Some of the common products you can find that can be made with recycled content include the following:

We use plastic bags to carry home groceries. They keep our bread and other food fresh. They even let us carry goldfish home from the pet store.

Today there are thousands of grocery and retail stores to collect these bags for recycling, including most Target, Walmart, Lowes, Safeway stores and more. And remember that at all these places, we also can recycle lots of the plastic wraps that protect the things we buy (even bubble wrap!).

What can they become? When they are recycled plastic bags and wraps can made into plastic lumber that is used to make park benches, backyard decks and fences – even playground equipment. They also can be recycled into new plastic bags – and then recycled again.  Check out this web site that talks about recycling plastic bags and find out where you can recycle them in your community.

Plastic bottles for soft drinks, juice and water are a handy way to conquer thirst …and they don’t shatter if you drop them.

Plastic bottles for soft drinks, juice and water are a handy way to conquer thirst …and they don’t shatter if you drop them.

What can they become? When plastic bottles are recycled they can be made into lots of things: t-shirts, sweaters, fleece jackets, insulation for jackets and sleeping bags, carpeting and more bottles.

It takes about 10 bottles to make enough plastic fiber to make a cool new t-shirt.

It takes 63 bottles to make a sweater.

It takes only 14 bottles to create enough insulation (fiberfill) for a ski jacket.  And 114 bottles to make enough insulation (fiberfill) for a sleeping bag.  Nearly 29.3 percent of plastic bottles are recycled in the U.S. If everyone pitches in, we can do even better.

Check out some other fun facts about plastic bottle recycling.

Plastic caps on bottles help your soda stay fizzy and keep out nasty stuff like bugs and dirt. Even though they’re made with a different type of plastic than the bottles, the caps should be put back on bottles before you toss them in recycling bins.

What can they become? Plastic bottle caps can be recycled into batteries for your car, garden rakes, storage containers, reusable shopping bags, yarn, ropes, brooms … and more bottle caps.

 

Plastic foam packaging actually is made up of more than 95% air! It cushions your TV set and protects your video game console as they move from the factory to the store to your home.

What can it become? Innovative recycling programs can take foam packaging and turn it into plastic products such as insulation, picture frames, building products for your home … and more foam packaging. 

In pre-industrial times, there is evidence of scrap bronze and other metals being collected in Europe and melted down for continuous reuse.^[8]Paper recycling was first recorded in 1031 when Japanese shops sold repulped paper.^[9][10] In Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires was collected by "dustmen" and downcycled as a base material for brick making. These forms of recycling were driven by the economic advantage of obtaining recycled materials instead of virgin material, and the need for waste removal in ever-more-densely populated areas.^[7]In 1813, Benjamin Law developed the process of turning rags into "shoddy" and "mungo" wool in Batley, Yorkshire, which combined recycled fibers with virgin wool.^[11] The West Yorkshire shoddy industry in towns such as Batley and Dewsbury lasted from the early 19th century to at least 1914.

Industrialization spurred demand for affordable materials. In addition to rags, ferrous scrap metals were coveted as they were cheaper to acquire than virgin ore. Railroads purchased and sold scrap metal in the 19th century, and the growing steel and automobile industries purchased scrap in the early 20th century. Many secondary goods were collected, processed and sold by peddlers who scoured dumps and city streets for discarded machinery, pots, pans, and other sources of metal. By World War I, thousands of such peddlers roamed the streets of American cities, taking advantage of market forces to recycle post-consumer materials into industrial production.^[12]

Manufacturers of beverage bottles, including Schweppes,^[13] began offering refundable recycling deposits in Great Britain and Ireland around 1800. An official recycling system with refundable deposits for bottles was established in Sweden in 1884, and for aluminum beverage cans in 1982; it led to recycling rates of 84–99%, depending on type. (Glass bottles can be refilled around 20 times.^[14])

Wartime[edit]

American poster from World War II

British poster from World War II

Remnants of iron fence bars in York Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate. Such public property fences were sawed for the iron and recycled during World War II.

New chemical industries created in the late 19th century both invented new materials (e.g. Bakelite in 1907) and promised to transform valueless into valuable materials. Proverbially, you could not make a silk purse of a sow's ear—until the US firm Arthur D. Little published in 1921 "On the Making of Silk Purses from Sows' Ears", its research proving that when "chemistry puts on overalls and gets down to business [...] new values appear. New and better paths are opened to reach the goals desired."^[15]

Recycling—or "salvage", as it was then usually known—was a major issue for governments during World War II, where financial constraints and significant material shortages made it necessary to reuse goods and recycle materials.^[16] These resource shortages caused by the world wars, and other such world-changing events, greatly encouraged recycling.^[17][16] It became necessary for most homes to recycle their waste, allowing people to make the most of what was available. Recycling household materials also meant more resources were left available for war efforts.^[16] Massive government campaigns, such as the National Salvage Campaignin Britain and the Salvage for Victory campaign in the United States, occurred in every fighting nation, urging citizens to donate metal, paper, rags, and rubber as a patriotic duty.

Post-World War II[edit]

A considerable investment in recycling occurred in the 1970s due to rising energy costs.^[18] Recycling aluminium uses only 5% of the energy of virgin production. Glass, paper and other metals have less dramatic but significant energy savings when recycled.^[19]

Although consumer electronics have been popular since the 1920s, recycling them was almost unheard of until early 1991.^[20] The first electronic waste recycling scheme was implemented in Switzerland, beginning with collection of old refrigerators, then expanding to cover all devices.^[21] When these programs were created, many countries couldn't deal with the sheer quantity of e-waste, or its hazardous nature, and began to export the problem to developing countries without enforced environmental legislation. (For example, recycling computer monitors in the United States costs 10 times more than in China.) Demand for electronic waste in Asia began to grow when scrapyards found they could extract valuable substances such as copper, silver, iron, silicon, nickel, and gold during the recycling process.^[22] The 2000s saw a boom in both the sales of electronic devices and their growth as a waste stream: In 2002, e-waste grew faster than any other type of waste in the EU.^[23] This spurred investment in modern automated facilities to cope with the influx, especially after strict laws were implemented in 2003.^{[24][25][26][27]}

As of 2014, the European Union had about 50% of world share of waste and recycling industries, with over 60,000 companies employing 500,000 people and a turnover of €24 billion.^[28] EU countries are mandated to reach recycling rates of at least 50%; leading countries are already at around 65%. The overall EU average was 39% in 2013^[29] and is rising steadily, to 45% in 2015.^[30][31]

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly set 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, specifies 11 targets "to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns".^[32] The fifth target, Target 12.5, is defined as substantially reducing waste generation by 2030, indicated by the National Recycling Rate.

In 2018, changes in the recycling industry have sparked a global "crisis". On 31 December 2017, China announced its "National Sword" policy, setting new standards for imports of recyclable material and banning materials deemed too "dirty" or "hazardous". The new policy caused drastic disruptions in the global recycling market, and reduced the prices of scrap plastic and low-grade paper. Exports of recyclable materials from G7 countries to China dropped dramatically, with many shifting to countries in southeast Asia. This generated significant concern about the recycling industry's practices and environmental sustainability. The abrupt shift caused countries to accept more materials than they could process, and raised fundamental questions about shipping waste from developed countries to countries with few environmental regulations—a practice that predated the crisis.^[33]

Legislation[edit]

Supply[edit]

For a recycling program to work, a large, stable supply of recyclable material is crucial. Three legislative options have been used to create such supplies: mandatory recycling collection, container deposit legislation, and refuse bans. Mandatory collection laws set recycling targets for cities, usually in the form that a certain percentage of a material must be diverted from the city's waste stream by a target date. The city is responsible for working to meet this target.^[5]

Container deposit legislation mandates refunds for the return of certain containers—typically glass, plastic and metal. When a product in such a container is purchased, a small surcharge is added that the consumer can reclaim when the container is returned to a collection point. These programs have succeeded in creating an average 80% recycling rate.^[34] Despite such good results, the shift in collection costs from local government to industry and consumers has created strong opposition in some areas^[5]—for example, where manufacturers bear the responsibility for recycling their products. In the European Union, the WEEE Directive requires producers of consumer electronics to reimburse the recyclers' costs.^[35]

An alternative way to increase the supply of recyclates is to ban the disposal of certain materials as waste, often including used oil, old batteries, tires, and garden waste. This can create a viable economy for the proper disposal of the products. Care must be taken that enough recycling services exist to meet the supply, or such bans can create increased illegal dumping.^[5]

Government-mandated demand[edit]

Four forms of legislation have also been used to increase and maintain the demand for recycled materials: minimum recycled content mandates, utilization rates, procurement policies, and recycled product labeling.^[5]

Both minimum recycled content mandates and utilization rates increase demand by forcing manufacturers to include recycling in their operations. Content mandates specify that a certain percentage of a new product must consist of recycled material. Utilization rates are a more flexible option: Industries can meet their recycling targets at any point of their operations, or even contract out recycling in exchange for tradable credits. Opponents to these methods cite their large increase in reporting requirements, and claim that they rob the industry of flexibility.^[5][36]

Governments have used their own purchasing power to increase recycling demand through "procurement policies". These policies are either "set-asides", which reserve a certain amount of spending for recycled products; or "price preference" programs that provide larger budgetswhen recycled items are purchased. Additional regulations can target specific cases: in the United States, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency mandates the purchase of oil, paper, tires and building insulation from recycled or re-refined sources whenever possible.^[5]

The final government regulation toward increased demand is recycled product labeling. When producers are required to label their packaging with the amount of recycled material it contains (including the packaging), consumers can make more educated choices. Consumers with sufficient buying power can choose more environmentally conscious options, prompting producers to increase the recycled material in their products and increase demand. Standardized recycling labeling can also have a positive effect on the supply of recyclates when it specifies how and where the product can be recycled.^[5]

Recycling includes the three steps below, which create a continuous loop, represented by the familiar recycling symbol.

