Recycling is the collection of used materials that would otherwise be waste to be broken down and remade into new products. Similarly, reuse is collecting waste such as food and drink containers to be cleaned, refilled and resold. Proponents of recycling say that it prevents waste and reduces the consumption of new raw materials. Commonly recycled materials include glass, paper, aluminum, asphalt, and steel. These materials can be derived either from pre-consumer waste (materials used in manufacturing) or post-consumer waste (materials discarded by the consumer). One of the important facts to watch is that the use of the term "recyclable" on products is misleading if not outright deception. Anything can in theory be recycled. If you are looking to do the right thing for the environment, you should be choosing items that are made from recycled material.

Many manufactured products are not readily biodegradable and take up space in landfills or must be incinerated. Recycling is an alternative to this. In theory, recycling would allow a continuing reuse of materials for the same purpose. In practice, recycling most often extends the useful life of a material, but in a less-versatile form. For example, when paper is recycled, the fibers shorten, making it less useful for high grade papers. Other materials can suffer from contamination, making them unsuitable for food packaging.

Of the 24 OECD-countries where figures were available, only 16% of household waste was recycled in 2002.

Reuse

The 600ml brown botle are the "standard beer reused botle" in Brazil.

One form of recycling is the reuse of goods, especially bottles. Reuse is distinguished from most forms of recycling, where the good is reduced to a raw material and used in the making of a new good (example: crushing of bottles to make glass for new bottles). Refillable bottles are used extensively in many European countries; for example in Denmark, 98% of bottles are refillable, and 98% of those are returned by consumers. These systems are typically supported by deposit laws and other regulations.

In some developing nations like India, the cost of new bottles often forces manufacturers to collect and refill old glass bottles for selling cola and other drinks. India also has a way of reusing old newspapers: "Kabadiwalas" buy these from the readers for scrap value and reuse them in packaging or in recycling plants. These scrap intermediaries also help in disposing other articles and metals from the consumers and is a lucrative business for the resellers.

In the former East Germany, organic household waste was collected and used as fodder for pigs. This integrated system was made possible by the state's control of agriculture; the complexities of continuing it in a market economy after German reunification meant the system had to be discontinued. Organic household waste is still collected separately in some towns in Germany, and may be used for fertilizer or landfilled in more sensitive locations where other waste cannot be.

In North America, organic household waste, especially yard waste such as leaves on a seasonal basis, is often collected and heaped up to form compost.

History

Recycling and rubbish bin in a German railway station.

Recycling is generally at its peak during wartimes or energy shortages. Massive government promotion campaigns were carried out in World War II in every country involved in the war, urging citizens to conserve metals and fiber. These resource conservation programs established during the war were continued in some natural resource-poor countries, such as Japan, after the war ended.

In the USA, the next big investment in recycling occurred in the 1970s, due to rises in energy costs (recycling aluminum uses only 5% of the energy required by virgin production; glass, paper and metals have less dramatic but very significant energy savings when recycled feedstock is used). The passage of the Clean Water Act in the USA created strong demand for bleached paper (office paper whose fiber has already been bleached white increased in value as water effluent became more expensive).

On September 17, 1981, the first ever blue box recycling program was launched in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Today, more than 90% of Ontario households have access to recycling programs and annually they divert more than 650,000 tonnes (1 tonne = 2,200 pounds) of secondary resource materials. The "blue box" program has expanded in various forms throughout Canada and to countries around the world such as United Kingdom, France and Australia, serving more than 40 million households in countries around the world.

In 1987, a barge called the Mobro 4000, containing a little over 3,000 tons of garbage departed from Islip, New York to deposit its load of garbage in Morehead City, North Carolina. However, before it reached its destination, rumors that it contained medical waste caused officials at Morehead City to deny the barge permission to unload its garbage. As a result, the barge traveled down the East coast of the United States searching for a place to unload, eventually being denied in Mexico and Belize. The barge finally returned to Islip, where the trash was incinerated after a brief legal battle. The barge's journey became a small media event. According the Federal Reserve bank of Boston , Kelly Ferguson (editor of a pulp and paper industry newsletter) , and conservative columnist John Tierney, media coverage of the Mobro 4000 led to the false public perception that American landfills were nearly out of space. They say that this perception led to increased public interest in programs to recycle household goods.

A recycling and rubbish bin in a Berlin public-transport station

Another major event that initiated recycling efforts occurred in 1989 when the city of Berkeley, California, banned the use of polystyrene packaging for keeping McDonald's hamburgers warm. One effect of this ban was to raise the ire of management at Dow Chemical, the world’s largest manufacturer of Polystyrene, which led to the first major efforts to show that plastics can be recycled. By 1999, there were 1,677 companies in the USA alone involved in the post-consumer plastics recycling business

Source- edited version of Wikipedia entry

Further reading:

“Recycle – The Essential Guide” by Black Dog Publishing, with an introduction by Lucy Siegle. 

This is a brilliant book that makes recycling fun and exciting. It is pitched at just the right level to be useful for both school-children, practitioners and researchers, and is packed with amazing photos, facts and figures. Best of all, there are inspiring case studies of people actually putting recycling into practice, and living as if tomorrow matters. The book is about much more than just recycling, encouraging a greater awareness of why we are wasting and polluting so much in the first place. Did you know, for example, that a kiwi fruit flown to the UK from New Zealand has emitted 5 times its own weight in carbon dioxide? Remember, in the famous catch phrase, reduce, re-use and recycle, the recycling is the last resort when we have failed at stages one and two.  The message of the book is:

“Finally, each and every one of us needs to start being proactive and taking responsibility for our own waste.”

Recycling Links -

www.Recycle-more.co.uk

www.wastepoint.co.uk – the site of Waste Connect

www.wrap.org.uk

www.wasteonline.org.uk

www.environ.org.uk/ecohouse - Leicester-based charity with lots of good links and resources

recyclezone.org.uk – a school site with useful links on waste and recycling

GEN: Global Ecolabelling Network

Wastepoint.co.uk Comprehensive reference for recycling points throughout the UK

WasteWatch.org.uk Leading environmental organisation promoting sustainable resource management in the UK by campaigning for a reduction in resource consumption and an increase in waste they recycling

Junkk – a lively, fun and useful site that finds new homes for things we have finished with, helping us reduce, re-use and recycle.

DEFRA.gov.uk/environment/waste/ UK Government - Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs - Recycling & Waste: introduction to waste in the UK, what happens to waste, A-Z of waste materials, waste statistics, information for local authorities, legislation & licensing
Oviously.com/recycle The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide

state.ma.us/dep/recycle Guide to recycling incl. business waste reduction, composting, consumer recycling, electronics recycling, hazardous products, guide for childrenRecycled Products.org.uk guide to products available in the UK which contain recycled materials

Waste exchange/materials calculator

CRN.org.uk Community Recycling Network - a membership organisation promoting community-based sustainable waste management to tackle the UK's growing waste problem

Plastics Recycling Info

GRN.com Global Recycling Network (GRN) - site dedicated to recycling-related information.

G.A.I.A – The Green Advice and Information Agency (G.A.I.A)

European Recycling Platform

EPA.gov/recyclecity/mainmap.htm Childrens' guide to recycling

NRC-Recycle.org National Recycling Coalition, a non-profit organization representing diverse interests committed to the common goal of maximizing recycling