Converting waste into power

Throughout history, recycling has existed in one way or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC indications of early recycling are recognized to have occurred. Archaeological studies show that historical waste dumps contained fewer of what’s known today as household waste, like pots, tools and ash, which demonstrates that individuals were, even back then, keen to reuse materials during a period when natural resources weren’t so freely available.

Indeed it could be argued how the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or converting the recovered items into new stuff.

During periods like the World War Years, recycling and re-use were crucial as natural materials became much more difficult to get. In addition to food being rationed, certain materials such as metal and fibre werenormally permitted just for use by the government to support military operations, to fulfill manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.

As a consequence of rising energy costs, the demand to recycle aluminium increased during the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium uses a reduced amount of energy in the production process than many other materials. Also it was much sought-after on account of its non rusting properties. The need for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal merchants who were prepared to pay good money in exchange for good quality metal. In addition, in the 70’s in areas of the United States of America, the first vans were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for recovery of recyclable resources being towed behind the vehicle.

Into the late 1980’s, early nineties and as the awareness of handling the global environmental state accelerated amongst global governments, the attention upon recycling really began to collect energy. In the United Kingdom, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of the fresh new legal guidelines upon the waste product industry, recycling schemes really started to take off. The once commonly well known waste disposal businesses, began to call themselves waste management companies and demonstrated with the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste needed to be handled more efficiently.

Today, many hundreds of materials and products can be recycled, including paper, card, glass and plastics, to phones, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.

What is Recycling?

The term recycling describes the process of converting second-hand items into new or nearly new products avoiding the need for potentially useable materials or products to be dumped. Essentially it is diverting waste materials from landfill.

Recycling takes on an important role in a modern world where climate change is high on the environmental agenda. It reduces the need to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. As a result this reduces the demand or the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new raw resources, decreases energy usage and air and rain water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the environment.

Recycling would probably be most evident through the recycling assistance now provided by local authorities for household refuse and recycling collections and by modern waste management companies who commonly give a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions. Some businesses, that have traditionally concentrated primarily on the collection of recyclable products, are extending their service offering to collect general waste material as well.

Some factories will generate hazardous waste, so visit www.biffa.co.uk and bring in the specialists to be assured of safe disposal and compliance with the legislations.

In the waste industry, the common promotional activity surrounds the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a straightforward message designed for a far reaching crowd. Think about ways to get rid of your waste materials. Could the waste materials products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or recovered?

The waste material hierarchy is often a strategy that many waste management firms and local authorities think about when developing new waste management schemes. The system is meant to concentrate the mind around precluding waste materials being produced to begin with. Consider the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle. The slogan has been adopted particularly well in the public sector.

And so the focus is very much on the whole production process. The waste material hierarchy extends much wider than to waste materials management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have been set up to bring many sectors together to look at the complete waste cycle. By way of example, the producer of a product needs to think about how the product is to be made. Can parts be used which can later be recycled or reused? Can the volume of packaging which often surrounds the product be cut down? Once the item reaches the store, is it essential for the product to be placed within an outer box? Once the retailer sells the product, what will the buyer do with the excess components of the purchase, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be recovered and where will it go? Could it go back to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, where the cycle will begin all over again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.

How are Materials Collected for Recycling?

Legislation now dictates that most waste should be treated to reduce the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has enforced a landfill levy on all waste disposed of within landfill. The rate of tax has increased considerably recently rising from the original level of £8 per ton, to today’s rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has previously announced that this will increase further to £48 per ton from the end of 2010/11. This rate applies to all general waste streams, although there exists a reduced rate for inert materials. Sending waste material straight to landfill is an expensive course of action and locating appropriate ways to divert waste out of landfill has become a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.

Therefore, the message to everyone is clear, segregate your waste material to reduce the volume of waste going to landfill. Typically, at home or at work, as soon as you place waste in the bin , it is forgotten about. Another individual will collect it and take it away. Today, at home and at the office, recycling is being encouraged via the provision of bins in which to place certain recyclable materials. At home, the children are often the keen recyclers.

Some common products to be seen being collected for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. However the possiblity to recycle many materials or products continues to grow. Although technically not seen as recycling, food waste and garden waste collections are increasing, where the food or garden waste materials is taken back to a plant for processing into a reusable or saleable compost product.

One of many ways to make certain we don’t disappear below a mountain of waste products is to build a lot more energy recovering facilities to ensure that our waste materials becomes a valuableresource.

