Q: Why is it important to recycle?
A: Recycling is important for many reasons. Often we promote recycling as a way to keep waste out of landfills, which are often unpopular. It is also important to remember that recycling recovers valuable raw materials. If we make aluminum cans from recycled cans, then we don’t have to disturb the environment by mining and smelting the mineral bauxite which is used in the manufacture of aluminum. Finally, recycling reduces pollution and saves energy that would have been expended when making products from “virgin” or unrecycled raw materials. In many places, you may be required or encouraged by law to recycle. Recycling works best when we remember to buy and use products made from recycled materials, such as newspaper or glass.
Q: When did recycling start?
A: Recycling has really been around for perhaps thousands of years! For example, ancient cultures that began making metal products, could melt down old broken items like pots or swords and make new ones. More recently, during World War I and II, people would have paper drives and metal drives to collect materials for the war effort. Nothing was wasted! When landfill became a cheap way of disposal in the 1940’s and 1950’s, recycling was less popular. But modern recycling of glass, paper, cans, etc. became more popular again in the 1970’s with drop-off recycling centres.
Q: When recycling came about, did many people contribute to it?
A: Recycling has been very popular in most communities, but often there is resistance if people think it will cost more money, or take more time. Often there is difficulty over who will pay for recycling (i.e. the Local Authority, or the residents) but when you analyze the savings of not throwing things in the landfill (which costs an average of £40 per ton in landfill tax (2009)) it make sense to recycle. Plus, many recyclable products can be sold to help cover the cost of processing. Newspapers, for example, have to be cleaned of contaminants after collection, baled or compacted, and then transported to a big paper recycling company that turns the paper into pulp and then into new products. All this costs money.
Q: How does recycling help the environment?
A: Recycling helps the environment by slowing down the rate at which we have to burn rubbish or put it in landfills. With fewer landfills we can have more space for people to farm, live, and work. Recycling also helps by reducing our need to consume fresh natural resources to make new products. As a result we can save these resources for use by future generations. Most importantly, recycling saves energy and reduces pollution. This could help slow down global climate change, another environmental problem caused by burning fossil fuels like oil and gas.
Q: What can be recycled?
A: Technically, almost anything could be recycled. If we had complex collection, sorting and processing facilities, we could separate almost any household or industrial product and find a new use for these materials. Unfortunately, it can be expensive to do this. Most recycling programs recycle the most valuable items or the items that make up the majority of the waste stream. These include: cardboard, newspaper, office paper, PET and HDPE plastic, aluminum, steel, and glass.
Q: What can be made with recycled items?
A: There are more recycled content products on the market than we can list here. Cardboard, office paper, newspaper, plastic, aluminum, steel, and glass are often made back into their original product, or made into new products. For example, some types of plastic (such as HDPE milk jugs) are used to make plastic lumber. Recycled glass can also be used instead of sand to fill asphalt. Agricultural waste is composted and then sold as topsoil. There are new and inventive uses coming up all the time.
Q: Has recycling changed throughout the years it has been around? If so, how?
A: Recycling technology always has to keep up with new packaging and materials. For example, 20 or 30 years ago you could still buy milk in returnable, refillable glass bottles. Now you buy it in a plastic bottle. Planners have to create new systems to collect, process and recycle the plastic “HDPE” (high density polyethylene), and then make the plastic into a new product (such as plastic lumber).
Changes in how landfills are managed have affected recycling. It is getting more expensive to throw things in landfills, because more engineering and environmental protection goes into designing landfills.
Many recycling programs now are run by private waste companies such as WSR recycling Limited.
Q: Do you think recycling will be the way of the future or do you think it is already?
A: Yes, recycling is the way of the future. People do not want to build new landfills, and are also starting to recognize that it is just plain wasteful to throw so many reusable things away. There are a lot of energy savings and resource savings associated with recycling.
Q: Do many companies or schools recycle?
A: Many businesses recycle to save money. The most commonly recycled material at businesses is cardboard and paper. Depending on the type of business, they also recycle things like metal shavings from machining operations, or leftover product from manufacturing, because these waste items actually have a lot of value in reuse or recycling. A lot of schools recycle office paper and cardboard.
Q: Are there any consequences for recycling?
A: There have been some environmental problems associated with recycling. There are always contaminants in the recycling process. For example, re-pulping paper sometimes involves removing the ink and other contaminants from the printing process. This can create a whole new kind of waste. Technicians working on the problem are trying to clean up the recycling process. But perhaps the BIGGEST consequence of recycling is that while it is great to collect all these things for recycling, the products have to be made into something new! We all must support the cause by buying products made from recycled materials, like recycled paper. Look for the “recycled” logo.
Q: Is paper worth any money when you recycle it?
A: There are many different kinds of paper, and the value of recycled paper changes all the time. Sometimes it is very lucrative to recycle old corrugated containers (cardboard boxes) and there is almost always a good market for it.
There are many other external costs of waste that people don’t always think about. These include long-term environmental harm from landfills, cost of building new landfills (and lots of public opposition) wasted resources being buried in landfills, wasted energy in the extraction of raw materials that could have been avoided through recycling, and so on.
Q: Where can I hire a skip from?
A: Please contact WSR Recycling Limited. We are based in Widnes. You can order online or please phone us on 0151 423 5928.
Q: Who do I need to talk to about my waste and recycling?
A: WSR Recycling is able to talk to you about all of your waste and recycling needs and issues. Please contact us on 0151 423 5928 to discuss your needs today.
Q: Where can I learn more about waste and recycling?
Here are a list of resources that you might find useful:
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/