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Just what is the Recycling cycle?
By Roy Law of Systems Studio
Recycle. Great concept, sounds good, "save the planet" and all that, but how does it actually work in practice? Basically, there are two parts to the process - recovery and re-use; inevitably, perhaps, we hear (or are told) more about the former than the latter and little or nothing about what can happen inbetween. The implication is that everything we collect can and will be successfully re-used, but is this entirely true? We do need to know What are the criteria for rejecting a batch of collected material? What does happen to collected material that cannot be re-used? What proportion of collected material cannot be re-used? An increasingly important associated question is
Are Civil Liberties now being infringed in the name of Recycling? The whole process is probably COLLECTION -> SORTING -> REJECTS -> SELLING -> PROCESSING -> REBIRTH A lot of money is being made by those who manufacture and sell equipment for collection (dedicated skips, bins, and bags), not to mention governnment-sponsored and local council-sponsored advertising campaigns. Even then there is inconsistency as to what should be recycled and where it should be placed, two examples are:
1. Telephone directories Sometimes allowable as Paper, sometimes as Cardboard, may not be specified;
2. Glass Sometimes split by colour, sometimes mixed; Manufacturers of all kinds of goods are being actively encouraged to mark their products with an indication of their recycyclability; that puts up their costs, but they may get brownie points for being seen to be Green. New kid on the block in the UK supermarket sandwich world is clear film laminated to card for packaging. Previously, I always tore away the clear film and self-righteously recycled the rest. What am I to do now? My concern is that recycling is increasingly becoming a bandwagon for bureaucrats and the original purpose, saving the poor old planet, is becoming sidetracked. It would appear that too many middlemen are making too much money under the recycling banner. In my Northern UK roots 'brass' is slang for 'money' and there's an expression "Where there's muck, there's brass". Both domestic and industrial waste are forms of 'muck'. To protect ourselves and our planet I think there needs to be an internationally-maintained website where we can follow what actually happens to the material we recycle. At present, we only see the front end of the process; let's follow it through and know the names of the players, their profits and, above all, their efficiency. My guess? That a lot less than 50% of material collected gets successfully recycled. Don't stop recycling, do ask more questions and let's improve the efficiency of the whole process.
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Contributor's Note
Another, rather scarier, way of looking at my conclusion is That a lot more than 50% of material collected for recycling actually goes to Landfill.
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My guess? That a lot less than 50% of material collected gets successfully recycled. Don't stop recycling, do ask more questions and let's improve the efficiency of the whole process. I agree with what you are saying but 50% is better then 0%. I believe that the percentage gets bigger every year.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
But we don't know, and that, in this age of information, is unforgiveable.
Hmmmmmm...Very,very interesting. What about the civil liberties angle?
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Here in the UK folks have been fined for over-filling their dustbins it is now proposed that Local Councils employ an army of snoopers to check whether they are classifying their rubbish correctly.
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This intel was contributed by Roy Law
Roy Law
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May, 2012
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