The Expanding Importance of Recycling

Right through history, recycling has existed in some form or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC signs of earlier recycling are known to have taken place. Archaeological studies show that ancient waste dumps contained less of what’s known nowadays as household waste, including pots, tools and ash, which shows that men and women were, even in those days, keen to reuse products during a period when natural resources weren’t 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 new stuff. The 60′s TV series, Steptoe and Son, brought this very much in to the public eye and greater attention.

During periods like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural materials became much more difficult to get. Along with food being rationed, certain materials including metal and fibre werenormally permitted only for use by the government to support military operations, to meet manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.

Due to rising energy costs, the requirement to recycle aluminium increased in the seventies.. As a material aluminium uses a reduced amount of energy in the production process than some other materials. Also it was much sought-after as a result of its non rusting properties. The need for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were prepared to pay cash in return for the best quality metal. In addition, in the seventies in regions of the USA, the first vans were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for collection of recyclable resources being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for substantial bulky objects such as bedsteads and old carpets.

To the late 1980′s, early nineties and as the awareness of managing the global environmental state accelerated amongst worldwide authorities, the focus on recycling really began to collect energy. In the United Kingdom, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of the fresh legislation upon the waste industry, recycling schemes really began to take off. The once widely recognised waste disposal firms, began to call themselves waste management firms and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be handled more effectively. Local skip companies needed to become better at what they did.

Today, many hundreds of materials and resources can be recycled, ranging from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phones, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.

What Exactly is Recycling?

The term recycling describes the process of reprocessing used items into new or nearly new materials to avoid the need for potentially valuable materials or products to be discarded. Essentially it is diverting waste material from landfill.

Recycling performs a vital role in a world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It helps to reduce the requirement to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this lessens the demand or the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new raw materials, lowers energy use and air and water supply pollution, that all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Recycling would probably be most evident through the recycling facilities now provided by local councils for domestic refuse and recycling collections and by innovative waste management organisations who generally offer a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions.

Some factories will develop dangerous waste, so visit www.biffa.co.uk and hire the experts to be confident of secure disposal and compliance with the law.

In the waste material industry, the common marketing activity surrounds the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a straightforward message designed for a far reaching crowd. Think about some ways to get rid of your waste materials. Could the waste products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved? Many questions to take into consideration.

The waste material hierarchy is often a strategy that many waste material management organisations and local bodies look at when developing new waste management procedures. The strategy is intended to focus the intellect around preventing waste material 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. The slogan has been adopted particularly well in the public sector.

So the emphasis is very much on the whole manufacturing process. The waste materials hierarchy extends much wider than to waste material management companies and local bodies. Working groups have been set up to bring many sectors together to consider the whole waste cycle. For example, the producer of a product must think about how a product is to be fabricated. Can parts be used which can later be recycled or reused? Could the quantity of packaging which surrounds the item be reduced? Once the product gets to the store, is it required for the product to be located within an outer package? Once the retailer sells the product, what will the buyer do with the unwanted elements of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be handled and where will it go? Could it return to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, in which the cycle starts yet again?

How are Materials Collected for Recycling?

Legislation now dictates that all waste should be treated to avoid the quantity of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has enforced a landfill levy on all waste material discarded within landfill. The rate of tax has increased considerably recently 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 cost 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 suitable solutions to divert waste away from landfill is now a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.

So, the message to everybody is clear, sort your waste materials to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. Typically, both at home and at the office, the instant you place waste into the container , 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 through the provision of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials.

Perhaps the most common resources to be seen being collected for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the possiblity to recycle a large amount of 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 material is taken back to a facility for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.

Within large organisations, many recycling schemes can simply be launched to gather used or unwanted recyclable items.

The systems of collecting resources or waste to be recycled is also escalating 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 motivate customers of the superstore to return such items as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the containers on their way into the store.

Local Authority waste collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside commonly in front of your house. Collection from domestic premises normally continues to be the responsibility of the local authorities and many have employed the provision of bins in which to collect specified recyclable materials or products.

In the industrial and commercial category, waste materials management companies offer standalone storage units where the customer deposits the correct waste materials stream or recyclable materials ready for collection. The particular bins will usually be plainly branded as to which recyclable product ought to be put inside that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable products ought to be placed within which bins. Waste management companies also may have to deal with special requests from the customer.

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 factory 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 material . No matter which collection system is used , the resources are taken to a materials recycling facility where they will be segregated from other waste products. This could be done manually or through the use of mechanical separators.

To start the recycling process from a collection point of view, the more recyclable material which can be separated at source, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. For this reason separate containers are supplied to the waste producer to inspire separation at source. If card can be collected on a truck, which will collect no other waste material, the card can be kept clean and as a consequence could have an improved value when it gets to the processing plant. In the same way, dedicated glass collection vehicles are used to collect just glass. Apart from 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 contaminated with other waste.

Once collected, the recyclable resources can be taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that particular type of material. So a separate glass collection vehicle could take the load on to a glass processing plant.

If compounded recyclables are being collected such as paper and card within the same container, it could be required for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and permit the load to be sorted into individual paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what method is employed, the recyclable material collected will usually be segregated or cleaned before proceeding through to a reprocessing plant to be converted to a new useful resource and eventually used as a new product or in manufacturing. Inert materials can be a useful by product at landfill, for example shredded tyres to aid traction on access roads.

Recycling has currently become a way of life and it is very quick to establish waste recycling systems at home or indeed in a organisation or work place.

The Increasing Value of Recycling

In the UK close to 35% of waste materials collected from households is recycled or composted. Although within the commercial and industrial market, the quantity of waste delivered to landfill has declined substantially in recent years and also the amount of waste now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has increased over the quantities going to landfill.

Landfill continues to play an important role in the management of waste throughout the UK as not all waste materials are able to be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other method. Nevertheless, it’s not just the increasing costs of getting rid of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a more attractive option for companies. Landfill is starting to become scarce, with many authorities indicating that the quantity of space accessible across all UK landfill sites, has under 10 years existence left before all sites are reckoned to be filled.

In recent times, waste material management firms have had to change their focal point, and begin to consider and invest in technology, like energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities also have changed their views by commencing detailed strategic reviews as to how waste material under their jurisdiction must be handled. In some cases this means unitary authorities are implementing plans to introduce extended agreements, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to handle their waste management demands. These deals will most likely include the need to create a facility through which to handle all waste produced across the city by segregating all waste materials streams. The agreements might also include the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes throughout the area. So the face of waste management has been evolving quickly. The times of merely 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.

Summary

Recycling has become a way of life and is maturing all the time. It has evolved over time from something that was carried out with no real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just trying to make a living. Today, many blue chip organisations are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste plan, where the intention is very straightforward – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must end up in landfill. Some companies have announced ambitious target dates by which to achieve such policies.

Many households across the country now have some kind of container in which to keep separate waste materials for recycling. The need to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. 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. Even on street corners and airports you see bins to recycle such items as newspapers and drink cans.

Ideally the entire process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the days 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.

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