All the way through history, recycling has existed in one guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC signs of early recycling are known to have occurred. Archaeological studies show that ancient waste dumps contained less of what is known today as household waste, including pots, tools and ash, which shows that men and women were, even in those days, keen to reuse materials at a time when natural resources were not so freely available. Little did they know that what they were starting would play a huge role in shaping the world for future generations
Indeed it may be argued how 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.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural resources became much more difficult to come by. As well as food being rationed, certain materials like metal and fibre were largely permitted just 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.
Thanks to rising energy costs, the need to recycle aluminium increased in the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium utilises a lesser amount of energy in the production process than many other materials. Also it was much sought after on account of its non rusting qualities. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were ready to pay good money in exchange for good quality metal. Additionally, in the seventies in areas of the United States of America, the first trucks were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for collection of recyclable materials being towed behind the vehicle.
Towards the late eighties, early 1990’s and as the awareness of handling the global environmental state accelerated amongst international authorities, the debate upon recycling really started to get energy. In the UK, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of fresh new legislation upon the waste materials community, recycling schemes really started to take off. The once widely recognised waste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management specialists 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.
Currently, many hundreds of materials and products can be recycled, starting from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phones, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.
What Exactly is Recycling?
The term recycling identifies the process of reprocessing used resources into new or nearly new products avoiding the need for potentially valuable materials or products to be dumped.
Recycling performs an integral role in a modern world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It removes the need to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this reduces the need and the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural resources, reduces energy use and air and drinking water pollution, that all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling is probably most evident through the recycling assistance now provided by local authorities for household refuse and recycling collections and also modern waste management organisations who generally provide a full range of waste and recycling collection services. Some firms, that have in the past concentrated exclusively on the collection of recyclable materials, are now increasing their service offering to collect general waste as well.
Some factories will develop hazardous waste, so visit www.biffa.co.uk and hire the experts to be certain of safe disposal and compliance with the regulations.
Within the waste material sector, the common promotional activity is all around the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a straightforward message devised for a far reaching target audience. Think about some ways to lessen your waste material. Can the waste material products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved? Many questions to consider.
The waste material hierarchy is often a strategy which a lot of waste material management companies and local bodies think about when creating new waste management approaches. The system is designed to concentrate the thoughts around avoiding waste material being generated to begin with. Think about the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle.
So the focus is very much on the whole production process. The waste material hierarchy stretches much wider than to waste management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have been set up to bring many industries together to consider the entire waste cycle. By way of example, the manufacturer of a product needs to think about how the product is to be fabricated. Can parts be used which can later be recycled or reused? Can the volume of packaging which often surrounds the item be cut down? When the product gets to the store, is it necessary for the product to be left inside an outer package? If the retailer sells the item, what will the purchaser do with the excess components of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be stored and where will it go? Does it go back to a recycling facility, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle begins all over again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste must be treated to divert the quantity of recyclables and unnecessary waste materials heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has applied a landfill levy on all waste material disposed of 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 previously declared that this will increase further to £48 per ton from the end of 2010/11. This fee applies to all general waste material streams, although there is a reduced rate for inert materials. Dispatching waste directly to landfill is an expensive option and choosing appropriate solutions to divert waste out of landfill has become important.
Thus, the message to everybody is crystal clear, sort your waste to cut back the volume of waste materials going to landfill. Typically, at home or at the office, as soon as 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 at your workplace, recycling is being encouraged via the supply of containers in which to place certain 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 a vast number 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 materials is taken back to a facility for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.
Practise of anaerobic digestion introduces micro- organisms within biodegradable matter, which operates with a lack of oxygen and lowers the emissions of landfill gas.
The methods of collecting items or waste materials to be recycled is also increasing and ever more noticeable within local communities. Specialist collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are popping up in superstore car parks to encourage clientele 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 return with their recyclables.
Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside normally at the front of your house. Collection from domestic premises normally continues to be the duty of the local council and several have now employed the supply of boxes in which to gather particular recyclable materials or products.
In the business and commercial field, waste material management companies offer individual storage units where the customer deposits the correct waste material stream or recyclable materials ready for collection. The particular bins will usually be plainly tagged as to which recyclable materials ought to be put within that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to identify which recyclable wastes ought 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 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
Several collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable material . Regardless of what collection system is used , the materials are taken to a materials recycling facility where they’ll be segregated from other waste materials. This may be done manually or by using mechanised separators.
To begin the recycling process from the collection viewpoint, the more recyclable materials that 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 is why separate storage units are supplied to the waste producer to promote segregation at source. If card can be collected on a truck, which will collect no other waste material, the card is going to be kept clean and for that reason will have an increased value when it reaches the processing plant. Likewise, dedicated glass collection vehicles are 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 material. Uncontaminated recyclables will present a better value than contaminated products.
When collected, the recyclable materials are generally taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that particular type of material. So a dedicated glass collection truck could take the load straight to a glass processing plant.
If compounded recyclables are being collected such as paper and card within the same compartment, it may be necessary for the collector to take the load to a recycling centre to unload and allow the load to be sorted into distinct paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. No matter which process is used, the recyclable material obtained will usually be segregated or washed before traveling through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new resource and ultimately used as something new or in manufacturing. Inert materials can be a useful by product at landfill, such as shredded old tyres to help traction on access roadways.
One of the leading waste disposal organisations has actually transformed its focus entirely. Instead of just being a waste collection company, in these changing years Biffa has refocused into being a provider of energy from waste, as is mirrored in their new strap line power behind waste.
The Increasing Importance of Recycling
In the UK close to 35% of waste materials collected from households is recycled or composted. Whilst in the business and industrial area, the quantity of waste material sent to landfill has dropped considerably in recent years plus the volume of waste 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 even more in this sector.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the management of waste across the UK as not all waste products can be recycled and several are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other method. Nonetheless, it is not just the increasing expense of disposing of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling an even more appealing option for companies. Landfill is starting to become scarce, with some authorities hinting that the quantity of void readily available across all UK landfill sites, has less than ten years existence remaining before all sites are considered to be filled. Such countries as Dubai have filled parts of the coastline with their waste and created useful land area to extend the boundaries of their kingdom.
In the past few years, waste management companies have had to alter their focal point, and begin to consider and put money into technology, like energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion plants and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities have changed their views by undertaking detailed strategic reviews as to how waste under their jurisdiction must be handled. In some cases this has meant that unitary authorities are implementing plans to bring in extended contracts, usually around 25 years long, through which to handle their waste management needs. These deals will most likely include the need to create a facility through which to handle all waste material generated throughout the region by sorting all waste materials streams. The deals may also incorporate the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes throughout the area. So the face of waste management is changing rapidly. The days of simply throwing every little thing in the dustbin have vanished and the arrival of new technologies are upon us.
Conclusion
Recycling is now a way of life and is not going anywhere soon. It has evolved over the years from a thing that was undertaken with no real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just attempting to make a living. Today, many blue chip firms are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste strategy, 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 attain such plans.
Many houses across the country now have some form of bin in which to keep separate waste materials for recycling. The need to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. Whilst in industrial and business sectors, there is an increasing list 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 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.