There are several methods for collecting recyclables, including curbside collection, drop-off centers, and deposit or refund programs. Visit How do I recycle... Common Recyclables

After collection, recyclables are sent to a recovery facility to be sorted, cleaned and processed into materials that can be used in manufacturing. Recyclables are bought and sold just like raw materials would be, and prices go up and down depending on supply and demand in the United States and the world.

More and more of today's products are being manufactured with recycled content. Common household items that contain recycled materials include the following:

Recycled materials are also used in new ways such as recovered glass in asphalt to pave roads or recovered plastic in carpeting and park benches.

You help close the recycling loop by buying new products made from recycled materials. There are thousands of products that contain recycled content. When you go shopping, look for the following:

Below are some of the terms used:

Some of the common products you can find that can be made with recycled content include the following:

EPA released significant findings on the economic benefits of the recycling industry with an update to the national Recycling Economic Information (REI) Study in 2016. This study analyzes the numbers of jobs, wages and tax revenues attributed to recycling. The study found that in a single year, recycling and reuse activities in the United States accounted for:

This equates to 1.17 jobs per 1,000 tons of materials recycled and $65.23 in wages and $9.42 in tax revenue for every ton of materials recycled.

For more information, check out the full report.

Learn what happens to materials thrown away in the United States in our Together, We Can Make a Difference infographic.

Contact Us to ask a question, provide feedback, or report a problem.

COLLECTION REQUIREMENTS

There are two broad types of recycling operations: internal and external. Internal recycling is the reuse in a manufacturing process of materials that are a waste product of that process. Internal recycling is common in the metals industry, for example. The manufacture of copper tubing results in a certain amount of waste in the form of tube ends and trimmings; this material is remelted and recast. Another form of internal recycling is seen in the distilling industry, in which, after the distillation, spent grain mash is dried and processed into an edible foodstuff for cattle.

As stewards of the environment, we are responsible for preserving and protecting our resources for ourselves and for future generations.

Recycling is really just common sense, and until the "modern era," it was a common household activity. Before the 1920s, 70% of U.S. cities ran programs to recycle certain materials. During World War II, industry recycled and reused about 25% of the waste stream. Because of concern for the environment, recycling is again on the upswing. The nation's composting and recycling rate rose from 7.7% of the waste stream in 1960 to 17% in 1990. It's currently up to around 30%. California is at about 48%.

The world has changed a lot in the past century. From individually packaged food servings to disposable diapers, more garbage is generated now than ever before. The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. This garbage, the solid waste stream, goes mostly to landfills, where it's compacted and buried. As the waste stream continues to grow, so will the pressures on our landfills, our resources, and our environment.

The more we recycle, the less garbage winds up in our landfills and incineration plants. By reusing aluminum, paper, glass, plastics, and other materials, we can save production and energy costs, and reduce the negative impacts that the extraction and processing of virgin materials has on the environment.

It all comes back to you. Recycling gets down to one person taking action. New products can be made from your recyclable waste material. Recycling is good for our environment, our communities, and our economy. Visit America Recycles website at www.americarecyclesday.org to learn more about this subject.

A: In a broad sense, recycling is part of an ethic of resource efficiency – of using products to their fullest potential. When a recycled material, rather than a raw material, is used to make a new product, natural resources and energy are conserved. This is because recycled materials have already been refined and processed once; manufacturing the second time is much cleaner and less energy-intensive than the first. For example, manufacturing with recycled aluminum cans uses 95 percent less energy than creating the same amount of aluminum with bauxite.

Investments in recycling collection support a strong and diverse recycling manufacturing industry, which brings jobs and high wages to states and localities. The collection of recyclable materials is the first - the most critical link in a chain of economic activity. Investment in local collection infrastructure pays great dividends in supporting significant downstream recycling economic activity. Importantly, many of these recycling manufacturers rely on a steady and consistent supply of recyclable materials generated from recycling programs.

California’s investments in recycling collection infrastructure have brought substantial returns in the form of reciprocal investments and job creation by recycling manufacturers. The National Recycling Coalition reports that the recycling industry in California is both diverse and significant. The state hosts 4,342 recycling and reuse establishments that employ over 84,000 people, generate an annual payroll of $2.25 billion, and gross $14.2 billion in annual revenues. In California, for every job in recycling collection there are eight jobs created through manufacturing the recovered material into a new product.

A: It conserves energy, reduces air and water pollution, reduces greenhouse gases, and conserves natural resources.

Stanford recycled, composted, and otherwise source reduced 62% of its waste and reduced landfill by 35%.  The results are cleaner air and water, less pollution, more forested land and open space, and reduced greenhouse gases.

Everyone knows recycling means less trash going to our landfills but the greatest environmental benefit of recycling is the conservation of energy and natural resources and the prevention of pollution that is generated when a raw material is used to make a new product.

The paper, glass, metals, plastic, and organic material Stanford recycled in 2016 saved a total of about 70,481 million BTUs of energy; enough energy to power nearly 613 homes for one year. Or said another way, conserved 12,131 barrels of oil or 567,3014 gallons of gasoline.

Producing products using recovered rather than raw materials uses significantly less energy which results in less burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

Stanford’s recycling efforts last year reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 2447 metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE), equivalent to taking 1889 cars off the road per year, conserving 1,009,626 gallons of gasoline or 48 railway cars of coal.

By reducing air and water pollution and saving energy, recycling offers an important environmental benefit: it reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons, that contribute to global climate change.

By recycling over 2303 tons of paper last year, Stanford saved 32,115 trees. Stanford reduced the need for 414 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone by recycling over 288 tons of ferrous scrap metal.

By using recycled materials instead of trees, metal ores, minerals, oil and other raw materials harvested from the earth, recycling-based manufacturing conserves the world's scarce natural resources. This conservation reduces pressure to expand forests cutting and mining operations.

In 2014, Americans generated about 258 million tons of trash and recycled 66.4 million tons and composted 23 million tons of this material, equivalent to a 34.6 percent recycling rate. On average, we recycled and composted 1.51 pounds of our individual waste generation of 4.44 pounds per person per day.

The state of the economy has a strong impact on consumption and waste generation. Waste generation increases during times of strong economic growth and decreases during times of economic decline. To learn more about waste generation in the US see the US EPA report Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures.

This data is taken from Stanford University's Recycling and Solid Waste Report 2016 and fed into the US EPA WAste Reduction Model (WARM).

A: Yes it can! Here’s some fun facts from CalRecycle to show you how!

If you look at the big picture of what it takes to create a product from scratch -- to get the raw materials, transport them, process them and manufacture them -- making goods with recycled material like paper, plastic, glass, and metal is a major energy saver.

Seattle economist Jeffrey Morris estimated that manufacturing one ton of office and computer paper with recycled paper stock can save nearly 3,000 kilowatt hours over the same ton of paper made with virgin wood products.

A ton of soda cans made with recycled aluminum saves an amazing 21,000 kilowatt hours by reducing the virgin bauxite (bozite) ore that would have to be mined, shipped, and refined. That’s a 95% energy savings.

A ton of PET plastic containers made with recycled plastic conserves about 7,200 kilowatt hours.

The San Diego County Office of Education has figured out that recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for four hours.

The Steel Recycling Institute has found that steel recycling saves enough energy to electrically power the equilvalent of 18 million homes for a year.

With all the energy that is saved when we recycle bottles and cans and paper, we should all recycle and buy recycled more often!

A: The amount of lost energy from throwing away recyclable commodities such as aluminum cans and newspapers is equivalent to the annual output of 15 power plants. The energy savings applies to all recycling sectors:

Aluminum. Recycling of aluminum cans saves 95% of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from its virgin source. One ton of recycled aluminum saves 14,000 kilowatt hours (Kwh) of energy, 40 barrels of oil, 130. 152.32 million BTU's of energy, and 10 cubic yards of landfill space.

