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78-615: Viridor Limited (from the Latin 'to become green') is a recycling , renewable energy and waste management company in the United Kingdom owned by KKR . The company was formed in 1956 as Harrison Western Limited, later becoming Haul Waste Limited. Haul Waste became part of Pennon in 1993, and grew by purchasing companies in the waste collection and landfill disposal market. In 1995 it bought Blue Circle Waste Management, bringing about South West Water's name change to Pennon Group in 1998, and
156-411: 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. Some plants can now sort materials automatically; this is known as single-stream recycling . Automatic sorting may be aided by robotics and machine learning. In plants, a variety of materials
234-555: A plastic carrier bag cash refund scheme in 1991 - “the penny back scheme”. The scheme is reported to save 970 tonnes of plastic per annum. The scheme has now been extended to a penny back on a voucher which can be contributed to schools registered on the scheme; it estimates this will raise the savings in plastic to 2500 tonnes per annum. In some developing nations like India and Pakistan, the cost of new bottles often forces manufacturers to collect and refill old glass bottles for selling cola and other drinks. India and Pakistan also have
312-582: A certain amount of spending for recycled products; or "price preference" programs that provide larger budgets when 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. The final government regulation toward increased demand
390-445: A common practice for most of human history with recorded advocates as far back as Plato in the fourth century BC. During periods when resources were scarce, archaeological studies of ancient waste dumps show less household waste (such as ash, broken tools, and pottery), implying that more waste was recycled in place of new material. However, archaeological artefacts made from recyclable material, such as glass or metal, may neither be
468-465: A factory environment in order to meet the same/similar specifications as new products. When the item is resold under the same OEM name, it is informally considered a "gray market" item - if it is sold as used, it's legal, if it's represented as an OEM product eligible for rebates and warranties , it is considered "counterfeit" or "black market". The automobile parts industry in the USA is governed by laws on
546-574: A form of recycling. 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. With other materials, this
624-602: A fraction of original manufacturing costs. If we are going to be serious about living in a Circular Economy we need to recognise the value of our waste and ensure resources are kept in the economy for longer, slow down the use of valuable raw materials and ensure that products are reused and materials are recycled rather than landfilled. The most involved reuse organizations are "repair and overhaul" industries which take valuable parts, such as engine blocks , office furniture , toner cartridges , single-use cameras , aircraft hulls , and cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and refurbish them in
702-455: A milk bottle is returned 12 times, whereas a lemonade bottle with a 15p deposit is returned, on average, only 3 times. Refillable bottles are used extensively in many European countries; for example in Denmark , 98% of bottles are refillable, and 98% of those are returned by consumers. These systems are typically supported by deposit laws and other regulations. Sainsbury Ltd have operated
780-471: 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. Governments have used their own purchasing power to increase recycling demand through "procurement policies". These policies are either "set-asides", which reserve
858-550: A new recruit inside the company. In March 2020, KKR agreed terms to buy Viridor in a £4.2 billion deal. The transaction was completed on 8 July 2020. As part of the Landfill Communities Fund tax credit scheme, Viridor created the Viridor Credits scheme which in 2001 to distribute funds to communities for heritage and biodiversity projects. It reported £7.6m in grants in 2017/18. Recycling Recycling
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#1732855468594936-442: A poor strategy for businesses, there are business models that provide opportunities to retain ownership of valuable products and components through leasing, servicing, repair and re-sale. While it is choices made by consumers that will ultimately determine the success of such ventures, there is huge potential for the reuse of goods and materials to deliver social and economic and environmental benefits. The EU Circular Economy Package,
1014-405: A positive effect on the supply of recyclates when it specifies how and where the product can be recycled. "Recyclate" is a raw material sent to and processed in a waste recycling plant or materials-recovery facility 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 . The quality of recyclates
1092-466: A product can reduce CO 2 emissions and carbon footprint by more than 50% relative to the complete product life cycle. A relatively unknown effective way to reduce CO 2 emissions and carbon footprint is reusing products. Often the relative carbon footprint of manufacturing and the supply chain is unknown. A Pigovian tax is an environmental tax : a charge on items that reflects the environmental costs of their manufacture and disposal. This makes
1170-433: 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. Drop-off centers require
1248-550: A turnover of €24 billion. 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 and is rising steadily, to 45% in 2015. 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". The fifth target, Target 12.5 ,
1326-461: A way of reusing old newspapers: "Kabadiwalas" buy these from the readers for scrap value and reuse them as packaging or recycle them. Scrap intermediaries help consumer dispose of other materials including metals and plastics. These apply primarily to items of packaging, for example, where a company is involved in the regular transportation of goods from a central manufacturing facility to warehouses or warehouses to retail outlets. In these cases there
1404-455: Is considerable benefit to using reusable “transport packaging” such as plastic crates or pallets. The benefits of closed-loop reuse are primarily due to low additional transport costs being involved, the empty lorry returning with the empty crates. There have been some recent attempts to get the public to join in on closed loop reuse schemes where shoppers use reusable plastic baskets in place of carrier bags for transporting their goods home from
