What is recycling?

The recycling process involves waste materials being collected, sorted and made into new products and
materials. The recycled product will often be the same thing it was before (a glass wine bottle, for example) but
can also be "downcycled" into a new product or material (glass can be ground with other materials to make road
surfacing).

Why should we bother recycling?

On a practical level, we have to recycle because we're running out of room to bury our rubbish: experts
suggest UK landfill sites will be full by 2017.
The main environmental benefit of recycling is reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing new products
from recycled material rather than new virgin material almost always results in lower CO2 emissions. Making
glass, for example, uses 300kg CO2 less per tonne of glass when you recycle old glass rather than using raw
materials (because manufacturing virgin glass involves a carbon-intensive furnace process called calcination).

Recycling waste also reduces the amount of methane generated from biodegradable waste - such as cardboard
- breaking down in landfill. Although methane is released in relatively small quantities in the UK (2.3m tonnes a
year), it is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.
Aside from cutting emissions that contribute to global warming, recycling has the benefit of preserving natural
resources. Fewer trees need to be cut down, and fewer minerals and metals need to be extracted from mines.
Even when a natural resource is renewable if managed sustainably - such as paper - harvesting it can still have
negative environmental impacts. Forests planted for paper, for example, are often monoculture plantations which
are typically much less species-rich than a natural forest.

What about benefits for me?

In the UK, recycling may eventually lead to a lower council tax bill. Local authorities have to pay more for
sending rubbish to landfill every year - in 2009, councils across England spent £620m land-filling waste from
homes.

Figures obtained by consumer group Which? also suggest that if we recycled better - by contaminating less of
our recycling with food waste, for example - we may one day save money on lower council tax bills.
Is recycling really greener than alternatives like incineration?
Yes, for most materials, according to an analysis commissioned by the government (pdf). In the case of paper
and cardboard, glass, plastics, aluminium and steel, recycling produces fewer greenhouse gases than
incineration.
How does the UK compare to other countries on recycling?
UK recycling rates currently stand at an average of 34.5% of all waste nationally, up from 11.2% in 2000-01. But
EU targets mean that councils must encourage homeowners to recycle 40% by 2012 - and 50% by 2020.

The UK is near the bottom of the European recycling league: in 2003, only Greece and Ireland put a greater
percentage of their waste into landfill and incinerators. UK recycling rates are very similar to those in the US,
where local authorities in 2007 recycled 33.4% of the waste they collected (pdf).
Are fortnightly rubbish collections good or bad for recycling?
The government's waste agency Wrap says fortnightly collections increase recycling rates. Research from the
Local Government Association backs that up, and many councils with the highest recycling rates also operate
fortnightly collections.
What's better for the environment, kerbside or "comingled" collections?
Kerbside collections are where householders separate different types of recycling material, such as glass and
paper, while "comingled" means that all the material for a home's recycling goes into one box or bag, and is then
sorted at a facility.

Wrap says that kerbside collections, when possible, are the best choice for high quality recycled material and
cost effectiveness. Some industry experts suggest that comingled collections increase recycling rates, but
also increase the amount of contaminated material - cardboard splattered with curry sauce, say - which then
ends up in landfill.
Where does most of my recycling go?
Much of the material that's sorted for recycling in the UK goes to Asian countries to be recycled into new
materials and products. China is the main destination for paper and plastic, taking in much of the 4.7 million
tonnes of paper (55% of our paper exports) and half a million tonnes of plastics exported (80% of plastic exports)
in 2007.

Doesn't shipping materials overseas for recycling cancel out any carbon savings?
No. It may seem counterintuitive, but the carbon footprint of - for example - shipping waste glass from the UK to
Germany to recycle into new glass is actually lower than making new glass from virgin materials here in the UK.
The transport emissions involved are small compared with the greenhouse gases produced when manufacturing
glass from scratch.

The same rule - that transport is responsible for very little of the CO2 emitted when making products - holds true
for other materials. A government study in 2008 (pdf) calculated that sending British plastic and paper waste to
China for recycling saves more CO2 than it emits. When you factor in the fact that cargo ships that arrive in the
UK full of consumer goods often return to China carry material for recycling, the carbon savings are even
greater.

Doesn't driving to the bottle bank release more CO2 than I save by recycling glass?
No. According to recycling experts Best Foot Forward, you're saving carbon by driving glass bottles to the bottle
bank - provided you take at least two wine bottles and don't drive further than one kilometre. If you double up
your trip for another purpose or recycle other materials while you're visiting the recycling centre, the net carbon
balance looks even better.
Didn't prices drop for recycled materials, and aren't companies stockpiling it?
Prices for recycled materials such as paper and plastic did fall dramatically in late 2008, but so did prices for new
raw materials. Prices for recycled materials have since stabilised and are now rising again. The government
waste agency Wrap, says it sees no evidence that stockpiling is happening now.
Just a few years ago, this place was called Dumptown. For years, the folks living here hadn't thought much about
where waste went when they threw it out. And, eventually, that became a very BIG problem...

Because Dumptowners didn't know what happened to waste after it was thrown away, they thought nothing of
dropping empty soda cans here and there or putting cans of leftover paint right into their trash cans.

Things that easily could have been reused or recycled were tossed in the trash, because nobody believed recycling
made a difference. At the dump, they threw dangerous chemicals and poisons (hazardous waste) into the regular
garbage (solid waste).

The garbage heap grew and began to smell. Sometimes it caught fire, sending toxic smoke into the air and making it
hard for everyone to breathe. Dumptowners tried moving away from the mess, but wherever they moved, the problem
was still there—on the ground and in the air. They knew they had to fix it.

They learned to reduce the amount of waste they threw away. For example, they bought items at the store that weren't
wrapped in extra packaging, so there would be less to throw away. They learned to reuse other things—like washing
out empty jars instead of throwing them away. And, they learned to recycle. They set up bins around town to collect
glass, paper, and aluminum that could be converted back into raw materials, then made into new products.

Dumptowners paid special attention to hazardous waste and set up special collection points where people could drop
off used chemicals, paints, and cleansers for safe handling and proper disposal. Instead of buying environmentally
harmful cleaning products, chemicals, and pesticides, many Dumptowners switched to natural, safe substitutes.

Finally, they closed the old city dump and built a new solid waste landfill outside of town. With the town's new image, it
needed a new name, and Recycle City was born. Travel around Recycle City and find out what folks here are doing to
reduce waste and make the environment better.

To get started, just click on any section of Recycle City that you want to explore, or click on the Dumptown Game.
Create your own Recycle City scavenger hunt or go to the Activities area and see other ways you can put Recycle
City to use.

When you leave this place you'll leave knowing much more about what you can do to help protect the environment.
Have fun!