Re-using waste matter for future years
Author: Hazel
All through history, recycling has been around in one guise or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC evidences of early recycling are known to have happened. Archaeological reports show that historical waste dumps contained less of what is known nowadays as household waste, including pots, tools and ash, which shows that men and women were, even back then, keen to reuse products at a time when natural resources were not so freely available. Little did they know that what they were starting would play such 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 turning the recovered items into new stuff. The 60′s TV series, Steptoe and Son, brought this very much in to the public eye and greater attention.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural materials became much more difficult to get. In addition to food being rationed, certain materials like metal and fibre werenormally allowed just for use by the government in support of military operations, to meet manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.
Due to rising power costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased during the seventies.. As a material aluminium uses a lesser amount of energy in the production process than various other materials. Also it was much coveted due to its non rusting properties. The need for aluminium saw the emergence of scrap metal dealers who were willing to pay good money in exchange for good quality metal. In addition, 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 resources being towed behind the vehicle.
Towards the late 1980′s, early nineties and as the awareness of managing the intercontinental environmental state heightened amongst global governments, the debate 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 fresh new legal guidelines upon the waste product industry, recycling initiatives really started to take off. The once commonly knownwaste disposal corporations, began to call themselves waste management specialists and demonstrated by the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste had to be managed more efficiently. Local skip companies needed to become better at what they did.
These days, many hundreds of materials and products tend to be recycled, ranging 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 is Recycling?
The word recycling describes the operation of converting used products into new or nearly new products avoiding the need for potentially valuable materials or products to be thrown away. Essentially it is diverting waste materials from landfill.
Recycling plays an integral role in a modern world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It helps to reduce the need to unnecessarily send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. This in turn reduces the demand or the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural materials, decreases energy use and air and water supply pollution, all of which 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 advanced waste management firms who typically provide a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions. Some companies, who have traditionally focused exclusively on the collection of recyclable materials, are increasing their operations offering to collect general waste as well.
In recent years the recovery of energy from waste companies is becoming a major green development for the benefit of all people.
In the waste material market, the normal advertising activity is all around the waste material hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a basic message made for a far reaching crowd. Look at ways to get rid of your waste materials. Could 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 usually a strategy which many waste material management firms and local authorities consider when developing new waste management schemes. The system is meant to concentrate the mind around avoiding waste being generated to start with. Think about the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle.
And so the emphasis is very much on the overall manufacturing process. The waste materials hierarchy expands much wider than to waste management companies and local bodies. Working groups have already been set up to bring many sectors together to look at the entire waste cycle. For example, the manufacturer of a product must consider the way the product is to be manufactured. Could components be used which could later be recycled or reused? Can the amount of packaging which surrounds the product be cut down? Once the item reaches the retailer, is it required for the product to be located within an outer package? Once the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the purchaser do with the excess elements of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be recovered and where will it go? Should it go back to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing facility, in which the cycle begins all over again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste material needs to be processed to divert the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste material going direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has applied a landfill tax on all waste material dumped within landfill. The rate of tax 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 announced 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’s a reduced rate for inert materials. Sending waste materials straight to landfill is an expensive option and choosing appropriate solutions to divert waste out of landfill is now important. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
Thus, the message to everybody is clear, segregate your waste to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. In the past, at home or at work, the instant you place waste material into the dustbin , it is forgotten about. Someone else will collect it and take it away. These days, in your own home and at your workplace, recycling is being stimulated with the supply of bins in which to place specific recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.
Some 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 keep increasing. Although technically not seen as recycling, food waste and garden waste collections are increasing, where the food or garden waste material is taken back to a plant for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.
Companies like ours are fast providing recycling to keep up with the ongoing question of what to do with all the waste materials we, as a country, generate.
The means of collecting resources or waste materials to be recycled is also escalating and becoming more noticeable within local communities. Specialist collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are cropping up in superstore car parks to inspire customers of the supermarket to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the containers on their way into the supermarket.
Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the kerbside typically in front of your home. Collection from domestic premises usually remains the duty of the local council and many have now employed the provision of bags in which to collect specific recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the industrial and commercial sector, waste materials management businesses offer different containers where the customer deposits the appropriate waste stream or recyclable materials ready for collection. The containers will often be plainly branded as to which recyclable materials should be put inside that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will be colour coded to identify which recyclable products ought to 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 informing the public 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 effectiveness of what employees should be doing in their work.
The Recycling Process
Various collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable products . No matter which collection system is utilised , the resources are taken to a materials recycling facility where they will be segregated from other waste products.
To begin the recycling process from the collection perspective, the more recyclable material that can be separated at source, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more useful it will be for the waste collector. That is why individual storage units are provided to the waste producer to promote separation at source. If card can be collected on a vehicle, that will collect no other waste materials, the card can be kept clean and as a consequence will have a higher value when it gets to the processing plant. Likewise, dedicated glass collection vehicles are widely-used to collect only glass. In addition to 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.
When collected, the recyclable resources are generally 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 directly 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 container, it could be required 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 which approach is employed, the recyclable material collected will often be segregated or washed before traveling through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new useful resource and eventually used as something new or in manufacturing. Inert materials can be a useful by product at landfill, for example shredded tyres to help grip on access roads.
One of the largest waste disposal companies has actually transformed its focus altogether. Instead of just being a waste collection company, in these changing years Biffa has refocused into being a provider of electricity from waste, as is shown in their different strap line power behind waste.
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 market, the quantity of waste materials delivered to landfill has dropped significantly recently and the volume of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has grown above the quantities going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to help to increase rates even more within this sector.
Landfill continues to play a significant role in the management of waste across the UK as not all waste products can be recycled and some are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other means. However, it is not just the increasing expense of getting rid of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling an even more attractive option for corporations. Landfill is starting to become scarce, with some experts hinting that the amount of space readily available across all UK landfill sites, has under 10 years existence remaining before all sites are deemed 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 the past few years, waste material management firms have had to switch their focal point, and start to take into account and put money into technology, like energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternatives to landfill. Local Authorities have changed their approaches by commencing comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste material under their jurisdiction needs to be handled. In some instances this means unitary authorities are progressing plans to introduce extended agreements, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to regulate all of their waste materials management requirements. These deals will often include the need to build a facility through which to take care of all waste materials produced throughout the city by sorting all waste streams. The contracts might also include the collection of all waste and recyclables from households throughout the area. So the face of waste management is changing quickly. The times of just throwing everything in the dustbin have gone and the development of new technologies are upon us. The introduction of new technologies will play a huge role in the future of waste management.
Summary
Recycling is now a lifestyle and is here to stay. It has evolved through the years from something which was undertaken 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 plan, where the objective is very clear – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must wind up in landfill.
Many homes across the country now have some kind of bin in which to divide waste for recycling. The requirement 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 take into account 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 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 unlikely that we will ever reach the ultimate waste free society.
