Recycling

The massive increase in public concern for protection of the environment has given a new prominence to the recycling industry, which covers everything from the collection of beverage cans and the reclamation of old car bodies to the treatment of industrial sludge.

Recycling is a processing of industrial and household waste (such as paper, glass, and some metals and plastics) so that it can be reused. The great advantage of recycling is that it saves a large proportion of energy needed to manufacture an article from the original raw materials. This is of paramount importance at a time when energy conservation is essential to reduce the use of fossil fuels which contribute to global warming – the greenhouse effect.

For instance, there is a 62 per cent energy-saving in the use of recycled scrap ferrous metal. The saving arises because the scrap is almost pure metal and the original impure ore.

Materials which are recycled are less expensive than primary raw materials and offer a considerable cost advantage to industry.

Recycling also avoids the need to dump large quantities of used materials in landfill sites, a process which is unpopular with the public and can have dangerous environmental side-effect. This is particularly important at a time when the cost of using good landfill sites has steady increased.

Above all, recycling is an important means of reducing dependence on finite natural resources. It offers the potential for averting the crisis often predicted by conservationists – a world eventually running out of raw materials.

Today, recycling is a major activity in the industrialized countries. Advanced technology is used to collect, sort and process materials that are discarded by industry or the public.

Technical advances mean that valuable metals from such complex equipment as computers and other electronic machines are recovered, instead of ending up on the scrap heap. Furthermore, used oils can be recycled as lubricants for industry and transport, while rubber from old types can be transformed into mats and carpet underlays.

Despite this activity, environmental pressure groups are highly vocal in their dissatisfaction with the scale of recycling.

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