Throughout history, recycling has been around in one form or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of early recycling are recognized to have taken place. Archaeological reports show that ancient waste dumps contained fewer of what’s known today as household waste, such as pots, utensils and ash, which demonstrates that people were, even in those days, keen to reuse materials at a time when natural resources were not so freely available.

Indeed it could be argued that the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or converting the recovered items into something new.

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 such as metal and fibre werenormally allowed only for use by the government to support military operations, to satisfy manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.

Thanks to rising energy costs, the need to recycle aluminium increased in the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium utilises a reduced amount of energy within the production process than some other materials. Also it was much prized on account of its non rusting attributes. The demand for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal merchants who were ready to pay good money in exchange for good quality metal. In addition, in the seventies in regions of the United States of America, the first vehicles were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for recovery of recyclable resources being towed behind the vehicle. This was mainly for substantial bulky things such as bedsteads and old carpets.

To the late 1980’s, early 1990’s and as the importance of managing the worldwide environmental state increased amongst global governing bodies, the focus on recycling really started to collect impetus. In the United Kingdom, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of the new legislation upon the waste product sector, recycling programmes really started to take off. The once widely knownwaste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management companies and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be managed more effectively.

Currently, many hundreds of materials and resources may be recycled, starting from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phone handsets, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.

What is Recycling?

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

Recycling performs a key role in a modern world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It reduces the requirement to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. This in turn reduces the need and the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new natural materials, reduces energy usage and air and drinking water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Recycling is probably mostnoticeable through the recycling assistance now provided by local councils for household refuse and recycling collections and also innovative waste management firms who typically provide a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions. Some companies, that have traditionally focused exclusively on the collection of recyclable products, are now increasing their service offering to collect general waste materials at the same time.

In recent years the recovery of energy from waste company is becoming a significant environmental for the benefit of everyone.

Within the waste material market, the most popular advertising activity surrounds the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This four R slogan is a basic message suitable for a far reaching crowd. Consider some ways to reduce your waste material. Can the waste materials products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved?

The waste hierarchy is a strategy that a lot of waste management firms and local authorities think about when creating new waste management schemes. The strategy is intended to focus the thoughts around preventing waste materials being produced to begin with. Consider 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.

And so the focus is very much on the entire production process. The waste materials hierarchy extends much wider than to waste material management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have been set up to bring many sectors together to consider the entire waste cycle. By way of example, the producer of a product must take into account how a product is to be designed. Can parts be used which could eventually be recycled or reused? Could the volume of packaging which often surrounds the product be reduced? Once the product reaches the store, is it essential for the product to be located inside an outer package? If the retailer sells the product, what will the buyer do with the unwanted elements of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be handled and where will it go? Can it return to a recycling facility, for onward transfer to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle begins yet again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.

How are Materials Collected for Recycling?

Legislation now dictates that most waste material should be processed to reduce the quantity of recyclables and unnecessary waste material heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has applied a landfill tax on all waste material discarded within landfill. The rate of tax 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 previously declared 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’s a reduced rate for inert materials. Delivering waste materials directly to landfill is an expensive option and locating appropriate methods to divert waste away from landfill is now important. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.

So, the message to everyone is obvious, sort your waste material to cut back the volume of waste material going to landfill. Typically, both at home and at the office, as soon as you place waste material into the dustbin , it’s forgotten about. Someone else will collect it and take it away. Nowadays, in the home and at work, recycling is being encouraged via the provision of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials.

Some common products to be seen being recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. Even so the opportunity to recycle a vast number of materials or products keep increasing.

Corporations like ours are fast supplying environmental waste disposal to keep up with the endless problem of what to do with all the waste products we, as a nation, generate.

The means of collecting materials or waste to be recycled is also growing and becoming more noticeable within local communities. Dedicated collection sites, known as bring bank sites, are springing up in supermarket car parks to motivate customers of the superstore to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or card to the containers on their way into the supermarket.

Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside typically in front of your house. Collection from household premises usually remains the responsibility of the local authorities and many have employed the supply of bags in which to collect particular recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.

In the industrial and commercial sector, waste materials management companies offer individual storage containers in which the customer deposits the applicable waste stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The particular containers will often be plainly labeled as to which recyclable product ought to be placed within that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable materials ought to be placed within which bins.

The true secret to a successful recycling initiative is educating about what can be recycled and how. In the commercial world getting the co-operation of office employees is crucial. The introduction of any recycling scheme must ensure that in asking staff 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

Numerous collection solutions exist for the collection of the recyclable products . Regardless of what collection system is used , the resources are taken to a recycling centre where they will be segregated from other waste items.

To start the recycling process from the collection point of view, the more recyclable materials which can be segregated at source, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. That is why individual containers are supplied to the waste producer to promote segregation at source. If card can be collected using a vehicle, which will collect no other waste material, the card is going to be kept uncontaminated and therefore could have an increased value when it reaches the processing plant. In the same way, specialist glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect solely glass. Aside from the obvious health and safety factors and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a much higher value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste material.

When collected, the recyclable resources are generally 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 on to a glass processing plant.

If blended recyclables have been collected like paper and card within the same container, it could be necessary for the collector to take the load to a recycling centre to unload and permit the load to be segregated into individual paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what process is employed, the recyclable material obtained will often be segregated or cleaned before proceeding through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new useful resource and ultimately used as a new product or in manufacturing.

All businesses, big or small may be urged to introduce waste recycling systems within their organisations.

The Increasing Value of Recycling

In the UK close to 35% of waste material collected from households is recycled or composted. Whilst in the business and industrial sector, the volume of waste sent to landfill has dropped substantially in recent years and the volume of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has risen over the volumes going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to increase rates further in this sector.

Landfill continues to play a significant role in the management of waste throughout the UK as not all wastes are able to be recycled and some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other means. Nevertheless, it’s not just the increasing costs of getting rid of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling a more attractive option for companies. Landfill is becoming scarce, with certain specialists hinting that the volume of void available across all UK landfill sites, has less than 10 years existence left before all sites are considered to be filled.

In recent times, waste management companies have had to alter their focal point, and start to consider and put money into new technologies, like energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion plants and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities have adapted their attitudes by commencing comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste under their jurisdiction should be taken care of. In some cases this has meant that unitary authorities are implementing plans to introduce long term agreements, usually around 25 years long, through which to manage their entire waste management needs. These agreements will most likely include the need to create a facility through which to take care of all waste material generated across the region by segregating all waste material streams. The deals might also include the collection of waste and recyclables from households across the area. So the issue of waste management is evolving rapidly. The times of just throwing anything in the dustbin have disappeared and the arrival of new technologies are upon us.

Summary

Recycling is now a way of life and is not going anywhere soon. It has evolved through the years from something which was performed with no real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just working 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 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 attain such plans.

Many households across the country now have some type of bin in which to keep separate waste materials for recycling. The decision 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 take into account 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 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. There will always be a need for waste to be disposed of somewhere, somehow.

Pulse BS