The recycling of wastes

The recycling process begins with each of us.  Material that is no longer able to be used for what it was originally intended, may be suitable for recycling.  Examples of such materials include automobiles, hot-water heaters, washers, dryers, stoves, worn out bicycles, aluminum cans, sheet metal and agricultural and industrial scrap.  This material is brought to a scrap processor.  The processor separates it according to type; and, with a variety of equipment, homogenizes and manufactures the scrap into industry specific grades.

The material is recycled by group, or chemistry.  That is, like items are grouped together, processed, and marketed according to industry specifications. 

It is estimated that around 60 percent of everything we throw away could be usefully recycled, or composted, helping to ease pressure on landfill sites and raw materials. Recycling can also bring other savings: for instance, making paper from recycled materials instead of virgin pulp reduces energy costs by 35-50 percent and decreases water consumption and pollution. Before talking about the benefits of recycling of wastes, let’s talk about the process of that.

Glass

The process of recycling glass depends on what types do the glass is. If glass is co-mingled (all different types together) it is taken to be used as aggregate. This type of glass can be used in the laying of roads. If it is segregated at source (i.e.: into clear glass, green glass, brown glass, etc) it is taken to a glass bottle re-processor.

Once at a glass re-processor, it is crushed. This crushed glass is called cullet. The cullet passes along conveyor belts. It goes through …

-A magnet - to remove any metal items

-A vacuum - to remove any lightweight items, like paper

-A laser - which ejects any remaining items that are not glass, like ceramics

Finally, it is ready to be melted and made into new glass

Paper

If paper / cardboard is segregated at source (ie: into newspaper, brown paper, plain paper, cardboard, etc) it is taken to a baling plant where it is baled (bundled together). If it's co-mingled (all different types together) it is sorted on a conveyor before being baled. Once baled, it's taken to a paper re-processor, normally a paper mill. Once at a paper mill, it is washed, rinsed, rolled out (into paper or cardboard) and dried.

Now it's 'recycled' and ready for use.

Plastic

Plastic is taken to baling plant, where it is sorted, crushed and baled (bundled together). These bales of plastic are then transported to a plastic re-processor. Here it is shredded, washed and extruded (melted). Once extruded, plastic can be formed into new items. It can also be spun to make clothes. Clothes made from recycled plastic carry an 'Eco-label'.

Aluminum

All aluminum products can be recycled after use. Scrap is generally taken by road to the recycling plant where it is checked and sorted to determine composition and value. If the scrap is of unknown quality the aluminum will first be passed through some large magnets to remove any ferrous metal. Depending upon the type of contamination present, some scrap must be processed further, beverage cans for example must have their lacquer removed prior to remelting.

The scrap aluminum is then loaded into a furnace, which melts the aluminum completely. This molten metal is then cast or processed - using the same techniques as primary processing.

All aluminum which is recycled is described as either "new scrap" or "old scrap".

The Advantages of recycling

These days people are uncertain what they can do to help save the whales or the rain forest. But they can start increasing their friendship with the environment by recycling the waste of their everyday lives. Most of our household waste goes to the dump. Let's say you have a two-liter soda bottle, should you recycle it or throw it away? If you recycle it, you could increase the raw material to make new products (like pillow stuffing, carpeting, or jacket insulation).

By recycling material in your daily lives, you will perpetuate the lifetime of useful material without using up new resources. For example, aluminum cans are about 25% cheaper to recycle than to make from new raw materials and require only five percent of the energy. But still only one million tons of aluminum cans are recovered while 1.7 million are discarded every day and end up in landfills or as pollutants.

Steel is another good example. It is 100% recyclable and can be reprocessed for use almost indefinitely. But, like aluminum, more steel is discarded than recycled. Almost two million tons of steel is recovered while 10.4 million tons are discarded. If we recycled all our steel and aluminum, we could save 11 million tons of metal.

If we recycled all our recyclable waste materials, think of what a difference we could make in our lives, environment, and our natural resources.

In practice though, recycling can be troublesome and expensive. If a company takes the time to think carefully and plan accordingly, then over time, the process and efficiency of recycling will improve and the payback will be enormous.

Conclusion

As you may have realized, recycling is a powerful way for renewing our supply of natural resources, and will do much good of all mankind and our Mother Earth. Thus, we should start to recycle the wastes in our daily life that we encounter everyday and spread this message to the others. As time goes on, recycling will certainly become a important role of rescuing the earth and the further generations.