Newsprint. One ton of recycled newsprint saves 601 Kwh of energy, 1.7 barrels of oil (71 gallons), 10.2 million BTU's of energy, 60 pounds of air pollutants from being released, 7,000 gallons of water, and 4.6 cubic yards of landfill space.

Office Paper. One ton of recycled office paper saves 4,100 Kwh of energy, 9 barrels of oil, 54 million BTU's of energy, 60 pounds of air pollutants from being released, 7,000 gallons of water, and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.

Plastic. One ton of recycled plastic saves 5,774 Kwh of energy, 16.3 barrels of oil, 98 million BTU's of energy, and 30 cubic yards of landfill space.

Steel. One ton of recycled steel saves 642 Kwh of energy, 1.8 barrels of oil, 10.9 million BTU's of energy, and 4 cubic yards of landfill space.

Glass. One ton of recycled glass saves 42 Kwh of energy, 0.12 barrels of oil (5 gallons), 714,000 BTU's of energy, 7.5 pounds of air pollutants from being released, and 2 cubic yards of landfill space. Over 30% of the raw material used in glass production now comes from recycled glass.

As you can see, by recycling you are saving energy in addition to conserving resources and reducing pollution! 

Source: EPA WARM

A: Last year alone, recycling bottles and cans saved enough energy to power up to 522,000 homes in California.

Energy drinks are all the rage, and in recent years beverages that invigorate consumers have flooded the marketplace. What many people might not realize is that the same bottles and cans that provide them with energy beverages could actually save the kind of energy needed to power their homes and televisions.

How much energy? In 2004, the 12 billion bottles and cans recycled by Californians saved the equivalent of enough energy to power up to 522,000 homes, according to CalRecycle calculations. It takes 95 percent less energy to make an aluminum can from recycled aluminum than from processing bauxite ore, and glass furnaces can run at lower temperatures when using recycled glass, thereby saving energy and extending equipment life.

To help Californians find the recycling bin instead of the trash can, CalRecycle has some simple tips for bottle and can recycling:

• Own a business or work in an office building, gym, school, restaurant or other location where people dispose of CRV containers? Order a free “Recycling Starter Kit” at www.bottlesandcans.com

• On the go? Hold onto your empty beverage containers until you find a recycling bin. Keep an extra bag or box in your car so that you can collect your beverage containers without having them roll around in your car.

• Throwing a party? Set up a separate bag or box for recyclable beverage containers only. Later, redeem them for cash or put them in your curbside recycling bin.

For more information about this press release and other CRV beverage container recycling related programs, please contact the CalRecycle.

A: Reducing the amount of paper you use is not just being cost-effective, it is taking concrete steps to reduce climate change. More so than any other waste management option - including composting, recycling, and landfilling - source reduction helps turn back the clock on climate change.

Source reduction, often called waste prevention, is any changes in the design, manufacture, purchase, or use of materials or products (including packaging) to reduce their amount or toxicity before they become municipal solid waste. Source reduction also includes the reuse of products or materials.

When a material is source reduced (i.e. less of the material is made), the GHG emissions associated with making the material and managing the post consumer waste are avoided. In addition, when paper products are source reduced, trees that would otherwise be harvested are left standing and continue to grow, removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. GHG emissions reductions resulting from source reduction of a variety of common materials are listed in the table.

What can the average citizen do to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Besides reducing emissions from fossil fuels through energy and transportation efficiency, we also can help minimize climate impacts through source reduction, reuse, and recycling. This saves energy which translates directly to reduced greenhouse gas emissions. We should all do our share to protect the earth and its atmosphere.

For more information on source reduction visit: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/index.htm.

Paper makes up 23 percent of municipal solid waste (trash) generated each year, more than any other material. Americans recycled about 68 percent of the paper they used in 2018. This recovered paper is used to make new paper products, saving trees and other natural resources. Most community or office recycling programs accept paper and paper products. Check what your community or office program accepts before you put it in the bin. When you go shopping, look for products that are made from recycled paper.

If you use gift wrap, look to find a type that can be recycled or that is made from recycled content. Consumers can also reduce waste by using decorative boxes that do not require wrapping and that can be recycled. A lot of gift wrap isn’t recyclable because of the coating on the paper, which is often shiny and laminated. However, check with your local recycling provider first to be certain and for the best ways to dispose of wrapping paper.

The Agency encourages consumers to reuse gift bags and tissue paper, and not discard them after a single use.

Instead of being "wasted" by release into the ambient environment, sometimes waste heat (or cold) can be utilized by another process (such as using hot engine coolant to heat a vehicle), or a portion of heat that would otherwise be wasted can be reused in the same process if make-up heat is added to the system (as with heat recovery ventilation in a building).

Thermal energy storage, which includes technologies both for short- and long-term retention of heat or cold, can create or improve the utility of waste heat (or cold). One example is waste heat from air conditioning machinery stored in a buffer tank to aid in night time heating. Another is seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) at a foundry in Sweden. The heat is stored in the bedrock surrounding a cluster of heat exchanger equipped boreholes, and is used for space heating in an adjacent factory as needed, even months later.^[1] An example of using STES to utilize natural waste heat is the Drake Landing Solar Community in Alberta, Canada, which, by using a cluster of boreholes in bedrock for interseasonal heat storage, obtains 97 percent of its year-round heat from solar thermal collectors on the garage roofs.^[2][3] Another STES application is storing winter cold underground, for summer air conditioning.^[4]

On a biological scale, all organisms reject waste heat as part of their metabolic processes, and will die if the ambient temperature is too high to allow this.

Anthropogenic waste heat is thought by some to contribute to the urban heat island effect. The biggest point sources of waste heat originate from machines (such as electrical generators or industrial processes, such as steel or glass production) and heat loss through building envelopes. The burning of transport fuels is a major contribution to waste heat.

Conversion of energy[edit]

See also: Second law of thermodynamics

Machines converting energy contained in fuels to mechanical work or electric energy produce heat as a by-product.

Sources[edit]

In the majority of energy applications, energy is required in multiple forms. These energy forms typically include some combination of: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, mechanical energy and electric power. Often, these additional forms of energy are produced by a heat engine, running on a source of high-temperature heat. A heat engine can never have perfect efficiency, according to the second law of thermodynamics, therefore a heat engine will always produce a surplus of low-temperature heat. This is commonly referred to as waste heat or "secondary heat", or "low-grade heat". This heat is useful for the majority of heating applications, however, it is sometimes not practical to transport heat energy over long distances, unlike electricity or fuel energy. The largest proportions of total waste heat are from power stationsand vehicle engines.^{[citation needed]} The largest single sources are power stations and industrial plants such as oil refineries and steelmakingplants.^{[citation needed]}

Power generation[edit]

The electrical efficiency of thermal power plants is defined as the ratio between the input and output energy. It is typically only 33% when disregarding usefulness of the heat output for building heat.^[5] The images show cooling towers which allow power stations to maintain the low side of the temperature difference essential for conversion of heat differences to other forms of energy. Discarded or "Waste" heat that is lost to the environment may instead be used to advantage.

Coal-fired power station that transform chemical energy into 36%-48% electricity and remaining 52%-64% to waste heat

Industrial processes[edit]

Industrial processes, such as oil refining, steel making or glass making are major sources of waste heat.

Electronics[edit]

Although small in terms of power, the disposal of waste heat from microchips and other electronic components, represents a significant engineering challenge. This necessitates the use of fans, heatsinks, etc. to dispose of the heat.

For example, data centers use electronic components that consume electricity for computing, storage and networking. The French CNRS explains a data center is like a resistance and most of the energy it consumes is transformed into heat and requires cooling systems.^[6]

Biological[edit]

Animals, including humans, create heat as a result of metabolism. In warm conditions, this heat exceeds a level required for homeostasis in warm-blooded animals, and is disposed of by various thermoregulation methods such as sweating and panting. Fiala et al. modelled human thermoregulation.^[7]

Cooling towers evaporating water at Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, United Kingdom.

Disposal[edit]

Low temperature heat contains very little capacity to do work (Exergy), so the heat is qualified as waste heat and rejected to the environment. Economically most convenient is the rejection of such heat to water from a sea, lake or river. If sufficient cooling water is not available, the plant can be equipped with a cooling tower or air cooler to reject the waste heat into the atmosphere. In some cases it is possible to use waste heat, for instance in district heating systems.

Uses[edit]

Cogeneration and trigeneration[edit]

Waste of the by-product heat is reduced if a cogeneration system is used, also known as a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system. Limitations to the use of by-product heat arise primarily from the engineering cost/efficiency challenges in effectively exploiting small temperature differences to generate other forms of energy. Applications utilizing waste heat include swimming pool heating and paper mills. In some cases, cooling can also be produced by the use of absorption refrigerators for example, in this case it's called trigeneration or CCHP (combined cooling, heat and power).

