecessary waste heading 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 lately rising from the initial level of £8 per ton, to the current rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has recently announced that this will increase further to £48 per ton by the end of 2010/11. This charge applies to all general waste streams, although there is a lower rate for inert materials. Sending waste material directly to landfill is an expensive course of action and finding appropriate methods to divert waste away from landfill has become a priority.
So, the message to everybody is crystal clear, segregate your waste to cut back the volume of waste material going to landfill. Traditionally, at home or at work, the instant you place waste materials in the bin , it is forgotten about. Another individual will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in the home and in the office, recycling is being encouraged by the provision of containers in which to place specific recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.
Some common products to be seen being recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the possiblity to recycle many materials or products keep increasing. 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.
Due to vast quantities of rubbish accumulating, the process of anaerobic digestion is a much more ecological method of converting level of waste into a very important resource.
The methods of collecting items or waste materials to be recycled is also growing and ever more apparent within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are popping up in supermarket car parks to inspire customers of the supermarket to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or card to the containers on their way into the store.
Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside commonly at the front of your house. Collection from domestic premises generally 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 industrial and commercial market, waste materials management businesses offer standalone containers where the customer deposits the appropriate waste stream or recyclable material ready for collection. The particular bins will often be plainly branded as to which recyclable product need to be placed within that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will probably be colour coded to distinguish which recyclable materials should be placed within which bins.
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 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 material . Regardless of what collection system is used , the resources are taken to a recycling centre where they’ll be segregated from other waste items. This might be done manually or through the use of mechanical separators.
To begin the recycling process from the collection viewpoint, the more recyclable materials which can be segregated at origin, i.e. at home or in the workplace, the more efficient it will be for the waste collector. For this reason separate storage units are provided to the waste producer to inspire segregation at source. If card can be collected using a vehicle, which will collect no other waste materials, the card can be kept clean and therefore will have an increased value when it actually reaches the processing plant. Similarly, dedicated glass collection vehicles are used to collect solely glass. Aside from the obvious health and safety reasons and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a much higher value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste material.
Once collected, the recyclable resources can 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 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 compartment, it might be necessary for the collector to take the load to a materials recycling facility to unload and permit the load to be segregated into separate paper and card bundles for onward transfer to a paper or card processing plant. No matter which process is employed, the recyclable material obtained will often be segregated or cleaned before proceeding through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new useful resource and eventually used as something new or in manufacturing.
Because of high density populations, the problem of waste disposal requires more innovative solutions than the old landfill ideas. power in waste is just one such solution, turning waste material into electricity.
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK close to 35% of waste materials collected from homes is recycled or composted. While in the commercial and industrial community, the quantity of waste material delivered to landfill has declined substantially in recent years and the amount of waste materials 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 increase rates further in this sector.
Landfill continues to play a vital role in the control of waste throughout the UK as not all waste materials can be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other method. Nonetheless, it’s not just the increasing costs of disposing of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a more attractive option for companies. Landfill is now scarce, with certain authorities indicating that the volume of void readily available across all UK landfill sites, has under 10 years existence left before all sites are considered to be full.
In the past few years, waste materials management firms have had to vary their focal point, and start to consider and spend money on new technologies, like energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion plants and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities also have changed their attitudes by commencing detailed strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction needs to be dealt with. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are progressing plans to introduce long-term agreements, usually around two-and-a-half decades in length, through which to regulate all of their waste materials management requirements. These deals will most likely include the need to create a facility through which to handle all waste created across the city by segregating all waste materials streams. The contracts might also incorporate the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes across the area. So the issue of waste management has been evolving rapidly. The days of merely throwing every little thing in the dustbin have gone and the development of new technologies are upon us. The introduction of new technologies will play a huge role in the future of waste management.
Summary
Recycling is now a way of life and is here to stay. It has evolved through the years from something that was undertaken 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 strategy, where the purpose is very straightforward - reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must wind up in landfill.
Many properties across the country now have some type of bin in which to separate waste for recycling. The requirement to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and commercial sectors, there is an increasing selection of items to think about 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 accelerate further the way in which our waste is to be managed in the future, but it is highly unlikely that we will ever reach the ultimate waste free society.