Right through history, recycling has existed in one guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC signs of earlier recycling are recognized to have happened. Archaeological reports show that historical waste dumps contained fewer of what is known today as household waste, including 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. Little did they know that the things they were starting would play such a huge role in shaping the world for future generations
Indeed it could be argued that the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or turning the collected items into new stuff. 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 resources became considerably more difficult to find. Along with food being rationed, certain materials like metal and fibre were largely allowed just 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.
As a consequence of rising power costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased in the seventies.. As a material aluminium uses a lesser amount of energy within the production process than various other materials. Also it was much prized on account of its non rusting qualities. The demand for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal dealers who were willing to pay cash in return for the best quality metal. Also, in the seventies in parts of the USA, 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 objects like bedsteads and old carpets.
Into the late eighties, early nineties and as the importance of managing the intercontinental environmental state increased amongst world-wide authorities, the focus upon recycling really began to gather impetus. In the UK, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of the new legal guidelines upon the waste sector, recycling initiatives really began to take off. The once widely recognised waste disposal corporations, began to call themselves waste management providers and demonstrated by the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be handled more successfully.
Nowadays, many hundreds of materials and resources may be recycled, including paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phone handsets, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.
What Exactly is Recycling?
The word recycling describes the process of converting second hand materials into new or nearly new products to avoid the need for potentially valuable materials or products to be dumped.
Recycling plays an integral role in a modern world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It removes the need to unnecessarily send waste products and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. As a result this diminishes the demand or the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new raw resources, decreases energy usage and air and drinking water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the natural environment.
Recycling is probably most evident through the recycling assistance now provided by local authorities for domestic refuse and recycling collections and also advanced waste management organisations who commonly provide a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions. Some companies, that have in the past concentrated only on the collection of recyclable items, are extending their operations offering to collect general waste at the same time.
Some factories will develop dangerous waste, so visit www.biffa.co.uk and hire the experts to be sure of secure disposal and compliance with the legislations.
Within the waste material market, the common promotional activity surrounds the waste hierarchy - ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a basic message devised for a far reaching crowd. Think about how you can reduce your waste. Could the waste products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved? Many questions to think about.
The waste material hierarchy is usually a strategy which a lot of waste material management companies and local bodies consider when producing new waste management approaches. The strategy is meant to focus the thoughts around avoiding waste 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.
And so the focus is very much on the whole production process. The waste materials hierarchy expands much wider than to waste material management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have already been established to bring many sectors together to consider the entire waste cycle. For instance, the manufacturer of a product must think about how a product will be made. Can components be used that can later be recycled or reused? Can the volume of packaging that surrounds the item be cut down? When the product reaches the store, is it required for the product to be placed inside an outer box? Once the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the purchaser do with the excess elements of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be collected and where will it go? Can it go back to a recycling facility, for onward transfer to a reprocessing facility, in which the cycle starts once again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that most waste material must be processed to divert the quantity of recyclables and unnecessary waste material going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has applied a landfill tax on all waste material dumped within landfill. The rate of tax 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 previously declared 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 reduced rate for inert products. Delivering waste material directly to landfill is an expensive option and selecting suitable ways to divert waste away from landfill has become a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
Therefore, the message to everyone is crystal clear, sort your waste material to reduce the volume of waste material going to landfill. Traditionally, at home or at work, the instant you place waste in the dustbin , it’s forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. These days, at home and in the office, recycling is being stimulated with the provision of bins in which to place certain recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.
Perhaps the most common materials to be seen being gathered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the opportunity to recycle a vast number of materials or products continues to grow.
The process of anaerobic digestion introduces micro- organisms in to biodegradable matter, which operates in the absence of oxygen and lowers the emissions of landfill gas.
The means of collecting resources or waste material to be recycled is also growing and ever more apparent 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 supermarket to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the bins on their way into the supermarket. Shoppers are therefore encouraged to bring back their recyclables.
Local Authority waste collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside usually at the front of your property. Collection from domestic premises generally remains the responsibility of the local authorities many have now employed the provision of bins in which to gather particular recyclable materials or products.
In the industrial and commercial sector, waste management companies offer individual storage units where the customer deposits the appropriate waste materials stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The particular bins will usually be clearly branded as to which recyclable materials should be placed within that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable products should be placed within which bins.
The 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 productivity of what employees should be doing in their work. The introduction of any recycling scheme should be kept simple.
The Recycling Process
Numerous collection solutions exist for the collection of the recyclable products . Regardless of what collection system is used , the materials are taken to a materials recycling facility where they will be segregated from other waste items. This may be done manually or by making use of mechanised separators.
To start the recycling process from a collection point of view, the more recyclable materials which can be separated at origin, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more useful it will be for the waste collector. That’s the reason individual containers are provided to the waste producer to inspire segregation at source. If card could be collected using a vehicle, that will collect no other waste materials, the card can be kept uncontaminated and as a consequence could have an increased value when it reaches the processing plant. Similarly, specialist glass collection vehicles are employed to collect just glass. Aside 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 mixed with other waste. Uncontaminated recyclables will present a much higher value than contaminated products.
Once collected, the recyclable materials are generally taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that particular type of material. So a separate glass collection vehicle could take the load straight to a glass processing plant.
If compounded recyclables are collected like paper and card within the same compartment, it could be a necessity for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and allow the load to be segregated into distinct paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what method is employed, the recyclable material gathered will usually be segregated or washed before going through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new useful resource and ultimately used as a new product or in manufacturing.
Numerous buildings throughout the united kingdom are now choosing to go with green energy for their own necessities like light and heating. Eventhough it may be expensive to set up at this stage, eventually it will save on expense
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK close to 35% of waste material collected from households is recycled or composted. Although within the business and industrial market, the volume of waste delivered to landfill has declined considerably recently as well as the volume of waste now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this sector has increased over the quantities going to landfill.
Landfill continues to play a necessary role in the management of waste throughout the UK as not all waste items are able to be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other method. Nevertheless, it’s not only the increasing costs of disposing of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a far more attractive option for companies. Landfill is now scarce, with many authorities suggesting that the volume of void in existence across all UK landfill sites, has under 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 country.
In the past few years, waste management firms have had to change their focal point, and start to take into consideration and invest in 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 changed their approaches by undertaking detailed strategic reviews as to how waste under their jurisdiction should be dealt with. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are implementing plans to bring in long-term contracts, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to control their entire waste management requirements. These agreements will most likely include the need to build a facility through which to handle all waste produced throughout the county by sorting all waste materials streams. The agreements may also incorporate the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes across the region. So the face of waste management is evolving rapidly. The days of just 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.
Summary
Recycling is now a lifestyle and is not going anywhere soon. It has evolved over time 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 obvious - reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must end up in landfill.
Many homes across the country now have some form of container in which to divide waste materials for recycling. The decision to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and business sectors, there is an increasing selection of items to consider for recycling like 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. There will always be a need for waste to be disposed of somewhere, somehow.