There are many different approaches to transfer thermal energy to electricity, and the technologies to do so have existed for several decades. The organic Rankine cycle, offered by companies such as Ormat, is a very known approach, whereby an organic substance is used as working medium instead of water. The benefit is that this process can reject heat at lower temperatures for the production of electricity than the regular water steam cycle.^[8] An example of use of the steam Rankine cycle is the Cyclone Waste Heat Engine. Another established approach is by using a thermoelectric device, where a change in temperature across a semiconductor material creates a voltage through a phenomenon known as the Seebeck effect.^[9] A related approach is the use of thermogalvanic cells, where a temperature difference gives rise to an electric current in an electrochemical cell.^[10]

District heating[edit]

Waste heat can be used in district heating. Depending on the temperature of the waste heat and the district heating system, a heat pump must be used, to reach sufficient temperatures. An easy and cheap way to use waste heat in cold district heating systems, as these are operated at ambient temperatures and therefore even low-grade waste heat can be used without needing a heat pump at the producer side.^[11]

Pre-heating[edit]

Waste heat can be forced to heat incoming fluids and objects before being highly heated. For instance outgoing water can give its waste heat to incoming water in a heat exchanger before heating in homes or power plants.

Anthropogenic heat[edit]

Anthropogenic heat

Anthropogenic heat is heat generated by humans and human activity. The American Meteorological Societydefines it as "Heat released to the atmosphere as a result of human activities, often involving combustion of fuels. Sources include industrial plants, space heating and cooling, human metabolism, and vehicle exhausts. In cities this source typically contributes 15–50 W/m² to the local heat balance, and several hundred W/m² in the center of large cities in cold climates and industrial areas."^[12]

Estimates of anthropogenic heat generation can be made by totaling all the energy used for heating and cooling, running appliances, transportation, and industrial processes, plus that directly emitted by human metabolism.

Environmental impact[edit]

Anthropogenic heat is a small influence on rural temperatures, and becomes more significant in dense urbanareas.^[13] It is one contributor to urban heat islands. Other human-caused effects (such as changes to albedo, or loss of evaporative cooling) that might contribute to urban heat islands are not considered to be anthropogenic heat by this definition.

Aluminum Recycling
Aluminum cans are best known for their use in the construction of soda and energy drink bottles. More often than not, however, they are used only once and thrown away. But it so happens that aluminum is the one of the easiest materials to recycle – they are melted at s high temperature and remolded into cans. To give you an idea of how massive the industry is, more than $800 million worth of aluminum cans are recycled every year, making it the most profitable recycling venture available to us today.

Cartridge Refilling
The printer industry is infamous for having notoriously expensive cartridges. With over 300 million ink cartridges thrown out every year, the impact they have on the environment cannot be overstated. Consider starting a business that provides ink and toner refilling to save consumers money, make some by yourself and protect the environment in the process. It’s an easy market to get into because it’s not very saturated and the initial capital isn’t very high

Many people still don’t know that if they don’t recycle, the recyclable waste items end up in landfills or even worst in oceans putting a heavy burden on the Natural ecosystem of which we humans are also a part. They don’t realize how many resources are wasted just by a small decision of every individual if he or she decides to just dump the unwanted item in the waste bin instead of recycling it. The waste from our waste bins is in general taken to landfills around UAE and the waste sits there for years which ultimately harms the environment, creates pollution, adds to global warming and impure air around the landfill affects our health adversely. Read here more about UAE’s Waste facts.

STEPS FOR WASTE DISPOSAL IN UAE

If you want to reduce your negative impact on our ecosystem, it is very important to learn sustainable waste management practices and follow the right steps for waste disposal.

Think before you use any single-use, disposable item. Replace those items with reusable items so that you can reduce the waste. Read here how to reduce single-use plastic waste with some simple lifestyle changes.

Also when shopping, shop as much package-free as possible, here is a zero-waste shopping kit you can create for yourself.

Instead of throwing away your unwanted or waste item, you can repurpose, upcycle your waste. Here is a great resource for reusing your household items. Now if you are interested in trying a Zero-waste lifestyle like our family, read here quick know-how about what is reusing, re-purposing, and up-cycling.

Also remember to reuse your own containers, bags while shopping. I have been practicing that since 2016, and after a short talk with store staff/supervisor or even manager in some cases, I could avoid taking most of the packaging material home. This habit reduces the need for frequent recycling.

Now most of the time, people throw away items that are still functioning well or in good condition just because they want to buy new ones or they no longer need them. So remember one man’s junk is another man’s treasure and donate those items in good condition to charities around the UAE, which help the unprivileged people around the world. Click here for the list of 20 such charities and organizations, where you can donate your unwanted items.

This one of the very important steps. Compost all your organic waste instead of throwing it. Watch here, video tutorial about ‘How to set up a composting and recycling station at home’

Now when we are talking about recycling, it’s very important to segregate waste and follow the right procedures while recycling. Otherwise, most of your recyclables don’t get recycled. So when you are recycling, do it correctly. Read here a quick guide to the correct ways of recycling. Now once you know what you can recycle and what you can’t; you need to know where to recycle in UAE.

By the early 1900s, regulations emerged to promote rural electrification through the construction of centralized plants managed by regional utilities. These regulations not only promoted electrification throughout the countryside, but they also discouraged decentralized power generation, such as CHP. They even went so far as to make it illegal for non-utilities to sell power.^[19]

By 1978, Congress recognized that efficiency at central power plants had stagnated and sought to encourage improved efficiency with the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which encouraged utilities to buy power from other energy producers. CHP plants proliferated, soon producing about 8 percent of all energy in the U.S.^[20] However, the bill left implementation and enforcement up to individual states, resulting in little or nothing being done in many parts of the country.

In 2008 Tom Casten, chairman of Recycled Energy Development, said that "We think we could make about 19 to 20 percent of U.S. electricity with heat that is currently thrown away by industry."^[21]

Outside the U.S., energy recycling is more common. Denmark is probably the most active energy recycler, obtaining about 55% of its energy from CHP and waste heat recovery. Other large countries, including Germany, Russia, and India, also obtain a much higher share of their energy from decentralized sources.^[20][21]

But that feel-good sentiment might just be a placebo effect.

Sure, recycling beats throwing something right in the trash, but tons of our recyclables still end up in landfills or oceans (literally, tons), making a mess of ecosystems. A recent study suggests only 9 percent of the world’s plastic is even recycled.

In other words, recycling is often just another word for a long, expensive detour that a plastic bottle takes on its way to a landfill, where it slowly breaks down over hundreds of years. If we’re lucky, that plastic won’t be ingested by a bird, fish or any other mammal that we end up eating.

So why does recycling make us feel so damn good? Part of the problem, and persuasion, of recycling is the narrative developed to support it.

If our answer to plastics has always been to recycle, why do we still have such a big plastics pollution problem? Maybe it’s because we’re focusing on recycling instead of the source of the problem: the industries making all that plastic.

“Industry advocacy groups push recycling as a be-all-end-all process,” says Earth Day Network End Plastics Pollution Campaign Manager David Ayer. “They’re putting all their money into waste management, advocating recycling and teaching people how to recycle better.”

This narrative of recycling is an industry sleight of hand, shifting the blame of plastics pollution onto the consumer. Plastics manufacturers can continue to produce single-use plastics, and businesses can package products in plastics, without retribution. Afterall, if a Sprite bottle washes up on the beach, no one’s fining The Coca-Cola Company. Instead, they’re asking, “Why wasn’t that recycled?”

Recycling forces consumers to take responsibility for managing this plastic waste, rather than question why we need single-use plastics in the first place — especially when alternatives exist. For example, both aluminum and glass have smaller carbon footprints and don’t leak dangerous contaminants found in plastics.

Contrary to the popular narrative, the real solution shouldn’t be recycling. It’s time to focus on the other two Rs in the trinity of waste management: reducing and reusing.

We all know that triangle icon, the one that represents a utopian world where reduce, reuse and recycle are all treated equally, free to coexist in a world where waste doesn’t exist, and if it does, is recyclable.

That triangle should really be a line, one where “reduce” is at the far left. “Reuse” should follow. At the far right of that line — nearly off the page — should be “recycling,” a last resort. Certainly not a first-order action that should make us happy or proud.

It doesn’t help that we don’t really know how to recycle. We often wish our recycling habits are working, the basis of wishful recycling, when we optimistically put nonrecyclable objects in recycling bins. Unfortunately, hope and optimism doesn’t sort our materials, and when we contaminate our recycling bins with food waste and other nonrecyclables, everything in the recycling bin is wasted and sent to the landfill.

“It’s hard to balance the two sides of the seesaw,” says Ayer. “We really need to recycle better, but also recycling is one of the last steps you should be taking.”

When recycling first hit the scene in the ‘70s and ‘80s, things were different. America’s recycling system was multi-stream, meaning different recyclable materials went into different containers. People spent more time sorting recyclables, washing glass bottles, removing labels and ensuring their blue bins were free of food waste.

