What is recycling

SEARCH All recycling. What is recycling and why should we Recycle? What are the positive and negative effects of recycling? Many communities and businesses make it easy to recycle by placing labeled containers in the open for public use, or providing bins for home and business owners who have curbside pickup. Recycling can benefit your community and the environment.

Variations of recycling include upcycling, which involves adding value to an item for reuse, and downcycling, which involves breaking down an item or substance into its component elements to reuse anything that can be salvaged.

The basic phases in recycling are the collection of waste materials, their processing or manufacture into new products, and the purchase of those products, which may then themselves be recycled. Unlike reducing or re-using, recycling involves the processing of the old or used materials. This is done to reduce the use of raw materials that would have been used. Consider these facts: It costs more energy to manufacture a brand new aluminum can than it does to recycle aluminum cans. It is an alternative to conventional waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions.

This not only gives the old items a new lease of life, it also reduces the amount of raw material used to make new things from scratch. For example, most of the aluminum cans in the United States are made with recycled aluminum. So if you drink juice or soda from a can, recycle that can instead of throwing it in the trash.

A lot of our household waste can be broken down and reprocessed to make new things – this process uses less energy and resources than making items new so it offers a big boost to our environment.

Reducing is really the best way to reduce your overall waste footprint. If you never buy, use or have, then you will not have the waste to manage when done. Many things can be recycled such as paper, metal, plastic, glass and electrical equipment. It takes a lot of energy to create a metal product. Unlike many other materials, metal has to undergo several different steps before it can take its final shape.

Jacob Greenberg, a commissioner in Blaine County, Idaho, told me that the county’s mixed-paper. Materials most commonly recycled include plastic, paper, glass, and aluminum. At this level, used consumer goods are collecte. Only of plastics get recycle and significant reductions will require systemic change. Or, it is a process to turn used waste and materials into useful products.

The truth is we all need to get into the habit of using less stuff in the first place. And the things we do use ought to be reused as much as possible before being recycle to minimise waste. Alongside reducing and reusing, recycling is essential for the future of our planet. A typical glass container is made of as much as percent recycled glass.

According to industry estimates, percent of all recycled glass eventually ends up as new glass containers. Up to off select products.