With
an increasing rate of population growth, the conservation and management of
natural resources are becoming more and more important. So people should be
mobilized to participate in conservation activities. The most common ways is
recycling of wastes e.g. paper and aluminium.
It
can reduce the pressure of huge amounts of solid wastes, conserving natural
resources and reduce the pollution problems. It can be divided to two
dimensions: recovery and utilization. Recovery refers to the collection of
waste materials that can be reused. Utilization refers to the processing of
diverted waste into new and useful materials and products.
Many
of the solid wastes can be recycled, which are reusable materials and
recyclable materials. The former such as glass bottles can be sold to relevant
manufacturers. The latter include paper, metals, different types of plastics,
tyres and other valuable materials.
Recycling
of wastes really has many benefits. It can reduce the rate of depletion of
natural resources and save the energy used in mining and processing of natural
resources. In addition, it reduces air pollution and lessens the needs for
landfill sites. Saving the start-up costs and operation costs for waste
treatment is also one of the benefits. It can also benefits us by creating more
jobs other than burying or burning wastes and educating people through, the
practice of recycling, about the importance of proper waste disposal, thrifty
use of natural resources and environmental protection.
Although
recycling of wastes is really a good idea, it also face a big problem that is
high costs involved in collection and separation of waste materials.
In
Hong Kong, this idea is very popular. There are about 300 active waste
collectors and 50 waste recyclers in Hong Kong.
The
most common type of recycling is paper. The recovered waste paper was either
recycled or re-processed locally, or exported to Mainland China and other
countries for recycling. In the local waste paper recycling industry, there
were about 120 private waste paper collectors and 2 paper recyclers in
operation. The recycled paper produced by local recyclers was confined to those
materials used for packaging.
The
industry of recycling of metals has been developed from individual waste
collectors to large-scale collection and recycling industry. Metal wastes are
broadly classified into ferrous metals (such as cast iron and alloy steel
scrap) and non-ferrous metals (such as aluminium, copper, lead and tin).
There are only a small proportion of the plastic wastes was recovered. In order to facilitate the activities of plastic recovery and recycling, the internationally recognized coding system of plastics has been adopted. This coding system provides an effective means for identifying different wastes. The coding system acts as a tool to educate the community and as a starting point for enhancement of the plastic recycling industry in Hong Kong.
To
have a more civilized world, I think conservation is very important. As the
rate of population growth is increasing, more and more wastes will be produced.
If we do not action, the world will be full of wastes.