At the turn of the century, that all changed. China was a booming manufacturing market and needed all the raw materials it could get, so the country took all our recyclables, regardless of quality. This

demand, combined with China’s lax environmental regulations, shifted global recycling from multi-stream to single-stream. People put all their recyclables — glass, paper, plastics, food scraps, pizza boxes, Styrofoam, whatever — into one bin, which waste companies collected and sent to China for a hefty sum.

With all this plastic coming into China, trash islands popped up, waterways and oceans filled with plastics and animals made snacks out of bottlecaps and bags. Meanwhile, countries like the U.S. ignored it. They kept collecting whatever passed as recycling and shipping it to the other side of the world. Out of sight, out of mind.

That all stopped in 2018, when China, eager to address its environmental problems and improve its public image, abruptly banned plastic imports of anything with more than 0.5 percent contamination. America’s current recycling contamination levels are 25 percent, meaning one of four items in our recycling bins shouldn’t be there.

In other words, when China stopped accepting our poor recycling habits, we were left holding the trash bag.

Over the last 20 years, we’ve forgotten how to recycle. China’s decision to refuse our plastics corresponded with a public outcry over plastic pollution, forcing us to question recycling and the very existence of plastics in our lives.

So, where do we go from here?

At the individual level, we can always get better at recycling, relearning what we knew 30-plus years ago. Self-educate, compost what you can, sort your plastics, learn what your local municipality recycles and swallow your pride by putting your trash in the trash.

But we must go bigger. Despite what the old recycling narrative has taught us, plastics is a top-down problem. Unless we stop producing single-use plastics at our current rate, we will never end plastic pollution.

With recent public outrage over the state of plastics, some companies and venues have pledged to reduce their plastic use in the next decade. Cities have banned straws outright and more cities are charging for plastic bags at grocery stores. San Francisco airport just banned the sale of disposable plastic water bottles.

These are good, small steps toward what is hopefully a full-on plastics purge.

“It comes down to determining which types of plastic are absolutely necessary — medical supplies, a few types of food packaging — and making those out of the most highly recyclable plastics we have,” says Ayer. “Everything else we have to cut off.”

Ayer grounds his point with a helpful analogy: If you came home and your sink was overflowing, you wouldn’t grab a mop — you’d turn off the water. To end plastic pollution, we need to get to the source of the problem.

Tell local leaders to pass plastic ban legislation. Organize plastic cleanups and take photos of what you find. Above all, hold plastics producers accountable. Tell them you’re serious about ending plastic pollution.

Find additional ways to reduce your plastic waste, make a pledge to reduce your use of plastic and stay updated on news about the fight to end plastic pollution. April 22, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Now is the time to mobilize to protect our planet for future generations.

Concrete[edit]

Main article: Concrete recycling

Glass[edit]

An American public glass waste collection point for separating clear, green and amber glass

Main article: Glass recycling

Glass bottles and jars are gathered by a curbside collection truck and bottle banks, where the glass may be sorted into color categories. The collected glass cullet is taken to a glass recycling plant where it is monitored for purity and contaminants are removed. The cullet is crushed and added to a raw material mix in a melting furnace. It is then mechanically blown or molded into new jars or bottles. Glass cullet is also used in the construction industry for aggregate and glassphalt. Glassphalt is a road-laying material which comprises around 30% recycled glass. Glass can be recycled indefinitely as its structure does not deteriorate when reprocessed.

Metals[edit]

Aluminium[edit]

Main article: Aluminium recycling

Aluminium is one of the most efficient and widely recycled materials.^[3][4] Aluminium is shredded and ground into small pieces or crushed into bales. These pieces or bales are melted in an aluminium smelter to produce molten aluminium. By this stage, the recycled aluminium is indistinguishable from virgin aluminium and further processing is identical for both. This process does not produce any change in the metal, so aluminium can be recycled indefinitely.

Recycling aluminium saves 95% of the energy cost of processing new aluminium.^[5] This is because the temperature necessary for melting recycled, nearly pure, aluminium is 600 °C, while to extract mined aluminium from its ore requires 900 °C. To reach this higher temperature, much more energy is needed, leading to the high environmental benefits of aluminium recycling. Americans throw away enough aluminium every year to rebuild their entire commercial air fleet. Also, the energy saved by recycling one aluminium can is enough to run a television for three hours.^[6]

Copper[edit]

Main article: Copper recycling

Like aluminium, copper is 100% recyclable without any loss of quality, regardless of whether it is in a raw state or contained in a manufactured product. In volume, copper is the third most recycled metal after iron and aluminium.

Iron and steel[edit]

Steel crushed and baled for recycling.

Main article: Ferrous metal recycling

Iron and steel are the world's most recycled materials, and among the easiest materials to reprocess, as they can be separated magnetically from the waste stream. Recycling is via a steelworks: scrap is either remelted in an electric arc furnace (90-100% scrap), or used as part of the charge in a Basic Oxygen Furnace (around 25% scrap).^[7] Any grade of steel can be recycled to top quality new metal, with no 'downgrading' from prime to lower quality materials as steel is recycled repeatedly. 42% of crude steel produced is recycled material.^[8]

Other metals[edit]

For information about recycling other, less common metals, refer to:

| This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items.  (November 2014)

Timber[edit]

A tidy stack of pallets awaits reuse or recycling.

Main article: Timber recycling

Recycling timber has become popular due to its image as an environmentally friendly product, with consumers commonly believing that by purchasing recycled wood the demand for green timber will fall and ultimately benefit the environment. Greenpeace also view recycled timber as an environmentally friendly product, citing it as the most preferable timber source on their website. The arrival of recycled timber as a construction product has been important in both raising industry and consumer awareness towards deforestation and promoting timber mills to adopt more environmentally friendly practices.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Recycling by material.

Timber[edit]

A tidy stack of pallets awaits reuse or recycling.

Main article: Timber recycling

Recycling timber has become popular due to its image as an environmentally friendly product, with consumers commonly believing that by purchasing recycled wood the demand for green timber will fall and ultimately benefit the environment. Greenpeace also view recycled timber as an environmentally friendly product, citing it as the most preferable timber source on their website. The arrival of recycled timber as a construction product has been important in both raising industry and consumer awareness towards deforestation and promoting timber mills to adopt more environmentally friendly practices.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Recycling by material.

"Recycled" redirects here. For the album, see Recycled (Nektar album).

The three chasing arrows of the international recycling logo

Municipal waste recycling rate (%), 2015

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state.^[1] It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions. It can also prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reducing energy use, air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling).

Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" waste hierarchy.^[2][3] It promotes environmental sustainability by removing raw material input and redirecting waste output in the economic system.^[4] There are some ISO standards related to recycling, such as ISO 15270:2008 for plastics waste and ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management control of recycling practice.

Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, tires, textiles, batteries, and electronics. The composting and other reuse of biodegradable waste—such as food and garden waste—is also a form of recycling.^[5] Materials for recycling are either delivered to a household recycling center or picked up from curbside bins, then sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials for manufacturing new products.

In ideal implementations, recycling a material produces a fresh supply of the same material—for example, used office paper would be converted into new office paper, and used polystyrene foam into new polystyrene. Some types of materials, such as metal cans, can be remanufactured repeatedly without losing their purity.^[6] With other materials, this is often difficult or too expensive (compared with producing the same product from raw materials or other sources), so "recycling" of many products and materials involves their reuse in producing different materials (for example, paperboard). Another form of recycling is the salvage of constituent materials from complex products, due to either their intrinsic value (such as lead from car batteries and gold from printed circuit boards), or their hazardous nature (e.g. removal and reuse of mercury from thermometers and thermostats).

In a world of disposable everything, recycling has become more important than ever. Despite the growth in the number of recycling approaches in recent years, only 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled. About 12% has been incinerated, while the rest –79% – has accumulated in landfills, dumps or the natural environment.

RELATED NEWS

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CLEANTECH

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CLEANTECH

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CLEANTECH

Eager to close the big loop of plastic recycling, a recently founded EPFL spin-off has set out to develop a process that turns plastic waste into value-added products enabled by cutting-edge catalysts. This patented technology by Plastogaz transforms waste into green naphtha, a liquid mixture used in the production of olefins – a plastic material that accounts for half of the polymer market. With this method the Plastogaz team achieves 90% regeneration of the original plastic components and reduces energy consumption by 40%. In addition to closing the recycling loop, Plastogaz’s original technology can also transform plastic waste into grid-compatible methane.

What was really impressive about our work is an unprecedented methane selectivity we have not seen described anywhere else. The goal of our research is to give value to plastics that are considered waste, notably the plastics that cannot easily be recycled.

Felix Bobbink, CEO of Plastogaz

The Plastogaz technology, developed at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at the EPFL with the help of Prof. Paul Dyson, is currently in a proof-of-concept phase near completion. If successful, Plastogaz has the potential to considerably reduce the greenhouse gases resulting from the disposal of plastic waste (e.g. through incineration). 

