Recycling
Recycling: what is genuinely worth recovering, and why
Not all recycling is equally valuable, and the difference is measured in energy. Recycling aluminium uses roughly 95 per cent less energy than smelting new aluminium from bauxite ore, and aluminium can be melted and re-formed indefinitely without losing quality — a recycled can can be back on a shelf within about two months. Glass is likewise infinitely recyclable. Paper and cardboard are not: their fibres shorten each time, so they can be recycled a finite number of times before they are only fit for composting.
Plastic is the hard case. Most plastics are downcycled rather than recycled into the same product, the resin identification codes stamped on packaging indicate the polymer rather than a guarantee of local acceptance, and mixed or multi-layer packaging is generally not recoverable at all. This is why the order of the phrase matters: reduce first, reuse second, recycle third. Recycling is the last line, not the first.
Organic waste deserves more attention than it gets. Food scraps and yard waste buried in a landfill decompose without oxygen and generate methane, a greenhouse gas roughly 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a hundred-year period. Composting the same material aerobically avoids that methane entirely and returns a soil amendment that improves water retention and reduces the need for synthetic fertiliser. Vermicomposting — composting with worms — does the same job in a bin small enough for an apartment balcony.
Getting it right at the kerb
- Empty, clean and dry. Food residue contaminates whole bales; a greasy pizza box belongs in compost, not paper.
- No bagging. Recyclables sealed inside plastic bags are usually pulled off the line as trash at the sorting facility.
- Leave caps on bottles where your programme asks for it — loose caps are too small to sort and fall through the screens.
- Check locally, not nationally. Acceptance lists are set by whoever runs your sorting facility and vary between neighbouring towns.
- Keep batteries and electronics out. Lithium batteries in a kerbside bin are a genuine fire risk at the facility; they need a household hazardous waste drop-off.
Useful and Interesting Links
Each of the links below opens in a new browser window, so The-Environment.net stays open behind it. For what your own kerbside programme accepts, your city or county waste authority is the only authoritative source.
Intelligent waste management solutions for businesses in the UK and Ireland.
Our team of expert professionals is available to help you through any step in the process of implementing a successful recycling systems.
Practical conservation through certified forestry.
The State of California Integrated Waste Management Board’s recycling programs.
The Federal Government EPA sites for compost recycling.
Trade and professional organizations promoting composting.
This site is dedicated to all your composting needs.
Composting, vermicomposting and all composting products including education.
Gardeners Supply Company furnishing all your gardening needs.
Information on all of your recycling needs
Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products.
21-ways-to-use-less-plastic-without-putting-a-ton-of-effort-in
Educational vermicomposting farming.
A gallery of usable art from recycled, reused and natural materials. Our designs are handmade by individual artists or in small studios. "All of our products are friendly to the environment as well as to your pocketbook."
Bioenergy technologies help protect the environment by making use of renewable plant material such as sawdust, tree trimmings, rice straw, alfalfa and switchgrass; poultry litter and other animal wastes; industrial waste; and the paper component of municipal solid waste for Environmentally Friendly Power Production.