1482-474: 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
1560-621: Is helping increase slag utilization, hence reducing wastage and pollution. Economist Steven Landsburg , author of a paper entitled "Why I Am Not an Environmentalist", claimed that paper recycling actually reduces tree populations. He argues that because paper companies have incentives to replenish their forests, large demands for paper lead to large forests while reduced demand for paper leads to fewer "farmed" forests. When foresting companies cut down trees, more are planted in their place; however, such farmed forests are inferior to natural forests in several ways. Farmed forests are not able to fix
1638-445: Is likely to be recycled, so higher amounts of non-target and non-recyclable materials can reduce the quantity of recycled products. 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 . For example, to facilitate
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#17328554685941716-587: 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 ). Reusing materials has been
1794-420: 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. Steel and other metals have intrinsically higher recyclate quality; it is estimated that two-thirds of all new steel comes from recycled steel. Only target material
1872-400: Is particularly a problem in many developing countries (e.g. Mexico, India, Bangladesh, Ghana) where untreated or poorly treated wastewater is used directly in agriculture. The WHO Guidelines from 2006 have set up a framework how this reuse can be done safely by following a multiple barrier approach. Waste valorization, beneficial reuse, beneficial use, value recovery or waste reclamation is
1950-533: Is rarely harvested for paper because of their heterogeneity. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, the overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is subsistence farming (48% of deforestation) and commercial agriculture (32%), which is linked to food, not paper production. Other non-conventional methods of material recycling, like Waste-to-Energy (WTE) systems, have garnered increased attention in
2028-431: 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
2106-676: Is regarded as waste. Environmental impact of slag include copper paralysis , which leads to death due to gastric hemorrhage, if ingested by humans. It may also cause acute dermatitis upon skin exposure. Toxicity may also be uptaken by crops through soil, consequently spreading animals and food sources and increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, cognitive impairment, chronic anemia, and damage to kidneys, bones, nervous system, brain and skin. Substituting gravel and grit in quarries has been more cost-effective, due to having its sources with better proximity to consumer markets. Trading between countries and establishment of blast furnaces
2184-649: Is sorted including paper, different types of plastics, glass, metals, food scraps, and most types of batteries . A 30% increase in recycling rates has been seen in areas with these plants. In the US, there are over 300 materials recovery facilities. 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. Next, automated machinery such as disk screens and air classifiers separate
2262-578: 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 . 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. Source separation used to be
2340-407: Is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials . The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state. It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions . It can also prevent
2418-417: Is to increase product longevity; either by extending a product's first life or addressing issues of repair, reuse and recycling. Reusing products, and therefore extending the use of that item beyond the point where it is discarded by its first user is preferable to recycling or disposal, as this is the least energy intensive solution, although it is often overlooked. The EU Circular Economy Package recognises
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2496-918: Is to use a tool for use as another tool, usually for a purpose unintended by the original tool-maker. Typically, repurposing is done using items usually considered to be junk or garbage. A good example of this would be the Earthship style of house, that uses tires as insulating walls and bottles as glass walls. Reuse is not limited to repeated uses for the same purpose. Examples of repurposing include using tires as boat fenders and steel drums or plastic drums as feeding troughs and/or composting bins. The nutrients, i.e. nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients, and organic matter contained in wastewater , excreta ( urine and feces ) and greywater have traditionally been reused in agriculture in many countries and are still being reused in agriculture to this day - unfortunately often in an unregulated and unsafe manner. This
2574-451: Is treated using inferior activities, it can release as many as 1000 different chemical substances ... including harmful neurotoxicants such as lead .” A paper in the journal Sustainable Materials & Technologies remarks upon the difficulty of managing e-waste, particularly from home automation products, which, due to their becoming obsolete at a high rate, are putting increasing strain on recycling systems, which have not adapted to meet
2652-433: Is used as a raw material or energy feedstock for another industrial process. Industrial wastes in particular are good candidates for valorization because they tend to be more consistent and predictable than other waste, such as household waste . Determining the balance of how the several effects of reuse interact is often best accomplished by a formal life cycle assessment . For example, research has shown that reusing
2730-614: The 1970s due to rising energy costs. 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. Although consumer electronics have been popular since the 1920s, recycling them was almost unheard of until early 1991. The first electronic waste recycling scheme was implemented in Switzerland , beginning with collection of old refrigerators, then expanding to cover all devices. When these programs were created, many countries could not deal with