The innovative approach to transform plastic waste has garnered the Plastogaz team support from Innosuisse, Venture Kick and the Canton of Vaud. Plastogaz also won the IMD Startup Business competition in 2020 and has received financial support from the EPFL, Climate-KIC, the Gebert Rüf Foundation, Switzerland Innovation and the FIT Tech Seed.

In pre-industrial times, there is evidence of scrap bronze and other metals being collected in Europe and melted down for continuous reuse.^[8]Paper recycling was first recorded in 1031 when Japanese shops sold repulped paper.^[9][10] In Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires was collected by "dustmen" and downcycled as a base material for brick making. These forms of recycling were driven by the economic advantage of obtaining recycled materials instead of virgin material, and the need for waste removal in ever-more-densely populated areas.^[7]In 1813, Benjamin Law developed the process of turning rags into "shoddy" and "mungo" wool in Batley, Yorkshire, which combined recycled fibers with virgin wool.^[11] The West Yorkshire shoddy industry in towns such as Batley and Dewsbury lasted from the early 19th century to at least 1914.

Industrialization spurred demand for affordable materials. In addition to rags, ferrous scrap metals were coveted as they were cheaper to acquire than virgin ore. Railroads purchased and sold scrap metal in the 19th century, and the growing steel and automobile industries purchased scrap in the early 20th century. Many secondary goods were collected, processed and sold by peddlers who scoured dumps and city streets for discarded machinery, pots, pans, and other sources of metal. By World War I, thousands of such peddlers roamed the streets of American cities, taking advantage of market forces to recycle post-consumer materials into industrial production.^[12]

Manufacturers of beverage bottles, including Schweppes,^[13] began offering refundable recycling deposits in Great Britain and Ireland around 1800. An official recycling system with refundable deposits for bottles was established in Sweden in 1884, and for aluminum beverage cans in 1982; it led to recycling rates of 84–99%, depending on type. (Glass bottles can be refilled around 20 times.^[14])

Wartime[edit]

American poster from World War II

British poster from World War II

Remnants of iron fence bars in York Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate. Such public property fences were sawed for the iron and recycled during World War II.

New chemical industries created in the late 19th century both invented new materials (e.g. Bakelite in 1907) and promised to transform valueless into valuable materials. Proverbially, you could not make a silk purse of a sow's ear—until the US firm Arthur D. Little published in 1921 "On the Making of Silk Purses from Sows' Ears", its research proving that when "chemistry puts on overalls and gets down to business [...] new values appear. New and bet

Container deposit legislation mandates refunds for the return of certain containers—typically glass, plastic and metal. When a product in such a container is purchased, a small surcharge is added that the consumer can reclaim when the container is returned to a collection point. These programs have succeeded in creating an average 80% recycling rate.^[34] Despite such good results, the shift in collection costs from local government to industry and consumers has created strong opposition in some areas^[5]—for example, where manufacturers bear the responsibility for recycling their products. In the European Union, the WEEE Directive requires producers of consumer electronics to reimburse the recyclers' costs.^[35]

An alternative way to increase the supply of recyclates is to ban the disposal of certain materials as waste, often including used oil, old batteries, tires, and garden waste. This can create a viable economy for the proper disposal of the products. Care must be taken that enough recycling services exist to meet the supply, or such bans can create increased illegal dumping.^[5]

Government-mandated demand[edit]

Four forms of legislation have also been used to increase and maintain the demand for recycled materials: minimum recycled content mandates, utilization rates, procurement policies, and recycled product labeling.^[5]

Both minimum recycled content mandates and utilization rates increase demand by forcing manufacturers to include recycling in their operations. Content mandates specify that a certain percentage of a new product must consist of recycled material. Utilization rates are a more flexible option: Industries can meet their recycling targets at any point of their operations, or even contract out recycling in exchange for tradable credits. Opponents to these methods cite their large increase in reporting requirements, and claim that they rob the industry of flexibility.^[5][36]

Governments have used their own purchasing power to increase recycling demand through "procurement policies". These policies are either "set-asides", which reserve a certain amount of spending for recycled products; or "price preference" programs that provide larger budgetswhen recycled items are purchased. Additional regulations can target specific cases: in the United States, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency mandates the purchase of oil, paper, tires and building insulation from recycled or re-refined sources whenever possible.^[5]

The final government regulation toward increased demand is recycled product labeling. When producers are required to label their packaging with the amount of recycled material it contains (including the packaging), consumers can make more educated choices. Consumers with sufficient buying power can choose more environmentally conscious options, prompting producers to increase the recycled material in their products and increase demand. Standardized recycling labeling can also have a positive effect on the supply of recyclates when it specifies how and where the product can be recycled.^[5]

Recyclates[edit]

Glass recovered by crushing only one kind of beer bottle

"Recyclate" is a raw material sent to and processed in a waste recycling plant or materials-recovery facility^[37] so it can be used in the production of new materials and products. For example, plastic bottles can be made into plastic pellets and synthetic fabrics.^[38]

Quality of recyclate[edit]

The quality of recyclates is one of the principal challenges for the success of a long-term vision of a green economy and achieving zero waste. It generally refers to how much of it is composed of target material, versus non-target material and other non-recyclable material.^[39] Steel and other metals have intrinsically higher recyclate quality; it is estimated that two-thirds of all new steel comes from recycled steel.^[40] Only target material is likely to be recycled, so higher amounts of non-target and non-recyclable materials can reduce the quantity of recycled products.^[39] A high proportion of non-target and non-recyclable material can make it more difficult to achieve "high-quality" recycling; and if recyclate is of poor quality, it is more likely to end up being down-cycled or, in more extreme cases, sent to other recovery options or landfilled.^[39] For example, to facilitate the remanufacturing of clear glass products, there are tight restrictions for colored glass entering the re-melt process. Another example is the downcycling of plastic, where products such as plastic food packaging are often downcycled into lower quality products, and do not get recycled into the same plastic food packaging.

The quality of recyclate not only supports high-quality recycling, but it can also deliver significant environmental benefits by reducing, reusing, and keeping products out of landfills.^[39] High-quality recycling can support economic growth by maximizing the value of waste material.^[39]Higher income levels from the sale of quality recyclates can return value significant to local governments, households and businesses.^[39]Pursuing high-quality recycling can also promote consumer and business confidence in the waste and resource management sector, and may encourage investment in it.

There are many actions along the recycling supply chain, each of which can affect recyclate quality.^[41] Waste producers who place non-target and non-recyclable wastes in recycling collections can affect the quality of final recyclate streams, and require extra efforts to discard those materials at later stages in the recycling process.^[41] Different collection systems can induce different levels of contamination. When multiple materials are collected together, extra effort is required to sort them into separate streams and can significantly reduce the quality of the final products.^[41] Transportation and the compaction of materials can also make this more difficult. Despite improvements in technology and quality of recyclate, sorting facilities are still not 100% effective in separating materials.^[41] When materials are stored outside, where they can become wet, can also cause problems for re-processors. Further sorting steps may be required to satisfactorily reduce the amount of non-target and non-recyclable material.^[41]

What is recycling

Whether it’s plastic, paper, or aluminum, the products and materials that can be used after they fulfill their original purpose are far from worthless. In fact, most materials have great recycling value. It is estimated that up to 75% of all the waste can be recycled or repurposed, a figure that how impactful the process can be if done right. Almost everything we see around us can be recycled, although different materials require different techniques when they are recycled. Most of the commonly recyclable materials include batteries, biodegradable waste, clothing, electronics, garments, glass, metals, paper, plastics, and a lot more.

A three-sided bin at a railway station in Germany, intended to separate paper (left) and plastic wrappings (right) from other waste (back)

A number of systems have been implemented to collect recyclates from the general waste stream, occupying different places on the spectrum of trade-off between public convenience and government ease and expense. The three main categories of collection are drop-off centers, buy-back centers and curbside collection.^[5]About two-thirds of the cost of recycling is incurred in the collection phase.^[43]

Curbside collection[edit]

Main article: Curbside collection

A recycling truck collecting the contents of a recycling bin in Canberra, Australia

Emptying of segregated rubbish containers in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland

Curbside collection encompasses many subtly different systems, which differ mostly on where in the process the recyclates are sorted and cleaned. The main categories are mixed waste collection, commingled recyclables, and source separation.^[5] A waste collection vehicle generally picks up the waste.

