All through history, recycling has existed in one guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of earlier recycling are known to have taken place. Archaeological studies show that ancient waste dumps contained less of what’s known today as household waste, like pots, tools and ash, which shows that men and women were, even in those days, keen to reuse materials during a period when natural resources were not 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 like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were necessary as natural materials became a lot more difficult to find. Along with food being rationed, certain materials such as metal and fibre werenormally allowed only for use by the government to support military operations, to fulfill manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.

Due to rising power costs, the requirement to recycle aluminium increased during the seventies.. As a material aluminium utilises a lesser amount of energy within the production process than many other materials. Also it was much sought-after as a result of its non rusting attributes. The need for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal dealers who were ready to pay money in exchange for the best quality metal. In addition, in the 70′s in areas of the USA, the first vans were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for collection of recyclable items being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for large bulky objects such as bedsteads and old carpets.

To the late eighties, early nineties and as the awareness of handling the worldwide environmental state heightened amongst worldwide authorities, the attention upon recycling really started to gather energy. In the United Kingdom, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of the new legal guidelines 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 firms and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste had to be handled more successfully.

These days, many hundreds of materials and resources are easily recycled, starting from paper, card, glass and plastics, to phones, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete. The demand for different types of collection receptacles has increased dramatically.

What Exactly is Recycling?

The word recycling identifies the process of reprocessing second hand resources into new or nearly new products and avoid the need for potentially useable materials or products to be thrown away. Essentially it is diverting waste materials from landfill.

Recycling plays a vital role in a world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It helps to reduce the requirement to unnecessarily send waste products and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. This in turn lessens the demand or the reliance upon consuming fresh or new raw resources, cuts back energy usage and air and drinking water pollution, that all 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 by innovative waste management firms who commonly offer a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions.

As there are now the expertise to make our waste to energy , great savings may be made on the resources which are slowly but surely running out and so becoming much more costly.

In the waste material sector, the common marketing activity is all around the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a simple message devised for a far reaching crowd. Look at ways to eliminate waste materials. Could the waste materials products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved?

The waste materials hierarchy is often a strategy that many waste material management companies and local authorities look at when establishing new waste management schemes. The strategy is meant to concentrate the thought process around avoiding waste being generated in the first place. Consider the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle.

And so the focus is very much on the entire production process. The waste material hierarchy stretches much wider than to waste material management businesses and local authorities. Working groups have already been established to bring many sectors together to look at the entire waste cycle. By way of example, the manufacturer of a product must think about the way the product will be constructed. Could parts be used which could later be recycled or reused? Could the volume of packaging which often surrounds the item be cut down? When the product gets to the retailer, is it necessary for the product to be placed inside an outer box? If the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the purchaser do with the unwanted elements of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be stored and where will it go? Does it return to a recycling facility, for onward transfer to a reprocessing facility, in which the cycle begins once again?

How are Materials Collected for Recycling?

Legislation now dictates that most waste must be processed to avoid the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has enforced a landfill tax on all waste materials discarded within landfill. The rate of levy has increased considerably recently rising from the original level of £8 per ton, to the current rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has previously announced that this will increase further to £48 per ton by the end of 2010/11. This charge applies to all general waste material streams, although there exists a lower rate for inert products. Dispatching waste material directly to landfill is an expensive course of action and selecting suitable processes to divert waste out of landfill is now important.

Thus, the message to everybody is clear, sort your waste to scale back the amount of waste material going to landfill. Traditionally, at home or at work, the instant you place waste materials into the bin , it is forgotten about. Another person will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in the home and in the office, recycling is being encouraged through the supply of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.

Some common products to be seen being collected for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. But the opportunity to recycle a vast number of materials or products keeps growing. 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 plant for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.

By means of education, consumers could be motivated think ‘green energy’ so that they will take part in energy recovery techniques and enhance the use of the waste products.

The methods of collecting resources or waste materials to be recycled is also escalating and becoming more visible within local communities. Specialist collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are cropping up in superstore car parks to encourage clientele of the store to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the bins on their way into the store. 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 roadside commonly in front of your home. Collection from domestic premises usually remains the duty of the local authorities and several have now employed the supply of baskets in which to gather specific recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.

In the business and commercial market, waste material management contractors offer separate storage units in which the customer deposits the applicable waste materials stream or recyclable material ready for collection. The bins will usually be plainly branded as to which recyclable product must be placed inside that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to identify which recyclable materials should 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 homeowners 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 Recycling Process

Various collection solutions exist for the collection of the recyclable products . No matter which collection method is used , the materials are taken to a materials recycling facility where they’ll be segregated from other waste materials. This might be done by hand or through the use of mechanical separators.

To start the recycling process from a collection point of view, the more recyclable materials that can be segregated at source, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more useful it will be for the waste collector. That’s the reason separate storage units are supplied to the waste producer to promote separation at source. If card could be collected on a truck, which will collect no other waste material, the card can be kept clean and for that reason will have a higher value when it reaches the processing plant. Similarly, dedicated glass collection vehicles are used to collect just glass. In addition to the obvious health and safety reasons and the weight of collected glass, it will have a greater value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste material. Uncontaminated recyclables will present a better value than contaminated materials.

Once collected, the recyclable materials can be taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a separate glass collection vehicle could take the load straight 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 compounded recyclables are being collected like paper and card within the same compartment, it might be a necessity 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 transfer to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what technique is used, the recyclable material obtained will most likely be segregated or washed before proceeding through to a reprocessing plant to be converted to a new resource and eventually used as something new or in manufacturing.

Because of high density populations, burden of waste materials disposal calls for new modern solutions than the old landfill systems. power in waste is just the kind of alternative, turning waste material into energy.

The Increasing Significance of Recycling

In the UK around 35% of waste material collected from homes is recycled or composted. While in the commercial and industrial community, the volume of waste materials sent to landfill has declined substantially recently plus the amount of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this sector has grown over the volumes going to landfill.

Landfill continues to play a significant role in the management of waste throughout the UK as not all waste products can be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other means. Nonetheless, it is not just the increasing expense of disposing of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a more appealing option for companies. Landfill is becoming scarce, with certain experts hinting that the quantity of space accessible across all UK landfill sites, has less than 10 years existence remaining before all sites are considered 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 kingdom.

In recent times, waste material management firms have had to change their focus, and begin to take into account and put money into technology, such as energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities have changed their approaches by undertaking detailed strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction needs to be handled. In some cases this means unitary authorities are progressing plans to introduce long-term agreements, usually around 25 years in length, through which to regulate their waste management demands. These agreements will often include the need to develop a facility through which to deal with all waste material produced throughout the county by segregating all waste material streams. The agreements could also incorporate the collection of waste and recyclables from households throughout the area. So the face of waste management is changing rapidly. The times of just throwing anything in the dustbin have gone and the development of new technologies are upon us.

Summary

Recycling has become a way of life and is here to stay. It has evolved through the years from something that was undertaken with no 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 plan, where the intention is very clear – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must finish up in landfill. Some companies have announced ambitious target dates by which to achieve such policies.

Many households across the country now have some form of bin in which to keep separate waste materials for recycling. The decision to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. 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.

Ideally the whole process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the time of the horse. However the advent of new technologies 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.