General
Why recycle?
- By recycling our waste and unwanted items we substantially reduce the rubbish
that is sent to landfills. Landfills are non-sustainable; if we
carry on we will simply run out of places to dump our trash! In addition
landfills are a major generator of methane which is a greenhouse gas (i.e. it
contributes to global warming).
- Producing new materials requires constant production or extraction of component
materials. Many resources such as metal ore, oil and gas cannot be replaced
whilst others such as trees take time to regenerate. As with landfill this
is simply not sustainable plus we are destroying our environment, for us, our
children and animal life.
- Recycling can minimise energy consumed in production processes (see table below)
and is often cheaper than new manufacture or extraction.
- Recycling reduces pollution of our air, rivers, seas and land.
Environmental effects of recycling*
| Material |
Energy Savings |
Air Pollution Savings |
| Aluminium |
95% |
95% |
| Cardboard |
24% |
— |
| Glass |
5-30% |
20% |
| Paper |
40% |
73% |
| Plastics |
70% |
— |
| Steel |
60% |
— |
More statistics on waste and recycling in the UK can be found at
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/.
See
www.wasteonline.org.uk/ for general discussion of waste in the UK.
What can we recycle?
You can recycle more or less anything if you put your mind to it. Most popular materials for recycling are: -
How can we recycle?
Recycling facilities from UK councils are varied and there is no standard so you
will need to check with your own council as to the recycling facilities
available to you. However
for most people we can now separate our paper, glass and plastics and our local
council waste collection will recycle these for us. Additionally you can
visit local household waste recycling centres.
You can find out what recycling services are available from your local council
web sites. An index is available here: UK Councils Index.
Let's Make Recycling Convenient!
We believe strongly that most people would recycle more if it were more
convenient. To this end we would be grateful to hear from any individuals
or organisations that have ideas, products or services that can help make
recycling more convenient. Contact us on email at RecyclingTips@myecoworld.net.
Most paper, including cardboard, comes from felling and processing trees. This
frequently means deforestation which impacts the world's CO2 levels (causing
global warming), as well as consuming large amounts of energy in the production
process. Energy savings alone from recycling as opposed to new production
alone are estimated to be of the order of 50%.
The ways we can reduce our environmental impact on paper are buy recycling paper
so that it can be reprocessed to reduce the demand for new wood, and by
purchasing paper products and packaging where it has either been recycled or
produced from sustainable forests.
See Wikipedia - Paper Recycling for
more detailed information.
Glass is typically produced from silica (usually in the form of sand) with various additives such as Sodium
Carbonate (produces soda-lime glass). Glass constitutes a substantial portion
of home waste and landfill, both by weight and volume. Glass is not bio-degradable and as such it has no place in our landfills. As far
as recycling is concerned our focus is on bottles and jars. Surprisingly
whilst bottles are frequently recycled, glass jars are not. Every tonne of
glass recycled saves over 300 Kg of Carbon Dioxide emissions.
Note for recycling the glass is sorted into colours. The process of
recycling is complex and the uses for glass are varied.
See
www.britglass.org.uk/Education/Recycling.html for more information on
UK and glass recycling.
Of all the materials that we should really focus on recycling, plastic is top of
my list and is one of the most un-recycled materials. There are two reasons
why it is important to recycle plastics, firstly plastics come from non-renewable resources, and secondly
plastics are simply so prolific. Plastics make up 7% of domestic rubbish**.
Plastics are largely made from natural oil or gas, both of which are already in
short supply. The manufacture of plastics is a complex process and the
range of types of plastics is enormous. A recent estimate shows that about
8% of the world's annual oil production (~100million barrels per day) is either
used for materials or to create energy and drive the plastic production process***.
Plastics are often not available for recycling, or are available only for limited
and specific types such as plastic bottles and cartons. The reasons for
this are based on the many varied types of plastics, and the economics of
recycling some plastics making it an expensive process.
Given the sheer amount of plastics in our waste, and the shortage of oil and gas,
it is imperative that plastic recycling is developed to be broadly available
across all typical consumer based plastics. It is also vital that we
pressurise manufactures and retailers to reduce the amount of packaging, where
the use of plastic is so often nothing short of extreme.
We would like to hear from you about your council see council recycling standards for details.
From some perspectives organic waste may seem less of a concern. Food for
example forms a substantial portion of our domestic waste and hence a large
proportion of landfill. It is bio-degradable and therefore some people
feel is less of a concern.
However, the energy that is consumed in producing foods is the real concern and
it is the waste rather than recycling aspects that make the amount of food we
throw away a significant issue.
Food production and distribution is clearly skewed to the west, whilst many in
third world countries (Asia and Africa) struggle to support the populations.
Many people do not consider recycling wood. However, wood can be recycled
in many ways, it is after all the core component of paper which we recycle so
readily. Other ways you can use wood is burning it to produce energy,
simply re-using it
in its component form or composted/rotted to allow its return to the planets
resources.
Rubble can normally be recycled by your local councils, normally for hardcore.
However why not consider reclaiming building materials such as unbroken bricks,
for garden walls or paths or taking them to reclamation yards.
We have noticed some councils have begun charging for the recycling of domestic
building materials. We would welcome feedback on this issue from you so we
can review how widespread this practice this is in the UK. Email us at council_feedback@myecoworld.net.
Local councils offer clothing recycling, normally to the third world. Other
alternatives are organisations such as Oxfam, although as they resell the items
in West, they can be quite selective over the quality and condition of the goods
they will process.
Water is one of the most fundamental keys to life on earth. There are a number of
ways that our use of water affects the planet and adds to our carbon footprint.
If we drink bottled water, this has been produced and transported, consuming
large amounts of energy in the process and contributing to green-house gas
emissions. Equally, if we are wasteful of tap-water we increase the energy
required to process our waste water. Here are a few other suggestions of
how we can improve our water usage...
Rainwater
You can use rainwater in the garden as opposed to tap-water. In addition a water
butt can be an attractive garden feature and it will not fall under the dreaded
hose ban!
Toilets
Most modern toilets now support an economy flush, however for older toilets you
can simply put a brick in your cistern to reduce the water consumed in the flush
process.
Personal Washing
Taking showers rather than baths is a great way of reducing water consumption.
Another is not leaving the taps running when washing or brushing your teeth.
Dishwashers/Washing Machines
If you can do without a dishwasher or washing machine then great, but if not, make sure they are full. Do you have a reduced cycle? When buying
a new dishwasher consider its power consumption. Use bio-degradable washing
products is another must. You can buy green products on-line at www.ecotopia.co.uk.
Green Cleaning Products
Green cleaning products can make a significant reduction in water pollution. You can buy green products on-line at www.ecotopia.co.uk.
Links & References
www.letsrecycle.com is the UK's leading independent dedicated website for businesses, local authorities and community groups involved in recycling and waste management.
DEFRA the government environment agency's on-line portal.
UK Government Environment on DirectGov.
UK Environment Agency.
WRAP the Waste and Resources Action Programme.
www.recyclenow.com a recycling resource brought to you by WRAP.
* = wikipedia
** = www.wasteonline.org.uk
*** = www.grist.org