In mixed waste collection, recyclates are collected mixed with the rest of the waste, and the desired materials are sorted out and cleaned at a central sorting facility. This results in a large amount of recyclable waste (especially paper) being too soiled to reprocess, but has advantages as well: The city need not pay for the separate collection of recyclates, no public education is needed, and any changes to the recyclability of certain materials are implemented where sorting occurs.^[5]

In a commingled or single-stream system, recyclables are mixed but kept separate from non-recyclable waste. This greatly reduces the need for post-collection cleaning, but requires public education on what materials are recyclable.^[5][8]

Source separation[edit]

Source separation is the other extreme, where each material is cleaned and sorted prior to collection. It requires the least post-collection sorting and produces the purest recyclates. However, it incurs additional operating costs for collecting each material, and requires extensive public education to avoid recyclate contamination.^[5] In Oregon, USA, Oregon DEQ surveyed multi-family property managers; about half of them reported problems, including contamination of recyclables due to trespassers such as transients gaining access to collection areas.^[44]

Source separation used to be the preferred method due to the high cost of sorting commingled (mixed waste) collection. However, advances in sorting technology have substantially lowered this overhead, and many areas that had developed source separation programs have switched to what is called co-mingled collection.^[8]

Buy-back centers[edit]

Reverse vending machine in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland

At Buy-back centers, separated, cleaned recyclates are purchased, providing a clear incentive for use and creating a stable supply. The post-processed material can then be sold. If profitable, this conserves the emission of greenhouse gases; if unprofitable, it increases their emission. Buy-back centres generally need government subsidies to be viable. According to a 1993 report by the U.S. National Waste & Recycling Association, it costs an average $50 to process a ton of material that can be resold for $30.^[5]

In the US, the value per ton of mixed recyclables was $180 in 2011, $80 in 2015, and $100 in 2017.^[45]

In 2017, glass was essentially valueless because of the low cost of sand, its major component. Similarly, low oil costs thwarted plastic recycling.^[45]

In 2017, Napa, California was reimbursed about 20% of its recycling costs.^[45]

Drop-off centers[edit]

Drop-off centers require the waste producer to carry recyclates to a central location—either an installed or mobile collection station or the reprocessing plant itself. They are the easiest type of collection to establish but suffer from low and unpredictable throughput.

Distributed recycling[edit]

For some waste materials such as plastic, recent technical devices called recyclebots^[46] enable a form of distributed recycling. Preliminary life-cycle analysis (LCA) indicates that such distributed recycling of HDPE to make filament for 3D printers in rural regions consumes less energy than using virgin resin, or using conventional recycling processes with their associated transportation.^[47][48]

Sorting[edit]

Video of recycling sorting facility and processes

Once commingled recyclates are collected and delivered to a materials recovery facility, the materials must be sorted. This is done in a series of stages, many of which involve automated processes, enabling a truckload of material to be fully sorted in less than an hour.^[8] Some plants can now sort materials automatically; this is known as single-stream recycling. Automatic sorting may be aided by robotics and machine learning.^[49][50] In plants, a variety of materials is sorted including paper, different types of plastics, glass, metals, food scraps, and most types of batteries.^[51] A 30% increase in recycling rates has been seen in areas with these plants.^[52] In the US, there are over 300 materials recovery facilities.^[53]

Initially, commingled recyclates are removed from the collection vehicle and placed on a conveyor belt spread out in a single layer. Large pieces of corrugated fiberboard and plastic bags are removed by hand at this stage, as they can cause later machinery to jam.^[8]

Early sorting of recyclable materials: glass and plastic bottles in Poland.

Next, automated machinery such as disk screens and air classifiers separate the recyclates by weight, splitting lighter paper and plastic from heavier glass and metal. Cardboard is removed from mixed paper, and the most common types of plastic—PET (#1) and HDPE (#2)—are collected, so these materials can be diverted into the proper collection channels. This is usually done by hand; but in some sorting centers, spectroscopic scanners are used to differentiate between types of paper and plastic based on their absorbed wavelengths.^[8] Plastics tend to be incompatible with each other due to differences in chemical composition; their polymer molecules repel each other, similar to oil and water.^[54]

Strong magnets are used to separate out ferrous metals such as iron, steel and tin cans. Non-ferrous metals are ejected by magnetic eddy currents: A rotating magnetic field induces an electric current around aluminum cans, creating an eddy current inside the cans that is repulsed by a large magnetic field, ejecting the cans from the stream.^[8]

A recycling point in New Byth, Scotland, with separate containers for paper, plastics, and differently colored glass.

Finally, glass is sorted according to its color: brown, amber, green, or clear. It may be sorted either by hand,^[8] or by a machine that uses colored filters to detect colors. Glass fragments smaller than 10 millimetres (0.39 in) cannot be sorted automatically, and are mixed together as "glass fines".^[55]

In 2003, San Francisco's Department of the Environment set a citywide goal of zero waste by 2020.^[56]San Francisco's refuse hauler, Recology, operates an effective recyclables sorting facility that has helped the city reach a record-breaking landfill diversion rate of 80% as of 2021.^[57] Other American cities, including Los Angeles, have achieved similar rates.

Recycling industrial waste[edit]

Mounds of shredded rubber tires ready for processing

Although many government programs concentrate on recycling at home, 64% of waste in the United Kingdom is generated by industry.^[58] The focus of many recycling programs in industry is their cost-effectiveness. The ubiquitous nature of cardboard packaging makes cardboard a commonly waste product recycled by companies that deal heavily in packaged goods, such as retail stores, warehouses, and goods distributors. Other industries deal in niche and specialized products, depending on the waste materials they handle.

Glass, lumber, wood pulp and paper manufacturers all deal directly in commonly recycled materials; however, independent tire dealers may collect and recycle rubber tires for a profit.

Levels of metals recycling are generally low. In 2010, the International Resource Panel, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), published reports on metal stocks^[59] and their recycling rates.^[59] It reported that the increase in the use of metals during the 20th and into the 21st century has led to a substantial shift in metal stocks from below-ground to use in above-ground applications within society. For example, in the US, in-use copper grew from 73 to 238 kg per capita between 1932–1999.

The report's authors observed that, as metals are inherently recyclable, metal stocks in society can serve as huge above-ground mines (the term "urban mining" has thus been coined^[60]). However, they found that the recycling rates of many metals are low. They warned that the recycling rates of some rare metals used in applications such as mobile phones, battery packs for hybrid cars and fuel cells, are so low that unless future end-of-life recycling rates are dramatically increased, these critical metals will become unavailable for use in modern technology.

The military recycles some metals. The U.S. Navy's Ship Disposal Program uses ship breaking to reclaim the steel of old vessels. Ships may also be sunk to create artificial reefs. Uranium is a dense metal that has qualities superior to lead and titanium for many military and industrial uses. Uranium left over from processing it into nuclear weapons and fuel for nuclear reactors is called depleted uranium, and is used by all branches of the U.S. military for the development of such things as armor-piercing shells and shielding.

The construction industry may recycle concrete and old road surface pavement, selling these materials for profit.

Some rapidly growing industries, particularly the renewable energy and solar photovoltaic technology industries, are proactively creating recycling policies even before their waste streams have considerable volume, anticipating future demand.^[61]

Recycling of plastics is more difficult, as most programs are not able to reach the necessary level of quality. Recycling of PVC often results in downcycling of the material, which means only products of lower quality standard can be made with the recycled material.

Further information: Computer recycling

Further information: Battery recycling

Further information: Solar panel § Recycling

Further information: Wind turbine § Demolition and recycling

Computer processors retrieved from waste stream

E-waste is a growing problem, accounting for 20–50 million metric tons of global waste per year according to the EPA. It is also the fastest growing waste stream in the EU.^[23] Many recyclers do not recycle e-waste responsibly. After the cargo barge Khian Sea dumped 14,000 metric tons of toxic ash in Haiti, the Basel Convention was formed to stem the flow of hazardous substances into poorer countries. They created the e-Stewards certification to ensure that recyclers are held to the highest standards for environmental responsibility and to help consumers identify responsible recyclers. It operates alongside other prominent legislation, such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive of the EU and the United States National Computer Recycling Act, to prevent poisonous chemicals from entering waterways and the atmosphere.

