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The motto of recycling is reduce, reuse and recycle, but what does that mean?
Recycling is really about changing the way you think about the stuff that comes into your life. When you fully appreciate the energy and the resources that have gone into making something and don’t want to see that energy go to waste, then your thinking has shifted to that of being a recycler. When you take the time to make sure something can be used again, and make the choice to prefer recycled products when you acquire things, then you are an active player in the virtuous circle of recycling.
When you collect used materials that you might normally throw out and instead prepare them so they can be used again or turned into something new, you are recycling. Your recycling habits will typically entail sorting and preparing the materials so they can be easily reused or broken down into raw material to create a new product. Common items that are recycled are plastic, glass, paper, batteries and aluminum, but nearly everything can be recycled or reused.
The virtuous circle of recycling
In the first stage of recycling, old products are collected and then sorted, cleaned and made ready for their next life. In the second stage of recycling, a product designer or manufacturer has created a new product from the old material. You complete the cycle when you buy or use that product created from recycled material. The more we participate in the virtuous circle of recycling, the more effective recycling will be.
What happens after I put my stuff into a recycling bin?
The process is different everywhere, but here's what happens in a place like Cambridge, Mass. At a materials recovery facility, recyclables are sorted in preparation for processing. Magnets and air help divide up metals and light items. Employees separate out other items (so be kind and rinse your food containers). Mechanical sorters that use optics to identify different kinds of paper and puffs of air to sort it are also now being developed. This entire separation step may seem inefficient, but transportation and collection can be more efficient when separation is postponed; it's also easier to get people to recycle when they can throw everything together.
At a processing plant, sorted items are converted into usable material. Plastics get shredded. Different types have different specific gravities, so they will float/sink to different degrees and can then be separated. Paper is soaked in water. In the recycling process, plastic envelope bits float up and magnets remove staples. A large chain is rotated in the vat of paper goo, and tape remnants adhere to the chain for removal.
And then that stuff is to turned into new things that I am supposed to buy? Isn’t new better? And don’t we have garbage dumps to hold our old junk?
New isn’t necessarily better. Before the 1920s, 70% of U.S. cities ran programs to recycle certain materials, according to the National Recycling Coalition. 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. The NRC says our recycling rate is currently up to around 33%.
That’s good, but it’s not enough because we make so much more garbage than we used to. The average American discards 4.6 pounds of garbage every day, the NRC says. And this garbage goes to landfills that create heavy, noxious methane gas and take up land, an increasingly precious resource.
Recycling is all about saving — saving energy, saving natural resources, saving land, saving money. But most of all it is about sparing Earth’s natural environment the devastation that will come from rapid climate change.
OK, I get it. So how do I buy recycled?
The key to buying recycled products is reading labels. Look for the trademark arrows of the recycling symbol, but that doesn't always mean the product is made from recycled material; it may simply mean the product is technically recyclable (sometimes, only if the product is returned in perfect condition to the manufacturer!).
Check the ingredient list. Look for the percent of post-consumer content. Many paper products promote themselves as recycled, but come from industrial surplus (called pre-consumer) that would be recycled anyway. Post-consumer means that another person has already used the material and it is being recycled to you.
Recycling Saves Energy
New products are made from materials that are taken from the Earth or created in manufacturing processes that pollute the air, water or soil. Energy — the power that make things run — is expensive.
Here’s data from National Recycling Coalition:
The amount of energy saved from recycling aluminum and steel cans, plastic PET and glass containers, newsprint and corrugated packaging in 2007 was equivalent to:
• The amount of electricity consumed by 17.8 million Americans in one year.
• 29% of nuclear electricity generation in the U.S. in one year.
• 7.9% of electricity generation from fossil fuels in the U.S. in one year.
• 11% of the energy produced by coal-fired power plants in the U.S.
• The energy supplied from 2.7% of imported barrels of crude oil into the U.S.
• The amount of gasoline used in almost 11 million passenger automobiles in one year.
Recycling Reduces Greenhouse Gases
Most industries use fossil fuels like coal, diesel and gasoline. All these emit harmful gases such as methane, sulfur dioxide, carbon-dioxide to the environment.
Recycling Saves Natural Resources
When we use a recycled product we are saving something natural from being destroyed. For instance, when we use recycled toilet paper, we are saving a tree.
Recycling Saves Money
When you use less energy, you are saving money. When you reuse something, you are sparing yourself the expense of buying something new.
Recycling saves land from becoming landfill
Many places on the planet are running out of landfill space, the UK for one. In 1987, Mobro, a barge carrying more than 3,000 tons of garbage, became a symbol of scarce landfill when it hauled trash up and down the east coast of North America from New York to Belize for several months looking for a place to offload its trash. It’s possible to envision a time when we will be sending trash barges into space, if we don’t start recycling more.
Municipal recycling programs
Cities and towns use four primary methods to collect recyclable materials: curbside, drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and deposit/refund programs. If you don't have a municipal recycling system, organize your neighbors to start one. As your efforts become more successful, the government will come along. City leaders will see all kinds of barriers to recycling. In some large cities, the municipal unions oppose recycling because they are afraid workers will lose their jobs. In some smaller towns, the municipality might feel it does not have the resources to do the job right. In any case, it's important to have recycling in your town, so lobby and organize to get one.
Learn More
Find out where to recycle anything in your zipcode. at earth911.org
Get the big picture on where stuff comes from and where it goes at Story of Stuff.
Learn about your municipal recycling program at the National Recycling Coalition.
Don't toss it, swap it through the Freecycle Network.
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