Now more than ever with the economy flat-lining we all need clear and unbiased facts about recycling. Can we save money by recycling? Or, will it cost us?
Everybody is worried in these times of rising costs, and at best stagnant wages, not to spend more money than absolutely necessary on basic services. But, this does not mean that most people don't still wish to take action to preserve and improve the environment, where they can afford to do it.
The good news is that many materials and good can provide savings for you personally.
But, for your local area, and community, prudent recycling can also save money. This is also, of course beneficial on the widest of scales. On the pressing subject of reducing the rate at which national, and in fact also global, resources are being used up to avoid escalating raw materials costs, recycling is the ONLY solution!
Ratepayers cannot afford to pay more in their taxes, but all the while the landscape around them is being spoilt more and more, by new quarries disfiguring the hillsides, and also landfill sites to dispose of a mountain of rubbish.
There is no need for hard-up people to despair though, because there are actions that everybody can take, without leaving their homes. Actions to make a real difference: Things to alleviate the constant degradation of our environment.
Amongst the very best means to deal with waste to prevent it ending up being extremely “eco-unfriendly”, as well as assisting our globe in its survival, is to re-use and recycle everything you can.
The short article below adds facts about recycling to explain things we all should really be doing. Doing in order to reuse and recycle our own garbage. Furthermore, we think it will be worth you spending your time to read this, as several of these recycling facts may be completely new to you!
Facts About Recycling Glass
Glass is an excellent type of rubbish to recycle. There is no limit to how many times a molecule of glass can be re-used by melting it down, and moulding it into a new glass item. By careful selection of single colour broken glass (known as cullet) from the many different bottle colours used today, the end product will be indistinguishable from a brand new glass object.
The benefit of glass recycling is that a whole lot less energy is needed to make a new bottle from recycled cullet, than from newly mined materials. Energy is expensive so making more new bottles from recycled glass reduces manufacturing costs, and should make glass bottles cheaper.
There is no new sand needed to make recycled glass, either.
Facts About Recycling Plastic
It is important to recycle plastic because if it is placed in a landfill it won't rot, in fact it will stay there pretty-much forever. That's what is really bad about not recycling plastic items, so let us now talk about the good aspects which apply when it is recycled.
When it is kept clean, sorted into the different types of plastic, and recycled by waste collection authorities, it can be added as a percentage of the plastic used to make a new plastic product.
This is a big benefit as it is a saving on the consumption of the fossil-fuel oil which is almost always the material used to make new plastic products.
In many countries the oil needed to make new plastic must be imported so by recycling, the money stays in the local economy, and jobs are produced by the recycling companies that carry out this work.
The flat economy, and low oil prices are making life hard for recycling companies. The depressed economic climate especially throughout continental Europe, is acting to make the economic recycling of plastic waste materials harder than it was a few years ago.
The low price of the oil which is used as the raw material for plastics manufacture has led to price drops for new plastic, and at the same time, a lack of demand for recycled plastic has reduced the value of sorted plastic wastes. But, for the average person to hold back on recycling their own plastic waste cups, and containers, is not the answer. The recycling companies still need to maintain the volume of recycled plastic materials in order to keep their businesses going.
The market for recycled plastic will then be able to recover, and grow even stronger, when oil prices return to normal.
By recycling you plastic materials you actually help to raise the tonnages of recycled plastics available, and as the volume goes up economies of scale will make the commodity much more viable. Larger throughput improves economy of scale. This results in reduced unit costs and higher use of the recycled material by industry.
In other words, help generate higher recycling volumes by separating your plastic waste, because it improves the economics of the recycling market. In the UK there will soon be plastic bottle return schemes where you can make money on returning your plastic bottles!
Facts About Recycling Recycling Metals
Metals recycling, like glass, can go on indefinitely using the original materials time and time again. It's a fact!
After heating and melting, the material is re-constituted into a new product, and there is no known limit to how often that can happen without any deterioration of the metal content.
Just rinse out all metal food storage such as baked bean tins, after use, and leave them in the type of waste storage container recommended for use in the community.
When more metals are recycled the metal used is cheaper than digging up new iron from the ground, and those cost savings will most likely be passed on as savings to you in a competitive flat lining economy. That saves you money!
Facts About Recycling Batteries
Batteries need to be recycled to avoid pollution from the heavy metals which are frequently used in their manufacture (e.g. Lithium from Lithium Ion Batteries).
Be keen to recycle your household batteries by thinking about what a poor life it would be if the heavy-metals in batteries, carelessly discarded in landfills, started leaking out into water supplies.
We all depend on clean water to live, that's a fact nobody can question. So, it is vitally important to recycle all your batteries. The fact is, the simplest way to recycle them is usually to take them with you next time you go to the supermarket or you local electronics store. Most of them will accept the return of old batteries, at no charge to you and then the chemicals inside them can be recycled and re-used.
When more batteries are recycled the recycled chemicals used are cheaper than refining new chemicals. Once again, those cost savings will most likely be passed on as savings to you in a competitive flat lining economy. That saves you money!
Facts About Recycling – Electronics Waste
Like in the last section where we discussed the recycling of batteries, the main reason to recycle electronic goods is to reduce man's impact on the working of this planet.
Electronic waste (WEEE) needs to be recycled because otherwise society will run out of some of the “rare-earths” it needs to make new phones and batteries.
Again, we know for a fact that in many countries local electrical sales shops allow all those that visit to recycle their old electronic goods by accepting returned batteries free of charge, for recycling. These old and broken electrical goods are then disposed of by dismantling them and melting them down for their valuable parts.
It is still cheaper most of the time, to make electronics from new materials, but this is beginning to change. Before long, we think that it will become cheaper to make new electronics goods from recycled materials.
Conclusion
These are only a very few of the things that can be recycled to the benefit of the environment. We hope that this article has encouraged you to start the process of recycling. Do it, by segregating these materials into a recycling container in your kitchen or back-yard, before they leave your home.
Recycling in the home is now the way of the present, and vital for the future. Quite simply, it is the right thing to do. Not only that, there are many ways, which we have explained, in which recycling saves money!
We ask you to bear in mind what you have read here. Think of it for a moment, every time you feel like just like chucking a recyclable item in the black (residual waste) bin.
It only takes a moment of forethought to prevent a tiny bit of harm to the environment each time you recycle. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! All those tiny actions, done by us all, ARE adding-up to really substantial benefits, even when they don't directly save money. But, many times they WILL save us money!
Please visit www.ecoenergyproducts.info if you desire to receive more knowledge about being green in your use of energy.
