Written by Kevin Sukarno
Regrettably,
much of our waste makes its way through lakes, rivers, and oceans. This is
harmful to land animals, insects, marine creatures and eventually, humans. Snow
or rain flowing down their natural route to rivers, streams, sewerage systems
and storm drains bring polluted waste down their paths when storms occur. The
ultimate destination is vast waters protecting bodies of life. This trend can
lead to water supply contamination and disease outbreaks such as diarrhea and
cholera. Recycling is the surefire way to reduce life-supporting contamination
of the water supply.
Recycling
something literally means using it all over again. Therefore recycling is the
method of turning discarded or used items into new, usable goods rather than
dumping them into landfills. Most commonly recycled products include plastic,
paper, copper, and glass. We can recycle a whole lot of other waste like
plastic bags and appliances. To put it another way, recycling old products
could generate fresh supply of the same new products.
There are some
trends of recycling, such as:
Upcycling: sometimes
called innovative reuse. It includes adding value to discarded materials or
items in order to build from them a product of high value or a value greater
than the original product.
Precycling: Is the act of
reducing waste by attempting to stop taking in products that would allow
households and companies to generate waste.
E-cycling: This is the
process of reusing or recycling electrical equipment for use, rather than
disposing of it at the closing stages of its life cycle. The recycling of
electronics or electronic parts, generally referred to as e-waste, causes
serious ecological issues because of the harmful materials used in their
producer. Discarded electronic devices such as computers and mobile phones are
still available on several occasions, and may be passed on to individuals or
organizations for use.
Recycling is
environmentally friendly, in the sense that we are using unusable old and waste
products and only turning them back to the same new goods. When we conserve
money and send fewer waste to landfills, this helps to reduce air and water
pollution.
Recycling also
decreases energy usage, as less energy is needed to produce a new glass bottle
from a recycled one since it melts at a lower temperature than the raw
materials. Recycling essentially serves two purposes: first, it prevents
landfills and aims to minimize air and water pollution, and second, it reuses
useful products such as aluminum cans and plastic and glass.
Recycling itself
begins from home. You really do recycling when you are using an old product to
the new. For example: when the magazine holders use plastic milk or juice
bottles. Old consumer goods are collected and refined at a larger level to make
new fresh items out of them.
3 Steps in Recycling
There are three
things that we need to remember when considering how to recycle – Reduce, Reuse
and Recycle. Through actually choosing certain items that do minimal waste, you
will which the amount of wastage. Choose items that can be recycled quickly,
that can be used productively and that have the least packaging. Hold bags made
by hand, rather than plastic ones.
Search for the
most environmentally friendly goods. Giving away old products that aren't in
use or can't be recycled to the needy. Subscribe to E-books, rather than
physical mail. Reuse means actually using the objects, rather than discarding
them.
For this we will
definitely increase the longevity of that item and there is also no need for
special skills or experience to reuse certain items. It also would cost less
than buying the new one. We can reuse foils made from metal, old magazines,
newspapers, old shoes, bottles, envelopes, containers. We can use rechargeable
batteries instead of single-use batteries too.
Recycle means
using the old items for more uses in homes or workplaces after you have tried
growing and reusing them. Look out for different simple paper, plastic, metal
and glass recycling options. Buy readily recyclable goods. Buy environmentally
friendly products, and avoid purchasing hazardous material. Encourage your
family and friends to participate in recycling.
Waste Item That Can Be Recycled
They can recycle
virtually any waste product. Some items, however, are widely recycled
including:
Paper
The use of paper in developed countries increases by the day. It assigns almost
20 per cent to all household waste on multiple occasions. Usually, paper is
made from trees. Though tree is a renewable resource, it is common for old
trees to be cut down to provide room for pulpwoods. Pulpwood trees ripen
rapidly, meaning they are easily planted and harvested to manufactured paper.
Recycling paper greatly decreases energy and water consumption despite major
emissions associated with paper production.
Glass
Recycling glass offers the greatest cost- and
energy-saving options compared to virgin glass production. Since
the glass recycling process is almost no down-cycling. Glass is recycled in two
key forms. Some recycling companies are going through communities to collect
bottles from contract clients. We then wash and disinfect the glasses
thoroughly before reuse. Many recycling firms have the time to sort the lenses,
usually brown, clear and green based on colour. They agree that colors should
not be combined, as the mixture will have a molten effect on the substance.
Afterwards the sorted glass is ground into fine bits called cullet. Then, the
cullet is sifted and filtered using lasers, magnets, and sifters.
Steel
Steel recycling originating from cars and old
buildings is a process that began several years ago. Stainless steel is
considerably easy to recycle compared with other metals. When the steel is
collected, it is transported and sorted out to recycling plants. When sorted,
melting it is subjected to extremely high temperatures and later converted into
large spindles or sheets. Such coils and sheets are then supplied to car makers
for the production of vehicle bodies or building materials.
Electronics
Electronics can be recycled in several different
ways, depending on the device's state. Recycling devices means selling retired,
working computers to charity or simply giving them to friends and family. This
means that the machine remains entirely out of landfills while at the same time
giving anyone who can't afford it a chance. Computers that are not running can
be shipped to recycling facilities where they are discarded, hazardous
components discarded and useful components used for other production processes.
Bibliography
Rinkesh. “What Is Recycling and Why Is Recycling Important?” Conserve
Energy Future, 25 Dec. 2016,
www.conserve-energy-future.com/why-is-recycling-important.php.