Recycling is a basic concept: take articles that are not useful anymore and transform it to things entirely new and different instead of just discarding. It can range from recycling old paper to new paper, to turning an old hubcap into a attractive birdbath. In real terms, recycling can be highly complex based on the manner it inter plays with our surroundings, our polity, our economy and the least human behavior patterns play a crucial part in the future of our planet.
Recycling can be in different forms. On a small scale, any time you find a new use for something old, you're recycling. One example is making old cereal boxes into magazine holders [source: All Free Crafts].
Recycling can be in different forms. On a small scale, any time you find a new use for something old, you're recycling. One example is making old cereal boxes into magazine holders [source: All Free Crafts].
Recycling becomes more important on larger scales. At this level, used consumer goods are collected, converted back into raw materials and remade into new consumer products. Aluminum cans, office paper, steel from old buildings and plastic containers are all examples of materials commonly recycled in large quantities, often through municipal programs encouraging bulk household collections.
It's rare for a recycled product to be exactly the same as the original material from which it was recycled. Recycled paper, for example, contains ink residue and has shorter fibers than virgin paper (paper made from wood pulp). Because of this, it may be less desirable for some purposes, such as paper used in a copy machine. When a recycled good is cheaper or weaker than the original product, it's known as down-cycling (or downstream recycling). Eventually, goods move so far down the recycling stream it isn't feasible to recycle them any further. After being recycled a few times, paper is no longer usable. In some cases, goods can be up-cycled -- made into something more valuable than the original product. An example of this is a company making upscale, artistic furniture pieces out of old newspapers and aluminum cans [source: Stovell Design
Recycling History
Although recycling may seem like a modern concept introduced with the environmental movement of the 1970s, it's actually been around for thousands of years. Prior to the industrial age, you couldn't make goods quickly and cheaply, so virtually everyone practiced recycling in some form. However, large-scale recycling programs were very rare -- households predominantly practiced recycling.
The mass production of the industrial age is, in many ways, the very reason we need to worry about large-scale recycling. When products can be produced (and purchased) very cheaply, it often makes more economic sense to simply throw away old items and purchase brand new ones. However, this culture of "disposable" goods created a number of environmental problems, which we'll discuss in detail in the next section.
In the 1930s and 40s, conservation and recycling became important in American society and in many other parts of the world. Economic depressions made recycling a necessity for many people to survive, as they couldn't afford new goods. In the 1940s, goods such as nylon, rubber and many metals were rationed and recycled to help support the war effort. However, the economic boom of the postwar years caused conservationism to fade from the American consciousness [source: Hall]. It wasn't until the environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s, heralded by the first Earth Day in 1970, that recycling once again became a mainstream idea. Though recycling suffered some lean years -- due to public acceptance and the market for recycled goods not growing -- it has generally increased from year to year [source: Hall] The success of recycling traces to wide public acceptance, the improved economics of recycling and laws requiring recycling collections or enforcing recycled content in certain manufacturing processes.
Benefits of Recycling
Most of the reasons we recycle are environmental, although some are economic. These include:
Too Much Garbage
One of the main reasons for recycling is to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfills. Landfill usage peaked in the 1980s, when Americans sent almost 150 million tons (136.08 million metric tons) of garbage to landfills each year. Today, we still dump more than 100 million tons (90.719 million metric tons) of trash into landfills annually [source: Hall]. Even though modern sanitary landfills are safer and less of a nuisance than the open dumps of the past, no one likes having a landfill around. In heavily populated areas, landfill space is scarce. Where space is plentiful, filling it with garbage isn't a very good solution to the problem. Today, recycling efforts in the United States divert 32 percent of waste away from landfills. That prevents more than 60 million tons (54.432 million metric tons) of garbage from ending up in landfills every year [source: EPA].
Pollution from Landfill Leachate
Landfills cause another problem in addition to taking up lots of space. The assortment of chemicals thrown into landfills, plus the chemicals that result when garbage breaks down and blends into a toxic soup known as leachate, creates huge amounts of pollution. Leachate can drain out of the landfill and contaminate groundwater supplies. Today, impermeable clay caps and plastic sheeting prevent much of this run off, making the landfills much safer than they were just a few decades ago. Still, any leachate is too much if it's draining into your neighborhood.
