Recycling

Importance of Recycling
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

1. Conserves some energy. Energy is required by recycling plants to re-process old

materials.
2. Saves natural resources
3. Minimize waste buildup
4. Reduces some pollution Some air pollutants may be released from recycling plants.

Solid Waste Control

The Three R's
• REDUCE- Buy only what you need
• REUSE- Use materials again for other purposes e.g. plastic bags
• RECYCLE- Separate waste for use to make new products e.g. glass bottles

Advantages:
• Reduces amount of waste produced.
• Less waste to send to landfills
• Less pollution
• Saves raw materials (natural resources)
• Reduced energy use

Biodegradable vs Non-biodegradable
• Biodegradable waste: waste that can be decomposed (broken down naturally by
microbes). E.g. organic waste such as food scraps, manure, sewage, paper
• Non-biodegradable waste: cannot decay. e.g. plastic, glass, metals

Recycling Facts

Conserve energy:
• Recycled newspaper uses 40% less energy.
• Recycled plastic uses 70% less energy.
• Recycled aluminum uses 95% less energy.
Saves Natural Resources (raw materials):
Using recycled materials means we can log fewer forests, mine fewer metals, and drill for
less oil.
• Every ton of newspaper or mixed paper recycled saves the equivalent of 12 trees.
• Every ton of office paper recycled saves the equivalent of 24 trees.

Reduces Pollution:
Less Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The national recycling rate of 30% reduces greenhouse gas emissions by as much as
removing nearly 25 million cars from the road.

Economic Benefits:
• Creates jobs
• Supplies valuable materials to industry

Difficulties in Recycling

• Lack of interest/time to sort materials

• Proper separation of waste into different types.

• Collection, transportation and storage of each waste type.

• Uneconomical:
• Recycling is labour and energy intensive
• Quantity of waste not sufficient to maintain plant operations.
• Cost of operations is expensive

• Lack of space and facilities for recycling.