Many people meticulously separate their waste into two neat-ish piles: one which is not good for recycling, and the other for materials that are great for recycling. They might even sort out their recyclable products into different bins depending on the different types of materials that they are made out of. This is particularly true if you handle the recycling of these products yourself. If you have kerb side pickup of your recyclables, you most likely toss them all into one bin and call your work done.
Do you sort your pineapple drinks into piles like this?
After all of the hard work you go through keeping your recyclables sorted out from the rest of the garbage that might be accumulating, you may find yourself wondering where your recyclables go from here. With kerb side pickup, all of your recyclables make their way to a special recycling plant. As the items are not sorted when they get there they will need to be sorted at the facility. Glass needs to be with glass, plastics need to be with plastics, and so on.
Glass needs to be with glass, paper with paper. Why?
During this sorting process any recyclables that are found to be unfit for recycling will likely be booted and disposed of in an alternative way. Depending on the facility where your recyclables are located they may or may not accept bottles with bottle caps. If they do not, your bottles will likely be rejected at this point as well.
Once the sorting of materials is completed, they will likely be compressed or packaged into bundles. From here they can be shipped off to a specific plant that was designed to handle that specific product. What that product actually is will ultimately determine how it is recycled and the specific process that it will go through.
All the materials are crushed into piles, which is why you sort them
One of the most popular types of recyclable is glass. Not all glass is a good candidate for recycling though. Anything that contains a lot of lead is going to be pretty much rejected as it can be toxic. You would likely find this in crystal or even glass that has mirrored properties to it. Most glass products can be made into new versions of exactly what they are. If it was a glass jar before it can become a glass jar again. This type of recycling is known as “same to same”. It is a favoured form of recycling because it takes much less energy to produce the recycled version of the glass jar than it took to make the original.
Lead, the reason why some bottles can’t be recycled
Plastics are also heavily recycled. Think about the number of water bottles and different plastics that you add to your recycling bin. They have a way of collecting quickly. Plastic water bottles can’t be remade into plastic water bottles like glass can be. There are numerous different laws regarding hygiene that play into the recycling process. In many cases plastics are melted down and converted into a different type of product in a form of recycling known as “same to different”. The fleece coat that you have in your closet can be made out of recycled plastics. Your recycling bin is likely made out of recycled plastics as well. Styrofoam also falls into this category and can be converted into products like pencils.
Wearing a fleece to keep warm? It’s probably made from bags
Another type of recycling that is pretty common is called “same to basic”. More sophisticated products fall into this type of recycling – like an old computer or even a cell phone. When these types of goods are recycled they are actually broken into their different pieces. Some components will be recycled as plastic while other components will be reused to build new electronics. A number of these types of products are filled with toxins that recycling can help dispose of in the proper way. Otherwise these toxins build up in the landfills and can cause all sorts of problems. One serious concern is that they can actually leak down through the soil and find their way into our water supply. Nobody wants that to happen which is why recycling is so valuable.
This may end up in an Iphone at some point
A major source of waste that we produce daily is paper. Think back over the course of the day and try to identify all of the paper that you have used. The box that held your breakfast cereal, the newspaper you read, the sticky note you used at work, your airplane ticket, the pages in your journal – the list could go on and on. The process to recycle paper is a little different than other products and is referred to as “same to less”. The process gets its name because the paper created from recycled materials actually degrades in quality. The more times that paper is recycled, the lower the quality of the finished product will be. While glass can be recycled repeatedly, paper has a recyclable lifespan.
Recycled paper - we should all do it as much as we can!
Those are the four main types of recycling that your products will likely fall into. There are always exceptions to the rule so don’t be surprised if unexpected things happen to your recycling. Just keep in mind the general rules that are laid out here. Chances are if your recyclables are made out of metal or glass they can be melted down and turned into a wide variety of things for many decades to come.
What a lovely bridge, probably made out of recycled cars the like
The bridge that was just built was likely made from recycled steel that was melted down and recast into the appropriate shape. The next time you go to the grocery store take a good look at the egg carton, which could be made out of your old telephone book. If the carpet in your house needs replaced, be kind to the environment and look for carpets that are made out of recycled plastic bottles. You might have to ask a salesperson where they are located because you would never recognize those old bottles you recycled. Instead they look like regular new carpet.
Recycled carpets are no longer the domain of the hippie
If you want more details about your specific recycling, contact your local recycling company. Sometimes they even have tours of their recycling plants to help encourage people to recycle. They should also be able to tell you exactly what happens to your recyclables!
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Great comprehensive overview! I would add, however, that not all MRF’s (Material Recycling Facilities) dispose of plastic bottles because they have caps on them. At our MRF we sort these bottles and bale them with the caps. Once they get to the factory, everything is chipped up and floated in a slurry. Due to different densities, the plastic bits from the caps (as well as the label bits) float to the top of the slurry and can be skimmed off. The biggest problems with caps, if they are left on, is that they can explode off a bottle when the bottle is compressed in the baler. This can seriously injure workers. For a video of a MRF at work, you can visit http://www.recyclemorewisconsin.org/whtmr.html
I agree, a great review. For anyone that isn’t familair to the process of recycling this really helps. As the adverts on tv suggests the possibilities are endless with recycling. I’ve recently started review recycled footwear here: http://ethical-earth-shoes.co.uk/terra-plana-shoes/ lots of people don’t realise you can buy recycled shoes!