Recycling

22        The Benefits of Minimising Waste

• It conserves valuable resources including: Minerals – used to make many useful materials (e.g., bauxite is used to make aluminium). Energy – use in mining, harvesting, manufacturing and transporting. Native forests – used to make some types of paper and other wood products. Petroleum – used to make plastics. Landfill sites – the life of existing sites is extended.
• It saves money. Reducing waste can save money in many different ways. If you waste less, you get more out of what you buy and waste disposal costs are reduced. Businesses become more efficient through cleaner production, less wastage and using fewer raw materials. Household incomes stretch further. Reduced collection and disposal costs benefit the whole community. Indirect costs are minimised, e.g., pollution clean-up.
• It reduces environmental impact. For example. Fewer areas need to be affected by resource extraction (e.g. mining), harvesting or solid waste disposal. Less fossil fuel needs to be burnt for energy, thus reducing the release of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Less pollution by reducing the risk of soil and water contamination with nutrients and chemicals near landfills.
• Social benefits include: Increased community awareness of waste and environmental issues. Community co-operation and involvement, e.g. in Council recycling schemes. Increased enjoyment of the natural environment for present an future generations. Creating local employment through resource recovery schemes and other industry initiatives.

45        Changes and Sacrifices

It is impossible for everyone in the world to have the comfortable, convenient lifestyle now enjoyed by people in rich countries. It is also impossible for people in rich countries to go on enjoying this lifestyle. It is far too extravagant in terms of wasting materials, resources and energy. We cannot go on buying endless new products while throwing away old ones. We must realize that new can be bad, while old can be good.
This will involve changes and sacrifices for millions of richer people in more prosperous countries. It will probably mean slightly less comfort, choice and convenience. But it will have to happen - some time and somehow.

iv         Separation and Collection

After consumption, materials are either disposed of or separated and collected. Separation is the most important step in the recycling flow as it adds value to the materials and in effect gives them a market. If not segregated, the waste is useless and must be disposed of at the expense of the waste producer. As a general rule, if it is cheaper to separate and recover the waste than to dispose of it, then separation and collection will be the chosen path. As it stands today, disposal costs are relatively low and hence do not encourage recycling schemes. Separation, on the other hand is quite expensive as it is generally labour intensive. Mechanical separation has met with mixed success and is only efficient when there are extremely high volumes of waste to be processed.

7          What is Recycling

Recycling simply means re-using things instead of throwing them away. Some things are still in perfect condition when they are recycled. Other things may have worn out in their original use, but they can be used to make something new.
The things we use can be recycled in so many ways that it would be impossible to list them all. Some of the ways of recycling things have not even been thought of yet. Every day individuals, communities, and industries find new ways to re-use materials that, only a few years ago or even a few days ago, they may have thought useless.

Factories also use old bottles and old cans to make completely different materials. For example, they might use crushed glass as an ingredient in asphalt used to build a highway. Or they might use melted-down tin cans to make steel for new automobiles. Scientists constantly experiment to find new ways of using materials that people throw away.

vii        Who is this Book for?

Although ‘Work from Waste’ is written primarily for use in developing countries, it may also be of interest in industrialized countries, for communities and groups practising local self-reliance. It covers a wide range of technologies and can be used by people with various levels of skill. It is hoped that two groups of people in developing countries will particularly benefit from it. Firstly, the unemployed who see no reasonable hope of any other kind of job. Secondly, those who are already employed in the collection and recyling of waste but do not make an adequate living from it. There are millions of these people; they form a large minority in every Third World town and city, and include many women, children, the handicapped and ex-prisoners. They generally have little skill and no capital or equipment beyond a few sacks or a small cart. They usually collect material and sell it unprocessed, in tiny quantities, to middlemen and it is these merchants who, because they process and transport it in larger quantities, can sell it at increased value.
The reasons why the small collectores rarely increase the value of what they sell are many: not enough cash to finance stocks, no transport, no equipment or premises and no ability. Yet there are many technologies which are simple and require little or no capital; the purpose of this book is to bring these to the attention of the poorest and least skilled.