Re-using waste for the future

All through history, recycling has existed in some guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of early recycling are known to have happened. Archaeological studies show that historical waste dumps contained less of what’s known nowadays as household waste, like pots, utensils and ash, which shows that men and women were, even back then, keen to reuse materials during a period when natural resources weren’t so freely available. Little did they know that the things they were starting would play a huge role in shaping society for future generations

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 collected items into new stuff.

During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were necessary as natural materials became considerably more difficult to come by. In addition to food being rationed, certain materials such as metal and fibre werenormally permitted just for use by the government in support of military operations, to satisfy manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.

As a consequence of rising energy costs, the requirement to recycle aluminium increased in the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium utilises a reduced amount of energy during the production process than alternative materials. Also it was much sought-after due to its non rusting attributes. The demand for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal merchants who were willing to pay good money in return for the best quality metal. Additionally, in the seventies in regions of the United states, the first trucks were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the gathering of recyclable items being towed behind the vehicle.

Into the late 1980’s, early 1990’s and as the awareness of managing the intercontinental environmental state increased amongst international governments, the debate upon recycling really began to collect energy. In the UK, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities along with the introduction of new legislation upon the waste materials market, recycling programmes really started to take off. The once commonly knownwaste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management providers and demonstrated by the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be managed more effectively. Local skip companies needed to become better at what they did.

These days, many hundreds of materials and resources tend to be recycled, including paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phones, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.

What is Recycling?

The word recycling identifies the operation of converting second-hand materials into new or nearly new products and avoid the need for potentially useable materials or products to be discarded.

Recycling takes on a key role in a world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It removes the need to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. As a result this lessens the need and the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new natural materials, lowers energy use and air and water pollution, that all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the natural environment.

Recycling is probably mostnoticeable through the recycling facilities now provided by local councils for household refuse and recycling collections and also modern waste management firms who commonly offer a full range of waste and recycling collection services. Some companies, that have in the past focused primarily on the collection of recyclable items, are extending their operations offering to collect general waste materials at the same time.

To assist preserve the environment a raft of regulation exists, our website gives you the information you need to guide you so that your needs are managed in accordance with the law.

Within the waste material sector, the most popular marketing activity is all around the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a simple message designed for a far reaching audience. Consider ways to lessen your waste. Can the waste 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 various waste material management companies and local authorities think about when developing new waste management schemes. The system is meant to focus the thoughts around avoiding waste being produced at all. 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 materials hierarchy expands much wider than to waste management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have already been set up to bring many sectors together to look at the whole waste cycle. For instance, the manufacturer of a product has to take into account how a product will be manufactured. Could parts be used which could eventually be recycled or reused? Could the quantity of packaging that surrounds the item be decreased? Once the product gets to the store, is it essential for the product to be placed inside an outer package? Once the retailer sells the item, what will the buyer do with the unwanted components of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be handled and where will it go? Can it return to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle begins once again?

How are Materials Collected for Recycling?

Legislation now dictates that all waste needs to be processed to avoid the amount of recyclables and unnecessary waste heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the United Kingdom government has applied a landfill tax on all waste dumped within landfill. The rate of levy has increased considerably in recent years rising from the initial level of £8 per ton, to today’s 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 streams, although there exists a reduced rate for inert products. Dispatching waste directly to landfill is an expensive option and choosing acceptable processes to divert waste away from landfill has become a priority.

Thus, the message to everybody is crystal clear, segregate your waste materials to cut back the volume of waste going to landfill. Typically, both at home and at work, the instant you place waste in the bin , it is forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. These days, in your own home and in the office, recycling is being encouraged through the provision of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.

Perhaps the most common materials to be seen being gathered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. However the possiblity 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 facility for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.

Many schools introduce paper recycling incentives because it is a material that students take for granted, yet can easily learn how to recycle.

The methods of collecting items or waste to be recycled is also increasing and becoming more apparent within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are popping up in superstore car parks to motivate customers of the supermarket to return such items as bottles, newspapers or card to the bins on their way into the supermarket.

Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside normally at the front of your house. Collection from domestic premises usually continues to be the responsibility of the local authorities and many have now employed the provision of boxes in which to collect specific recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.

In the industrial and commercial category, waste management contractors offer individual storage containers in which the customer deposits the appropriate waste materials stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The bins will usually be plainly tagged as to which recyclable product should be placed within that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will probably be colour coded to distinguish which recyclable wastes should be placed within which bins.

The real key to a successful recycling initiative is educating 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

Several collection solutions exist for the collection of the recyclable products . Whichever collection method is utilised , the resources are taken to a recycling centre where they’ll be segregated from other waste items.

To begin the recycling process from the collection perspective, the more recyclable materials which can be segregated at origin, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. That’s the reason individual storage units are supplied to the waste producer to promote separation at source. If card can be collected using a truck, which will collect no other waste material, the card is going to be kept clean and therefore could have an improved value when it reaches the processing plant. In the same way, dedicated glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect just glass. In addition to the obvious health and safety reasons and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a much higher value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste materials. Uncontaminated recyclables will have a much higher value than contaminated products.

When collected, the recyclable resources can be taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a dedicated glass collection truck 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 have been collected like paper and card within the same container, it may 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 which technique is used, the recyclable material gathered will most likely be segregated or cleaned before traveling through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new useful resource and ultimately used as a new product or in manufacturing.

Because of high density populations, the matter of waste materials disposal requires extra clever answers than the old land fill systems. power in waste is just the kind of alternative, turning waste products into electricity.

The Increasing Importance of Recycling

In the UK around 35% of waste materials collected from households is recycled or composted. Whilst within the commercial and industrial market, the quantity of waste delivered to landfill has dropped substantially recently plus the amount of waste now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has risen above the quantities going to landfill.

Landfill continues to play a vital role in the management of waste throughout the UK as not all waste products can be recycled and some are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other means. Nonetheless, it is not just the increasing costs of disposing of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a more appealing option for businesses. Landfill is becoming scarce, with several authorities hinting that the quantity of space available across all UK landfill sites, has under 10 years existence remaining before all sites are reckoned to be filled.

In the past few years, waste material management firms have had to change their focal point, and begin to take into account and put money into new technologies, like energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities also have adapted their attitudes by undertaking comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste materials under their jurisdiction must be handled. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are implementing plans to bring in long term contracts, usually around 25 years in length, through which to regulate their waste management requirements. These deals will often include the need to build a facility through which to take care of all waste created throughout the county by sorting all waste material streams. The contracts could also incorporate the collection of waste and recyclables from households throughout the region. So the face of waste management has been evolving quickly. The days of just throwing anything in the dustbin have gone and the arrival of new technologies are upon us. The introduction of new technologies will play a huge role in the future of waste management.

Conclusion

Recycling has become a lifestyle and is here to stay. It has evolved through the years from a thing that was undertaken without any real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just trying to make a living. Today, many blue chip companies are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste strategy, where the purpose is very clear – 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 policies.

Many properties across the country now have some form of container in which to separate waste materials for recycling. The requirement to split up newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost common place. Whilst in industrial and commercial sectors, there is an increasing list of items to think about for recycling like 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 improbable that we will ever reach the ultimate waste free society.