2808-589: The Scottish Circular Economy Strategy and the national reuse target set by the Spanish Government are examples of governments recognising that second-hand goods should be a good value mainstream option and are working towards making reuse easier for consumers. In environmental terms, reuse ought to be more common than recycling and energy recovery , with both the financial and environmental costs of simple refurbishment of some products being
2886-649: The business is valued at around £4 billion, with recent acquisitions and growth focused on expanding the company's recycling and energy from waste capacity. Viridor was awarded the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority 's Waste PFI contract, the largest waste and renewable energy contract in the UK. On 12 August 2010, the company was featured on Channel 4 documentary Undercover Boss , in which Chief Executive Colin Drummond went undercover as
2964-399: The cans that is repulsed by a large magnetic field , ejecting the cans from the stream. Reuse Reuse is the action or practice of using an item, whether for its original purpose (conventional reuse) or to fulfill a different function ( creative reuse or repurposing ). It should be distinguished from recycling , which is the breaking down of used items to make raw materials for
3042-491: 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. 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. A number of systems have been implemented to collect recyclates from
3120-572: The container is returned to a collection point. These programs have succeeded in creating an average 80% recycling rate. Despite such good results, the shift in collection costs from local government to industry and consumers has created strong opposition in some areas —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
3198-499: The crisis. According to the WHO (2023), “Every year millions of electrical and electronic devices are discarded ... a threat to the environment and to human health if they are not treated, disposed of, and recycled appropriately. Common items ... include computers ... e-waste are recycled using environmentally unsound techniques and are likely stored in homes and warehouses, dumped, exported or recycled under inferior conditions. When e-waste
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3276-480: The customer by lower shelf prices. The refill pack itself is not reused, but being a minimal package for carrying the product home, it requires less material than one with the durability and features (reclosable top, convenient shape, etc.) required for easy use of the product, while avoiding the transport cost and emissions of returning the reusable package to the factory. The average American, for example, throws away 67.9 pounds of used clothing and rags. Repurposing
3354-417: The demand for recycled materials: minimum recycled content mandates, utilization rates, procurement policies, and recycled product labeling . 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
3432-480: The disclosure of "used" parts and, in some states, mattresses which have been used are required to be sanitized or destroyed. Deposit programs offer customers a financial incentive to return packaging for reuse. Although no longer common, international experience is showing that they can still be an effective way to encourage packaging reuse. However, financial incentive, unless great, may be less of an incentive than convenience: statistics show that, on average,
3510-408: The donated materials and make them available for redistribution or sale. Virtual exchanges do not have physical space or trucks, but instead allow users to post listings of materials available and wanted (for free or at low cost) on an online materials exchange website. Staff will help facilitate the exchange of these materials without ever taking possession of the materials. One way to address this
3588-580: 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
3666-436: The economic system. 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
3744-403: 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. 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
3822-423: 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. About two-thirds of the cost of recycling is incurred in the collection phase. Curbside collection encompasses many subtly different systems, which differ mostly on where in
3900-571: 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
3978-458: The goals desired." 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. These resource shortages caused by the world wars , and other such world-changing events, greatly encouraged recycling. It became necessary for most homes to recycle their waste, allowing people to make
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#17328554685944056-549: The importance of extending product lifetimes and includes repair and reuse of products in its action plan to ensure products reach their optimum lifespan. If targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are to be reached, then reuse needs to be included as part of a whole life cycle approach. A strong second hand market-place exists, with charity shops on most high streets, car boot(trunk) sales and online auction sites maintaining popularity and regular TV shows featuring both buying and selling at auction. This would not necessarily be
4134-500: 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
4212-414: The manufacture of new products. Reuse—by taking, but not reprocessing, previously used items—helps save time, money, energy and resources. In broader economic terms, it can make quality products available to people and organizations with limited means, while generating jobs and business activity that contribute to the economy. Reuse centers (also known as a "swap shop" or a "take-it-or-leave-it") facilitate
4290-466: The merger of Haul Waste and Blue Circle Waste Management under Viridor. It subsequently acquired part of Churngold's waste business in June 2003, Thames Waste Management in 2004, Somerset LAWDC Wyvern Waste in 2006, Grosvenor Waste Management and Skipaway Holdings in 2007, and Shore Recycling in 2008. Later in 2015 Viridor took over the collection side of Dorset based waste company Commercial Recycling. Today
4368-599: The most of what was available. Recycling household materials also meant more resources were left available for war efforts. Massive government campaigns, such as the National Salvage Campaign in 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. A considerable investment in recycling occurred in
