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Recycling
by Alasdair Meldrum
Published on this site: September 19th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
Recycling is the reprocessing of materials that would otherwise become
waste in order to make them into new products.
This is in contrast with reuse:
Collecting waste such as food containers to be cleaned, refilled and
resold. Recycling prevents waste being landfilled or incinerated, reduces
the consumption of new raw materials, and is advocated by supporters to
require less energy than virgin production Commonly recycled materials
include glass, paper, aluminium, asphalt, steel, textiles and plastic.
These materials can be derived either from pre-consumer waste (materials
used in manufacturing) or post-consumer waste (materials discarded by the consumer). Recycling is
a key concept of modern waste management and is the third component of
the waste hierarchy. To be recycled waste has to be sorted and separated.
Waste sorting can be done by the waste producer, at kerbside collection
sites, or at a materials recovery facility. In everyday speech the word recycling often
refers to the practice of waste sorting done by consumers.
One of the main benefits of recycling comes from reducing the amount of
new material required. In theory, recycling allows a material to be continually
reused for the same purpose, and in many cases this theory holds true,
most notably in the recycling of metals and glass.
Since less raw material is required, recycling creates further benefits
for materials where cost of the initial extraction or production is high-either
economically, socially or environmentally. The recycling of aluminium,
for example, saves 95% of the CO2 emissions-an environmentally harmful
greenhouse gas-compared to refining new metal.
Concerns about limited resources such as raw materials and land space
for disposal of waste have increased the importance of recycling. However
maximum environmental benefit is gained by reducing the amount of waste
produced, and reusing items in their current form, for example refilling
bottles. All recycling techniques consume energy, for transportation and
processing, and some also use considerable amounts of water. Both of these
resources have an environmental impact which is why campaigners use the
slogan Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to indicate the preferred order for waste
management in the waste hierarchy.
Alasdair Meldrum - is founder and director of Albion Environmental
Ltd. Specialising in providing training and consultancy services to to
waste management and environment industry across the UK.
http://www.albion-environmental.co.uk
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