The Dirt on Recycling!
Recycling has become so commonplace that we often don’t think about it anymore. In general, many who recycle take what they think can be recycled and place it in a bin; then the recycling service comes and picks up what’s in the bin to be processed… and that’s the end of “thinking about it.”
What happens to recyclables after they have been taken away? Do you know, or have you ever investigated it? Have you ever asked if you are recycling correctly? Do you really know what properly goes in to the recycling bin?
I checked with a few recycling services in my area, including the one that comes and picks up my recyclables; both had some good information on what can and cannot be recycled. I actually learned a few things!
So, what can I put into that bin? With so many services out there, it can be hard to tell what can be sent via the recycling bin. Speaking with others over time, I’ve heard multiple opposing opinions on what can and cannot be tossed into the recycling container. If you haven’t checked recently, do so! Since the recycling industry is continually evolving and changing, check with your service annually to clarify what and how you can recycle. In checking with mine, I realized that I can now recycle almost all my household’s junk mail, which used to not be allowed!
Guidelines change because services are added, new technology is developed, there are changes in the industry, and other various elements shift, so more of what would have formerly gone into the trash bin is now recyclable.
One major recent change in the industry has to do with where we were sending trash. Prior to 2018, most of the world’s recycling went to China for processing. Whatever you placed in the bin was separated into metal, plastic, glass, and other. Then it was baled up and shipped to China for further processing. In 2018, China closed its doors and stopped accepting trash for recycling. This obviously caused some changes in our recycling practices. For more information on this, you can delve into the articles below:
- Chaos in the Recycling Industry
- Keeping Our Trash
- Your Recycling Gets Recycled, Right? Maybe, or Maybe Not
To add to the confusion, recycling can be difficult to navigate. Often what and how you recycle often changes from region to region and service to service. If you’re not sure about recycling a particular item, then instead of relying on friends or family, call your service or look it up on their Website; many recycling services post lists of what is and is not acceptable from their customers. You may be surprised that you have been tossing things in the wrong bin for ages and didn’t know!
What Can I Recycle… and Why Is It Important?
Materials that can be recycled can either be reused to make something that they already were, like cans into cans, or take on a new form altogether. For example, plastic can turn into many different forms. That plastic bottle could become the carpet in that car you had your eye on, or you could be putting it on the next time you go and do a workout.
This is what happens to many materials and why recycling them is good for us and the planet:
Paper
Glass
Textiles
Plastic
Cans and Metal
Cardboard
Electrical Items
Paper
Paper is pulped and used to make new paper materials including newspapers and magazines. It can recycle into fresh new paper in just 7 days!
- Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, and 2 barrels of oil.
- Every ton of paper recycled can save the energy equivalent of 165 gallons of gasoline.
- 17 trees can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
- The process of recycling paper instead of making it from new materials generates 74% less air pollution and uses 50% less water.
- Manufacturing recycled paper uses only 60% of the energy needed to make paper from new materials.
- The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use recycled paper is 50% to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.
Glass
Glass is sorted into different colors, washed and crushed into small pieces. It is then melted to make new glass bottles and jars.
- The cost savings of recycling is in the use of energy. Compared to making glass from raw materials for the first time, cullet melts at a lower temperature. So we can save on energy needed to melt the glass.
- Glass produced from recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20% and related water pollution by 50%.
- Recycling glass reduces the space in landfills that would otherwise be taken up by used bottles and jars.
Textiles
Good quality textiles are reused and sent to various markets, and lower quality textiles are turned into rags and cloths for cleaning. Learn to love your clothes! This article, The Importance of Recycling Textiles, has a lot of information that expanded my understanding of this area.
Plastic
Plastic is one that I have found that people have the most problem with. Not all plastic is the same. Check the container; you’ll see that there is recycled symbol with a number. Many believe that this relates to recyclability. Nope! The number is what the plastic is made of. That make up determines how it can be recycled.
Plastic bags that you get at the grocery store, convenience store, or take out are not recyclable in general plastic recycling (check out one of my previous blogs).
- Plastic is sorted into different grades and then sent to the recycling facility where it is turned into new plastic items such as bottles, fleeces, clothes, food containers, and auto carpet.86% of plastic bottles in the U.S. end up in a landfill or incinerator. That averages to around 60 million plastic bottles ending up in landfills and incinerators every day.
- Exactly What Every Plastic Recycling Symbol Actually Means
- Recycling symbols explained
Cans and Metal
Cans and metal are melted in a furnace and then used to make new metal products such as tins and more cans.
- Recycling steel and tin cans takes 94% less energy used to make them from raw materials.
- A used aluminum can is recycled and back in use as a new can in as little as 60 days.
- Used aluminum cans are the most recycled item in the U.S. Other types of aluminum, such as siding, gutters, car components, storm window frames and lawn furniture can also be recycled.
- There is no limit to the amount of times aluminum can be recycled.
- A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces water pollution, air pollution, and mining waste by about 70%.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours or saves the equivalent of half a gallon of gasoline.
- Every three months, Americans throw enough aluminum in landfills to build our nation’s entire commercial air fleet
Cardboard
Cardboard is pulped and then reprocessed into corrugated card or cardboard boxes.
- Recycling cardboard (a very helpful article)
- Recycling cardboard only takes 75% of the energy need to make new cardboard
- Recycling 1 ton of cardboard saves 46 gallons of oil
- Over 90% of all products shipped in the United States are shipped in corrugated boxes, which totals more than 400 billion square feet of cardboard
Electrical Items
Electrical items are stripped down to their component materials, e.g. plastics and metals. These are then reprocessed into new items depending on the grade of material. Typical items include traffic cones, new steel products, or even new circuit boards.
- Electrical items contain a range of materials that can be separated for recycling and used in new products, such as plastics and precious metals including gold and copper.
- All this saves resources and energy.
- Many old electronic devices contain toxic substances that include lead, mercury, cadmium, beryllium, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and chromium. When e-waste is tossed into landfills, these chemicals leach into the soil, polluting the ground water as well as the air.
- For every million cell phones we recycle, 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.
So, recycle away! Hopefully, I’ve helped to shed some light on current recycling practices. This was a great topic for me to cover because it pushed me to bring my understanding around recycling current, too!
Here are a few articles with additional reference material:
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