New Goods Use Up Resources
Making a brand-new product without any recycled material causesNATURAL
resources to deplete in the manufacturing process. Paper uses wood pulp from trees, while the manufacture of plastics requires the use of fossil fuels like oil and natural gas. Making something from recycled materials means using fewer natural resources.
resources to deplete in the manufacturing process. Paper uses wood pulp from trees, while the manufacture of plastics requires the use of fossil fuels like oil and natural gas. Making something from recycled materials means using fewer natural resources.Recycling (Sometimes) Uses Less Energy
There's room for debate on this aspect of recycling, but many recycling processes require less energy than it would take to manufacture the same item brand-new. Manufacturing plastic is very inexpensive, and some plastic goods can be difficult to recycle efficiently. In those cases, the recycling process probably takes more energy. It can also be difficult to weigh all the energy costs along the entireCHAIN of production. Recycling steel certainly uses less energy than the entire process of mining iron ore, refining it and forging new steel. Some contend that the fleet of recycling trucks collecting plastic and paper door to door every week in cities across the United States tips the balance of energy out of recycling's favor. Energy use is a factor weighed on a case-by-case basis.
of production. Recycling steel certainly uses less energy than the entire process of mining iron ore, refining it and forging new steel. Some contend that the fleet of recycling trucks collecting plastic and paper door to door every week in cities across the United States tips the balance of energy out of recycling's favor. Energy use is a factor weighed on a case-by-case basis.Money
Recycling has a variety of economic impacts. For the companies that buy used goods, recycle them and resell new products, recycling is the source of all their income. For cities in densely populated areas that have to pay by the ton for their landfill usage, recycling can shave millions of dollars off municipal budgets. The recycling industry can have an even broader impact. Economic analysis shows that recycling canGENERATE three times as much revenue per ton as landfill disposal and almost six times as many jobs. In the St. Louis area, recycling generates an estimated 16,000 jobs and well more than $4 billion in annual revenue [source: Essential Guide].
three times as much revenue per ton as landfill disposal and almost six times as many jobs. In the St. Louis area, recycling generates an estimated 16,000 jobs and well more than $4 billion in annual revenue [source: Essential Guide].
Recycling Guidelines
Almost anything can be recycled, but certain things are more common.
Paper
The use of paper in industrialized nations continues to increase, in some cases accounting for almost 20 percent of all household garbage [source: Essential Guide]. Although the trees used to make new paper are a renewable resource, old-growth forests are often chopped down to make room for the pulpwood trees, which are quickly planted and harvested to make paper. Recycled paper results in a significant net savings in terms of water and energy used, as well as pollutants emitted into the environment.
From curbside and workplace collections, paper is sorted based on the type of paper, how heavy it is, what it's used for, its color and whether it was previously recycled. Then a hot chemical and water bath reduces the paper to a soupy, fibrous substance. Magnets, gravity and filters then remove things like staples, glues and other unwanted chemicals from the pulp. The ink is removed by either a chemical wash, or by blowing the ink to the surface where it's skimmed off. The pulp -- which may be bleached -- is then sprayed and rolled into flat sheets, which are pressed and dried. Sometimes new pulp is added to the recycled pulp to make the paper stronger. The giant sheets of paper, when dry, are then cut into the proper size for resale back to consumers [source: Essential Guide].
Glass
Recycling glass represents significant energy and cost savings over making virgin glass, because there's virtually no down-cycling when glass is recycled. There are two ways to recycle glass. Some companies collect bottles from their customers and thoroughly wash and disinfect them before reuse. Other glass recyclers sort the glass by color (clear, green and brown glass shouldn't mix because it'll give it a mottled effect). The glass is ground up into fine bits known as cullet, thoroughly sifted and filtered using lasers, magnets and sifters, then melted down and reformed into new glass.
Only glass used in containers like jars and bottles is commonly recycled. Window glass and glass used in light bulbs is too expensive and difficult to recycle.
Steel
The recycling of scrap steel from cars and old buildings has a long history in the United States. Steel is relatively easy to recycle -- giant machines shred junk cars and construction waste. In addition, U.S. law requires a certain proportion of all steel to be made with recycled steel -- all U.S. steel contains at least 25 percent recycled steel.
Once sorted, scrap steel is melted down and re-refined into huge sheets or coils. These can be shipped to manufacturers to make car bodies or construction materials.
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