In the recycling process, television sets, monitors, cell phones, and computers are typically tested for reuse and repaired. If broken, they may be disassembled for parts still having high value if labor is cheap enough. Other e-waste is shredded to pieces roughly 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in size and manually checked to separate toxic batteries and capacitors, which contain poisonous metals. The remaining pieces are further shredded to 10 millimetres (0.39 in) particles and passed under a magnet to remove ferrous metals. An eddy current ejects non-ferrous metals, which are sorted by density either by a centrifuge or vibrating plates. Precious metals can be dissolved in acid, sorted, and smelted into ingots. The remaining glass and plastic fractions are separated by density and sold to re-processors. Television sets and monitors must be manually disassembled to remove lead from CRTs and the mercury backlight from LCDs.^[62][63][64]

Vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines can also be recycled. They often contain rare-earth elements (REE) and/or other critical raw materials. For electric car production, large amounts of REE's are typically required.^[65]

Whereas many critical raw elements and REE's can be recovered, environmental engineer Phillipe Bihouix reports that recycling of indium, gallium, germanium, selenium, and tantalum is still very difficult and their recycling rates are very low.^[66]

Plastic recycling[edit]

Main article: Plastic recycling

A container for recycling used plastic spoons into material for 3D printing

Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastic and reprocessing the material into useful products, sometimes completely different in form from their original state. For instance, this could mean melting down soft drink bottles and then casting them as plastic chairs and tables.^[67] For some types of plastic, the same piece of plastic can only be recycled about 2–3 times before its quality decreases to the point where it can no longer be used.^[6]

Physical recycling[edit]

Some plastics are remelted to form new plastic objects; for example, PET water bottles can be converted into polyester destined for clothing. A disadvantage of this type of recycling is that the molecular weight of the polymer can change further and the levels of unwanted substances in the plastic can increase with each remelt.^{[citation needed]}

A commercial-built recycling facility was sent to the International Space Station in late 2019. The facility takes in plastic waste and unneeded plastic parts and physically converts them into spools of feedstock for the space station additive manufacturing facility used for in-space 3D printing.^[68]

But that feel-good sentiment might just be a placebo effect.

Sure, recycling beats throwing something right in the trash, but tons of our recyclables still end up in landfills or oceans (literally, tons), making a mess of ecosystems. A recent study suggests only 9 percent of the world’s plastic is even recycled.

In other words, recycling is often just another word for a long, expensive detour that a plastic bottle takes on its way to a landfill, where it slowly breaks down over hundreds of years. If we’re lucky, that plastic won’t be ingested by a bird, fish or any other mammal that we end up eating.

So why does recycling make us feel so damn good? Part of the problem, and persuasion, of recycling is the narrative developed to support it.

If our answer to plastics has always been to recycle, why do we still have such a big plastics pollution problem? Maybe it’s because we’re focusing on recycling instead of the source of the problem: the industries making all that plastic.

“Industry advocacy groups push recycling as a be-all-end-all process,” says Earth Day Network End Plastics Pollution Campaign Manager David Ayer. “They’re putting all their money into waste management, advocating recycling and teaching people how to recycle better.”

This narrative of recycling is an industry sleight of hand, shifting the blame of plastics pollution onto the consumer. Plastics manufacturers can continue to produce single-use plastics, and businesses can package products in plastics, without retribution. Afterall, if a Sprite bottle washes up on the beach, no one’s fining The Coca-Cola Company. Instead, they’re asking, “Why wasn’t that recycled?”

Recycling forces consumers to take responsibility for managing this plastic waste, rather than question why we need single-use plastics in the first place — especially when alternatives exist. For example, both aluminum and glass have smaller carbon footprints and don’t leak dangerous contaminants found in plastics.

Contrary to the popular narrative, the real solution shouldn’t be recycling. It’s time to focus on the other two Rs in the trinity of waste management: reducing and reusing.

We all know that triangle icon, the one that represents a utopian world where reduce, reuse and recycle are all treated equally, free to coexist in a world where waste doesn’t exist, and if it does, is recyclable.

That triangle should really be a line, one where “reduce” is at the far left. “Reuse” should follow. At the far right of that line — nearly off the page — should be “recycling,” a last resort. Certainly not a first-order action that should make us happy or proud.

It doesn’t help that we don’t really know how to recycle. We often wish our recycling habits are working, the basis of wishful recycling, when we optimistically put nonrecyclable objects in recycling bins. Unfortunately, hope and optimism doesn’t sort our materials, and when we contaminate our recycling bins with food waste and other nonrecyclables, everything in the recycling bin is wasted and sent to the landfill.

“It’s hard to balance the two sides of the seesaw,” says Ayer. “We really need to recycle better, but also recycling is one of the last steps you should be taking.”

When recycling first hit the scene in the ‘70s and ‘80s, things were different. America’s recycling system was multi-stream, meaning different recyclable materials went into different containers. People spent more time sorting recyclables, washing glass bottles, removing labels and ensuring their blue bins were free of food waste.

At the turn of the century, that all changed. China was a booming manufacturing market and needed all the raw materials it could get, so the country took all our recyclables, regardless of quality. This

demand, combined with China’s lax environmental regulations, shifted global recycling from multi-stream to single-stream. People put all their recyclables — glass, paper, plastics, food scraps, pizza boxes, Styrofoam, whatever — into one bin, which waste companies collected and sent to China for a hefty sum.

With all this plastic coming into China, trash islands popped up, waterways and oceans filled with plastics and animals made snacks out of bottlecaps and bags. Meanwhile, countries like the U.S. ignored it. They kept collecting whatever passed as recycling and shipping it to the other side of the world. Out of sight, out of mind.

That all stopped in 2018, when China, eager to address its environmental problems and improve its public image, abruptly banned plastic imports of anything with more than 0.5 percent contamination. America’s current recycling contamination levels are 25 percent, meaning one of four items in our recycling bins shouldn’t be there.

In other words, when China stopped accepting our poor recycling habits, we were left holding the trash bag.

Over the last 20 years, we’ve forgotten how to recycle. China’s decision to refuse our plastics corresponded with a public outcry over plastic pollution, forcing us to question recycling and the very existence of plastics in our lives.

So, where do we go from here?

At the individual level, we can always get better at recycling, relearning what we knew 30-plus years ago. Self-educate, compost what you can, sort your plastics, learn what your local municipality recycles and swallow your pride by putting your trash in the trash.

But we must go bigger. Despite what the old recycling narrative has taught us, plastics is a top-down problem. Unless we stop producing single-use plastics at our current rate, we will never end plastic pollution.

With recent public outrage over the state of plastics, some companies and venues have pledged to reduce their plastic use in the next decade. Cities have banned straws outright and more cities are charging for plastic bags at grocery stores. San Francisco airport just banned the sale of disposable plastic water bottles.

These are good, small steps toward what is hopefully a full-on plastics purge.

“It comes down to determining which types of plastic are absolutely necessary — medical supplies, a few types of food packaging — and making those out of the most highly recyclable plastics we have,” says Ayer. “Everything else we have to cut off.”

Ayer grounds his point with a helpful analogy: If you came home and your sink was overflowing, you wouldn’t grab a mop — you’d turn off the water. To end plastic pollution, we need to get to the source of the problem.

Tell local leaders to pass plastic ban legislation. Organize plastic cleanups and take photos of what you find. Above all, hold plastics producers accountable. Tell them you’re serious about ending plastic pollution.

Find additional ways to reduce your plastic waste, make a pledge to reduce your use of plastic and stay updated on news about the fight to end plastic pollution. April 22, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Now is the time to mobilize to protect our planet for future generations.

Let’s take a look at some of the everyday plastics that you use and what they can become.

 

Bottles and containers used for milk, shampoo, laundry detergent and household cleaners are lightweight and tough – but they usually are made from a different type of plastic than beverage bottles.

What can they become? When they are recycled they can make new bottles and containers, plastic lumber, picnic tables, lawn furniture, playground equipment, recycling bins and more.

 

We use plastic bags to carry home groceries. They keep our bread and other food fresh. They even let us carry goldfish home from the pet store.

Today there are thousands of grocery and retail stores to collect these bags for recycling, including most Target, Walmart, Lowes, Safeway stores and more. And remember that at all these places, we also can recycle lots of the plastic wraps that protect the things we buy (even bubble wrap!).

What can they become? When they are recycled plastic bags and wraps can made into plastic lumber that is used to make park benches, backyard decks and fences – even playground equipment. They also can be recycled into new plastic bags – and then recycled again.  Check out this web site that talks about recycling plastic bags and find out where you can recycle them in your community.

Plastic bottles for soft drinks, juice and water are a handy way to conquer thirst …and they don’t shatter if you drop them.

What can they become? When plastic bottles are recycled they can be made into lots of things: t-shirts, sweaters, fleece jackets, insulation for jackets and sleeping bags, carpeting and more bottles.

It takes about 10 bottles to make enough plastic fiber to make a cool new t-shirt.

It takes 63 bottles to make a sweater.

It takes only 14 bottles to create enough insulation (fiberfill) for a ski jacket.  And 114 bottles to make enough insulation (fiberfill) for a sleeping bag.  Nearly 29.3 percent of plastic bottles are recycled in the U.S. If everyone pitches in, we can do even better.

Check out some other fun facts about plastic bottle recycling.

Plastic caps on bottles help your soda stay fizzy and keep out nasty stuff like bugs and dirt. Even though they’re made with a different type of plastic than the bottles, the caps should be put back on bottles before you toss them in recycling bins.

What can they become? Plastic bottle caps can be recycled into batteries for your car, garden rakes, storage containers, reusable shopping bags, yarn, ropes, brooms … and more bottle caps.

 

Plastic foam packaging actually is made up of more than 95% air! It cushions your TV set and protects your video game console as they move from the factory to the store to your home.

What can it become? Innovative recycling programs can take foam packaging and turn it into plastic products such as insulation, picture frames, building