DIY Wealth Creation

Throughout history, recycling has existed in some way or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC signs of earlier recycling are recognized to have taken place. Archaeological studies show that ancient waste dumps contained less of what’s known nowadays as household waste, such as pots, utensils and ash, which shows that individuals were, even back then, keen to reuse products during a period when natural resources weren’t so freely available.

Indeed it could 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 turning the recovered items into new stuff. The 60′s TV series, Steptoe and Son, brought this very much to the public eye and greater attention.

During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were necessary as natural materials became a lot more difficult to get. In addition to food being rationed, certain materials including metal and fibre were largely permitted just for use by the government in support of military operations, to fulfill manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.

Thanks to rising energy costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased in the seventies.. As a material aluminium uses a reduced amount of energy during the production process than some other materials. Plus it was much sought-after due to its non rusting attributes. The need for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were prepared to pay good money in exchange for good quality metal. In addition, in the 70′s in regions of the USA, the first vehicles were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the collection of recyclable items being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for substantial bulky objects such as bedsteads and old carpets.

Towards the late 1980′s, early 1990′s and as the importance of handling the global environmental state accelerated amongst world-wide authorities, the focus on recycling really began to gather impetus. In the United Kingdom, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of the new legal guidelines upon the waste product market, recycling programmes really began to take off. The once commonly knownwaste disposal firms, began to call themselves waste management providers and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste had to be handled more efficiently.

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

What Exactly is Recycling?

The word recycling describes the process of reprocessing second-hand materials into new or nearly new products avoiding the need for potentially useful materials or products to be thrown away.

Recycling performs a vital role in a modern 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 diminishes the demand or the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural resources, lowers energy usage and air and water pollution, that all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Recycling would probably be most evident through the recycling solutions now provided by local councils for household refuse and recycling collections and by contemporary waste management organisations who generally give a full range of waste and recycling collection services.

Nearly all of your rubbish gathered today will head to some kind of energy from waste treatment unit where any recyclables may be extracted for reprocessing. The left over waste materials may go to land fill or might be utilised for energy recovery.

Almost all of your rubbish collected today will head to some kind of cardboard recycling handling unit where any recyclables may be extracted for reprocessing. The left over waste materials may go to landfill or could be utilised for energy recovery.

In the waste sector, the most popular marketing activity surrounds the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a simple message devised for a far reaching crowd. Look at some ways to lessen your waste. Can the waste materials products or materials be reused? Could 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 management organisations and local bodies look at when establishing new waste management schemes. The system is meant to focus the thought process around precluding waste material being generated to start 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.

So the emphasis is very much on the entire production process. The waste material hierarchy stretches much wider than to waste management companies and local authorities. Working groups have already been established to bring many sectors together to look at the entire waste cycle. For instance, the producer of a product must think about the way the product will be made. Could components be used which can later be recycled or reused? Could the quantity of packaging that surrounds the item be cut down? When the product reaches the shop, is it essential for the product to be located inside an outer package? If the retailer sells the item, what will the purchaser do with the unwanted 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 shipment to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle starts all over again?

How are Materials Collected for Recycling?

Legislation now dictates that most waste needs to be processed to avoid the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste material heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has applied a landfill levy on all waste dumped within landfill. The rate of levy 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 recently declared that this will increase further to £48 per ton by the end of 2010/11. This rate applies to all general waste materials streams, although there is a lesser rate for inert materials. Delivering waste materials straight to landfill is an expensive choice and choosing acceptable ways to divert waste out of landfill has become a priority.

Thus, the message to everybody is obvious, segregate your waste materials to reduce the volume of waste material going to landfill. In the past, at home or in the office, as soon as you place waste in the container , it’s forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. These days, in the home and at the office, recycling is being encouraged via the provision of containers 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 recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the possiblity to recycle a large amount of materials or products keeps growing.

There is a large assortment of food waste receptacles could be placed at high usage points such as in the vicinity of photocopying machines to collect unwanted papers.

The methods of collecting resources or waste to be recycled is also escalating and ever more apparent within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are springing up in supermarket car parks to inspire clientele of the store to return such items as bottles, newspapers or card to the containers on their way into the supermarket. Shoppers are therefore encouraged to return with their recyclables.

Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside typically in front of your home. Collection from household premises generally remains the duty of the local council many have employed the provision of baskets in which to gather specified recyclable materials or products.

In the industrial and commercial sector, waste materials management contractors offer standalone storage units where the customer deposits the appropriate waste materials stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The particular bins will often be clearly branded as to which recyclable product ought to be put within that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable products should be placed within which bins. Waste management companies also may have to deal with special requests from the customer.

The key to a successful recycling initiative is homeowners 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 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 Recycling Process

A variety of collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable material . Whichever collection method is employed , the materials are taken to a materials recycling facility where they’ll be segregated from other waste materials.

To start the recycling process from the collection point of view, the more recyclable materials that can be segregated at source, i.e. at home or in the workplace, the more effective 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 can be collected on a truck, that will collect no other waste material, the card will be kept clean and as a consequence will have an increased value when it gets to the processing plant. Similarly, specialist glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect solely glass. Apart from the obvious health and safety factors and the weight of collected glass, it will have a greater value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste.

When collected, the recyclable resources can be taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a dedicated glass collection vehicle could take the load on 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 blended recyclables have been collected like paper and card within the same compartment, it might be required for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and permit the load to be segregated into distinct paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what approach is employed, the recyclable material collected will most likely be segregated or cleaned before traveling through to a reprocessing facility to be processed to a new useful resource and ultimately 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 Importance of Recycling

In the UK around 35% of waste materials collected from homes is recycled or composted. Although within the business and industrial sector, the amount of waste materials sent to landfill has dropped considerably in recent years plus the volume of waste material now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this sector has risen over the volumes going to landfill.

Landfill continues to play a vital role in the control of waste across the UK as not all waste products can be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other method. Nevertheless, it is not just the increasing expense of getting rid of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a far more attractive option for corporations. Landfill is becoming scarce, with several specialists suggesting that the volume of space available across all UK landfill sites, has under 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 country.

In the past few years, waste management companies have had to vary their focus, and begin to take into account and invest in new technologies, such as energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities also have adapted their attitudes by undertaking detailed strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction must be handled. In some instances this means unitary authorities are progressing plans to bring in long-term contracts, usually around 25 years in length, through which to handle all of their waste management requirements. These contracts will often include the need to build a facility through which to take care of all waste material generated throughout the county by segregating all waste materials streams. The agreements may also incorporate the collection of waste and recyclables from homes throughout the region. So the issue of waste management has been evolving quickly. The times of just throwing every little thing in the dustbin have disappeared and the advent of new technologies are upon us.

Summary

Recycling is now a way of life and is here to stay. It has evolved over the years from a thing that was performed without any real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just trying to make a living. Today, many blue chip firms are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste policy, where the purpose is very straightforward – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must end up in landfill.

Many households across the country now have some form of bin in which to keep separate waste for recycling. The decision to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and commercial areas, there is an increasing selection of items to consider for recycling such as printer cartridges, office paper, metal and electrical equipment.

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 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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