The methods of collecting materials or waste materials to be recycled is also growing and ever more visible within local communities. Specialist collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are cropping up in superstore car parks to encourage customers of the superstore to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the containers on their way into the supermarket.

Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside commonly in front of your house. Collection from domestic premises usually remains the responsibility of the local authorities and many have now employed the supply of baskets in which to collect specific recyclable materials or products.

In the industrial and commercial category, waste management companies offer individual containers where the customer deposits the correct waste materials stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The containers will often be plainly tagged as to which recyclable product ought to be placed within that container or bin. Otherwise, the bins will probably be colour coded to distinguish which recyclable materials should be placed within which bins. Waste management companies also may have to deal with special requests from the customer.

The key to a successful recycling initiative is informing the public about what can be recycled and how. In the commercial world getting the co-operation of shop floor employees is crucial. The introduction of any recycling scheme must ensure that in asking employees to separate waste for recycling, it does not become time consuming and affect the efficiency of what employees should be doing in their work.

The Recycling Process

Several collection solutions exist for the collection of the recyclable material . Whichever collection system is employed , the materials are taken to a materials recycling facility where they’ll be segregated from other waste materials. This could be done manually or by using mechanised separators.

To start the recycling process from a collection viewpoint, the more recyclable material that can be separated at origin, i.e. at home or in the workplace, the more effective it will be for the waste collector. For this reason separate containers are provided to the waste producer to promote segregation at source. If card could be collected on a vehicle, which will collect no other waste materials, the card will be kept uncontaminated and therefore could have an increased value when it actually reaches the processing plant. Likewise, dedicated glass collection vehicles are employed to collect just glass. In addition to the obvious health and safety factors and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a much higher value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste material.

Once collected, the recyclable materials can be taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that particular type of material. So a dedicated glass collection vehicle could take the load on to a glass processing plant.

If mixed recyclables are collected such as paper and card within the same compartment, it may be a necessity for the collector to take the load to a materials recycling facility to unload and allow the load to be sorted into individual paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. No matter what process is used, the recyclable material collected will often be segregated or washed before proceeding through to a reprocessing facility to be converted to a new resource and eventually used as a new product or in manufacturing.

All companies, large or small can be urged to introduce waste recycling systems within their organisations.

The Increasing Importance of Recycling

In the UK close to 35% of waste collected from homes is recycled or composted. Although in the business and industrial community, the amount of waste materials sent to landfill has declined significantly in recent years and the amount of waste materials now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has risen over the amounts going to landfill. But there is still much to be done to increase rates even more in this sector.

Landfill continues to play an important role in the management of waste across the UK as not all waste items are able to be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other means. Nevertheless, it’s not only the increasing costs of getting rid of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a more appealing option for businesses. Landfill is becoming scarce, with many specialists indicating that the volume of void in existence across all UK landfill sites, has less than ten years existence remaining before all sites are considered to be filled.

In the past few years, waste materials management firms have had to switch their focus, and begin to take into consideration and spend money on technology, like energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion facilities and mechanised biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities have adapted their attitudes by undertaking comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste material under their jurisdiction must be taken care of. In some cases this means unitary authorities are progressing plans to bring in long-term agreements, usually around two-and-a-half decades long, through which to handle all of their waste management requirements. These contracts will most likely include the need to build a facility through which to handle all waste material produced across the city by segregating all waste streams. The contracts could also include the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes across the region. So the issue of waste management is changing rapidly. The times of just throwing anything in the dustbin have vanished and the advent of new technologies are upon us.

Summary

Recycling has become a way of life and is here to stay. It has evolved over time from a thing that was undertaken with no real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just trying to make a living. Today, many blue chip firms are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste plan, where the intention is very straightforward – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must finish up in landfill.

Many households across the country now have some type of container in which to separate waste for recycling. The requirement to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. Whilst in industrial and business areas, there is an increasing list of items to take into account for recycling such as printer cartridges, office paper, metal and electrical equipment. Even on street corners and airports you see bins to recycle such items as newspapers and drink cans.

Ideally the entire process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the days of the horse. However the advent of new technologies will accelerate further the way in which our waste is to be managed in the future, but it is highly unlikely that we will ever reach the ultimate waste free society. There will always be a need for waste to be disposed of somewhere, somehow.

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