Recycling (2024)

FAQs

What recycling means? ›

Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products. Recycling can benefit your community, the economy, and the environment.

Recycling helps reduce pollution by reducing the need for waste incineration and reducing the environmental impacts of resource extraction and processing. What happens if we don't recycle is more waste would be incinerated or sent to landfills, increasing air and water pollution all over the world.

More and more people recycle everyday. This helps to reduce the need for landfill and more costly forms of disposal. Recycling also reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials all of which create substantial air and water pollution.

Many people believe recycling is the ultimate antidote to climate change. But is it? Not really. According to research at the University of Leeds, recycling ranked low on a list of effective actions that an individual could take to fight climate change.

Recycling Can Cause Environmental Damage

Recycling can also have negative environmental impacts. For example, the process of recycling paper requires the use of chemicals and large amounts of water and energy. Similarly, recycling plastic can release harmful pollutants into the air and water.

Non-recyclable materials can cause the equipment to jam up or break down. Items such as plastic bags, hoses, wire hangers and string lights can work their way into the belts and joints of the machinery. Even things like small pieces of broken glass can cause danger as our employees have to hand-pick them.

The truth is that plastic with food residues in or on it usually cannot be recycled. Only good quality, clean, plastics can go through the recycling process.

What color plastic cannot be recycled? ›

When plastic packaging goes into the recycling it is sorted into different types of plastics which are then baled up ready for reprocessing. Near infra-red (NIR) technology is used to do this sorting. Black plastic is difficult for the NIR lasers to see and therefore it is generally not sorted for recycling.

In your recycling bin or bags, you can put: plastic – including bottles, pots, tubs, cartons and carrier bags (empty and untied) paper – including newspapers, magazines and letters. cardboard – including cereal and egg boxes.

In fact – no bin liners, plastic bags or refuse sacks of any kind. The bags also damage equipment and increase the costs of dealing with your waste. Please remember recycling loves to be left loose… and please don't mix your recycling with any normal waste.

Typical materials that are recycled include iron and steel scrap, aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper, wood, and plastics. The materials reused in recycling serve as substitutes for raw materials obtained from such increasingly scarce natural resources as petroleum, natural gas, coal, mineral ores, and trees.

When you recycle something, you process it so it can be used again. You might recycle an old tire and make it into a snazzy black knapsack with some very cool skid marks. The prefix re- means again, and when you recycle something, you process it for another cycle of use.

Recycled-content products are made from materials that would otherwise have been discarded. That means these products are made totally or partially from material contained in the products you recycle, like aluminum soda cans or newspaper.