Recycling Process
Collecting and processing secondary materials, manufacturing recycled-content products, and then purchasing recycled products creates a circle or loop that ensures the overall success and value of recycling.
Step 1. Collection and
Processing
Collecting recyclables varies from community to community, but there are four
primary methods: curbside, drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and
deposit/refund programs.
Regardless of the method used to collect the recyclables, the next leg of their journey is usually the same. Recyclables are sent to a materials recovery facility to be sorted and prepared into marketable commodities for manufacturing. Recyclables are bought and sold just like any other commodity, and prices for the materials change and fluctuate with the market.
Step 2. Manufacturing
Once cleaned and separated, the recyclables are ready to undergo the second part
of the recycling loop. More and more of today's products are being manufactured
with total or partial recycled content. Common household items that contain
recycled materials include newspapers and paper towels; aluminum, plastic, and
glass soft drink containers; steel cans; and plastic laundry detergent bottles.
Recycled materials also are used in innovative applications such as recovered
glass in roadway asphalt (glassphalt) or recovered plastic in carpeting, park
benches, and pedestrian bridges.
Step 3. Purchasing Recycled
Products
Purchasing recycled products completes the recycling loop. By "buying
recycled," governments, as well as businesses and individual consumers,
each play an important role in making the recycling process a success. As
consumers demand more environmentally sound products, manufacturers will
continue to meet that demand by producing high quality recycled products.
Creating a strong market for recycled products is key to completing the recycling process or "closing the loop." Consumers close the loop when they purchase products made from recycled materials. Governments can promote buying recycled products through their own purchasing programs and guidelines. Manufacturers can participate as well by using recycled materials in their products.
Identifying Recycled-Content Products
Product labels can be confusing to consumers interested in buying recycled because of the different recycling terminology used. The following definitions might help clarify any uncertainty regarding manufacturers' claims.
Recycled-content products are made from materials that would otherwise have been discarded. Items in this category are made totally or partially from material destined for disposal or recovered from industrial activities—like aluminum soda cans or newspaper. Recycled-content products also can be items that are rebuilt or remanufactured from used products such as toner cartridges or computers.
· Postconsumer content refers to material from products that were used by consumers or businesses and would otherwise be discarded as waste. If a product is labeled "recycled content," the rest of the product material might have come from excess or damaged items generated during normal manufacturing processes—not collected through a local recycling program.
A Recycled Products Shopping List
There are more than 4,500 recycled-content products available, and this number continues to grow. In fact, many of the products people regularly purchase contain recycled-content. The following list presents just a sampling.
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Aluminum cans |
Newspapers |
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Cereal boxes |
Paper towels |
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Egg cartons |
Carpeting |
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Motor oil |
Car bumpers |
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Nails |
Anything made from
steel |
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Trash bags |
Glass containers |
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Comic books |
Laundry detergent bottles |
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GLASS |
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41 billion glass containers were produced in the U.S.
in 1992. |
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Glass containers are 64% clear, 23% brown, and 13%
green. |
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All glass food and beverage containers can be
recycled. |
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Recycling a glass jar saves enough energy to light a
100-watt light bulb for four hours. |
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All newly purchased glass food jars contain at least
35% recycled glass. |
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In 1994, approximately 13.3 million tons of glass
waste was generated in the U.S. Food and beverage containers made up 91%
of this amount: the remainder came from products like cookware and
glassware, home furnishings, and plate glass. |
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Glass constituted 6.3% of the U.S. municipal solid
waste stream in 1994. |
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About 25.8% of all glass food and beverage containers
were recycled in 1994. Glass had an overall recovery rate of 23.4% that
same year. |
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Most of the glass recovered in the U.S. is used in
new glass containers. A portion is also used in fiberglass and "glasphalt"
for highway construction. |
Glass Recycling
The
primary goal in glass recycling is to produce and market furnace-ready cullet
(the crushed, cleaned post-consumer glass that is used to make new glass
products). Using state-of-the-art sorting and processing technology, ceramic and
metal contaminants must be removed from color separated clear, brown and green
glass. In addition, the separate 3 color mixed glass is mechanically separated
into clear, brown and green glass. This automated optical glass sorting
technology increases material recovery and delivers a higher quality product to
bottling and fiberglass manufacturers.
Discarded plastic and paper packaging make up a growing proportion of municipal solid waste. By the year 2000, the amount of plastic we throw away will increase by 50 percent. Current estimates for plastic waste range from 14 to 21 percent of the waste stream.
By weight plastics contribute seven percent, and less than one percent of plastic waste is currently recycled. Additionally. Some plastic items end up as litter that poses ecological risk to the marine environment and aesthetic and economic loss. These facts, and EPA's belief that recycling is one of the most promising methods for environmental from wastes, ... of plastic recycling.
Are Plastics Recyclable?
A. The different types of plastics used in consumer products include:
All of these plastics are technically recyclable--that is, they can be remelted and formed into other items. The term "recyclable," however, also means that there is a way to collect and separate the materials and market the end products. The recyclability of plastics can therefore vary over time and location.
Both single resins and combination of plastics can be recycled. but the end products from a mixture are often lower in value than those from just one type of plastic. Therefore. the success of plastics recycling may depend on the development of technologies to separate mixed plastics into single resins, and on increasing the markets for products of plastic recycling. In sum the answer to the question "Are plastics recyclable?" is a qualified yes.
Q. What Is Being Recycled Now?
A. Less than one percent of plastics are currently recycled. Only a few plastic consumer items such as soft drink bottles and milk jugs are being recycled in the United States. Recycling of polystyrene food containers and cups is just getting started.
Q. What Products Are Made from Recycled Plastics?
A. A wide variety of products can be made from recycled plastics. The type of resin recycled and how well it has been separated from other wastes and resins determines what products can be made.
Soft drink bottles are being recycled into fiberfill for coats, sleeping bags, and pillows: into carpeting and into bottles for household cleaners. Milk jugs are being recycled into toys, flower pots. layers of detergent bottles, and base cups for soft drink bottles. Polystyrene food containers and cups are being recycled into note pad holders, stackable file holders, and pen/pencil holders, as well as cafeteria food trays, toys and insulation.
If the plastics can not be separated from each other into single resins, a mixture of plastics can be made into plastic lumber to be used for larger items such as park benches. docks, fences or pallets.
Plastics recycling is just getting started, and like recycling of other commodities. Its success will depend on the interaction between supply and demand. While the amount of plastic in the waste stream is large, the collection, separation, and cleaning of those products has proven difficult and sometimes expensive. Research is under way on methods to improve and mechanize these steps.
Markets for some recycled products. like soft drink bottles, appear to be well defined--while others are not. Commitment from manufacturers and processors of plastic resins to expand their use of recycled resins. along with increased government procurement of recycled plastics. win help solidify some markets.
· Recycling steel and tin cans saves 74% of the energy used to produce them.
· Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.
· Americans throw out enough iron and steel to supply all the nation’s automakers on a continuous basis.
· A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution and mining wastes by about 70%.
The
following metals can be recycled:
The metals are separated by type and then heated to get rid of the impurities. Next they are melted and reformed into new products.