4446-520: The original object nor resemble it, with the consequence that a successful ancient recycling economy can become invisible when recycling is synonymous with re-melting rather than reuse. In pre-industrial times, there is evidence of scrap bronze and other metals being collected in Europe and melted down for continuous reuse. Paper recycling was first recorded in 1031 when Japanese shops sold repulped paper. In Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires
4524-407: 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 . At buy-back centers, separated, cleaned recyclates are purchased, providing a clear incentive for use and creating
4602-415: The process of waste products or residues from an economic process being valorized (given economic value), by reuse or recycling in order to create economically useful materials. The term comes from practices in sustainable manufacturing and economics , industrial ecology and waste management . The term is usually applied in industrial processes where residue from creating or processing one good
4680-532: The process the recyclates are sorted and cleaned. The main categories are mixed waste collection, commingled recyclables, and source separation. 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
4758-564: The properties of recycled waste plastic and sand bricks. The composite pavers can be sold at 100% profit while employing workers at 1.5× the minimum wage in the West African region, where distributed recycling has the potential to produce 19 million pavement tiles from 28,000 tons of plastic water sachets annually in Ghana , Nigeria , and Liberia . This has also been done with COVID19 masks. Once commingled recyclates are collected and delivered to
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#17328554685944836-402: The quality of final recyclate streams, and require extra efforts to discard those materials at later stages in the recycling process. 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. Transportation and
4914-569: The recent past due to the polarizing nature of their emissions. While viewed as a sustainable method of capturing energy from material waste feedstocks by many, others have cited numerous explanations for why the technology has not been scaled globally. 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
4992-897: 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. 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. 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
5070-485: The recyclers' costs. 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 . Four forms of legislation have also been used to increase and maintain
5148-409: The recycling needs posed by this type of product. Copper slag is obtained when copper and nickel ores are recovered from their source ores using a pyrometallurgical process, and these ores usually contain other elements which include iron, cobalt, silica, and alumina. An estimate of 2.2–3 tons of copper slag is generated per ton of copper produced, resulting in around 24.6 tons of slag per year, which
5226-582: The recycling process. 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. This spurred investment in modern automated facilities to cope with the influx, especially after strict laws were implemented in 2003. 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
5304-586: 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 . High-quality recycling can support economic growth by maximizing
5382-428: The separate collection of recyclates, no public education is needed, and any changes to the recyclability of certain materials are implemented where sorting occurs. 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. Source separation
5460-537: 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
5538-486: The soil as quickly as natural forests. This can cause widespread soil erosion and often requiring large amounts of fertilizer to maintain the soil, while containing little tree and wild-life biodiversity compared to virgin forests. Also, the new trees planted are not as big as the trees that were cut down, and the argument that there would be "more trees" is not compelling to forestry advocates when they are counting saplings. In particular, wood from tropical rainforests
5616-667: The streets of American cities, taking advantage of market forces to recycle post-consumer materials into industrial production. Manufacturers of beverage bottles, including Schweppes , 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). New chemical industries created in
5694-417: The supermarket; these baskets fit on specially designed trolleys making shopping supposedly easier. There have been some market-led initiatives to encourage packaging reuse by companies introducing refill packs of certain commodities (mainly soap powders and cleaning fluids), the contents being transferred before use into a reusable package kept by the customer, with the savings in packaging being passed onto
5772-492: The transaction and redistribution of unwanted, yet perfectly usable, materials and equipment from one entity to another. The entities that benefit from either side of this service (as donors, sellers, recipients, or buyers) can be businesses, nonprofits, schools, community groups, and individuals. Some maintain a physical space (a reuse center), and others act as a matching service (a virtual exchange). Reuse centers generally maintain both warehouses and trucks. They take possession of
5850-531: The value of waste material. Higher income levels from the sale of quality recyclates can return value significant to local governments, households and businesses. 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. Waste producers who place non-target and non-recyclable wastes in recycling collections can affect
5928-446: 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 . It promotes environmental sustainability by removing raw material input and redirecting waste output in
6006-888: 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. For some waste materials such as plastic, recent technical devices called recyclebots enable a form of distributed recycling called DRAM ( distributed recycling additive manufacturing ). 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. Another form of distributed recycling mixes waste plastic with sand to make bricks in Africa . Several studies have looked at
6084-631: 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. 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 . The West Yorkshire shoddy industry in towns such as Batley and Dewsbury lasted from
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