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recycling archive at Recipro Blog - Recipro Blog
A great article from Larry West on The Benefits of Metal Recycling. All of us in the BuilderScrap.com offices had a look at this one.
The United States recycles 150 million metric tons of scrap materials annually, including 85 million tons of iron and steel, 5.5 million tons of aluminium, 1.8 million tons of copper, 2 million tons of stainless steel, 1.2 million tons of lead and 420,000 tons of zinc, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). Other metals such as brass, bronze, magnesium and tin are recycled as well.
What are the benefits of recycling all that metal?
U.S. Exports Recycled Metal
In 2008, the scrap recycling industry generated $86 billion and supported 85,000 jobs. The recycled materials that the industry processes into raw material feedstock every year are used for industrial manufacturing around the world. In 2008, the United States exported $28.6 billion—roughly 44 million metric tons—of scrap commodities, which contributed significantly to U.S. trade balances.
Metal Recycling Saves Energy
Recycling scrap metal reduces greenhouse gas emissions and uses less energy than making metal from virgin ore. The amount of energy saved using various recycled metals compared to virgin ore is up to:
– 92 percent for aluminium
– 90 percent for copper
– 56 percent for steel
Metal Recycling Conserves Natural Resources
Metal recycling also conserves natural resources. Recycling one ton of steel conserves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone. Recycling a ton of aluminium conserves up to 8 tons of bauxite ore and 14 megawatt hours of electricity.
Last week, BuilderScrap exhibited at the Recycling and Waste Management Exhibiton in Birmingham. We were met with a great response, as reported by Edie.net
Edie filmed this interview with BuilderScrap‘s Eddie McGee
BuilderScrap.com wants to give an honourable mention to the Welsh Assembly. This post is from the good guys at lets recycle.com… keep up the great work!
All the team want to show our appreciation to Merthyr Tydfil county borough council for their continuing efforts. They clearly are aligned with our own goals in trying to reduce waste sent to landfill.
The Welsh Assembly Government has on (March 13 2009) announced an £800,000 package to help reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill across Wales- including £100,000 to help Merthyr Tydfil county borough council increase recycling.
It is important that residual waste is managed in the most sustainable way and that the waste we produce is progressively reduced over time
Jane Davidson, Welsh minister for environment
In Merthyr Tydfil, the funding will be used for a door-knocking campaign to encourage more households to recycle their waste and help Wales become a greener, more sustainable country. The council reported a 26.2% municipal waste recycling and composting rate in 2006/07.
The remainder of the £800,000 is expected to be used to support plastics recycling in Wales and develop “Zero waste places” – although full details have yet to emerge.
The move comes ahead of the launch of the revised Welsh Waste Strategy for consultation next month, which will set out a new framework for governing waste across the principality.
Jane Davidson, minister for the environment, sustainability and housing, said: “We all have a responsibility for our environment and to reduce Wales’ ecological footprint. A huge part of this is reducing the amount of rubbish we send to landfill. This is no longer sustainable environmentally or financially. I am delighted to be supporting this new scheme to help Merthyr households with their recycling.
“The more we recycle and the less we throw away into landfill the greater our impact will be as individuals in guarding our environment.
“It is important that residual waste is managed in the most sustainable way and that the waste we produce is progressively reduced over time. Then, perhaps, in the more distant future we can contemplate true ‘zero waste – or not producing any waste at all,” she added.
Mike Thomas, head of environmental services for Merthyr Tydfil county borough council, welcomed the funding, which he said would help to boost participation in recycling.
Related links
Welsh Assembly Government
He said: “Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council has already rolled out several initiatives this year, including weekly collection of food waste to 80% of our households. It’s now down to increasing participation rates and a door knocking campaign is viewed as the best method of making meaningful contact with “reluctant” householders.
The recycling campaign will support Wise About Waste, Wales’ strategy which set recycling targets for local authorities. The strategy is under review and will be re-launched for consultation with ambitious new targets to 2050 in April 2009.
Just to finish off our BuilderScrap.com recycling around the world series. Today we’re looking at the amounts highlighted countries send to Landfill. How much waste is recycled, composted and incinerated.
This chart illustrates the point most countries could be doing to recycle. Our thoughts are that some countries really are on the ball. Some need to implement a cultural shift, and it falls to governments and pressure groups to force the issue.
The last part of the BuilderScrap.com recycling around the world series. Today Hamadou Tidiane Sy focuses on Senegal.
Recycling is not done on an industrial scale, but it is part of daily life for many resourceful Senegalese. Everything is recycled, from plastic bags to school exercise books, food cans, bottles of mineral water and even fruit peel. The peel is said to be collected for use in cheap perfume.
Tomato tins become drinking cups in rural areas or are used by beggars in the streets, old newspapers and administrative documents are used to wrap bread, fruit or peanuts you buy in the street. Some artisans also use metal waste to produce anything from chairs to kitchen utensils and children’s toys. Plastic bags are used to make shoes. In the old days, worn tyres used to be made into sandals, but these are much less popular now.
Recently, some smart people have started collecting all the metal waste they can find to send it back to factories in Europe.
The Swiss waste disposal firm Alcyon has signed a contract with the government worth more than $9m to collect and treat rubbish in the capital Dakar. The project is being managed by AMA-Senegal, which will remove a huge tip called Mbeubeuss and recycle much of the city’s waste.
Todays BuilderScrap.com post revisits the Recycling around the world series BBC reporter Jeremy Bowen discusses Italy.
Waste disposal regulations in Italy vary from district to district. In Rome, the rules were toughened earlier this month. People who do not separate their rubbish can be fined up to 619 euros if they have a recycling bin within 500 metres of their front door.
Romans often claim that it is hard to find a bin and even harder to find one that is not full. The city council has ordered 2,500 new bins. They are colour-coded green for household waste, white for paper and blue for plastic.
The streets of the historic centre of Rome have almost no recycling bins yet. The streets are cleaned very efficiently, by vehicles that drive over waste and suck it up like enormous self-propelled vacuum cleaners.
In southern Italy local politicians claim that the waste management industry is controlled by organised crime. Last year the European Commission said it was taking action against Italy, for 28 breaches of EU laws on the environment. It said that Italy was denying its citizens the same quality of life enjoyed by people in other EU countries.
When I moved here five months ago I asked the caretaker of my building whether I should separate my family’s rubbish. He laughed and looked incredulous. “Are you joking?” he said. “This is Rome.”
We know that Athens is up in flames lets hope that the waste recycling systems they’ve in place haven’t contributed. More from the office at BuilderScrap.com on Recycling around the world, todays country is Greece.
In the cramped offices of the Ecological Recycling Society in central Athens, Philip Kirkitsos hits us with some alarming statistics.
Every year, he says, one billion plastic drinking water bottles are thrown away in Greece, along with one billion soft drinks bottles and yet another billion plastic containers for cleaning fluids.
Almost one-fifth of the entire waste produced by this country is plastic, and yet just 1% of it is recycled. Greece, he admits, is at least 15 years behind the rest of the EU in almost all areas of recycling and is unlikely to meet EU targets for next year.
In Athens the recycling bins so common in most European cities are a rare sight. Although recently the authorities have launched new schemes, the impact so far seems to be minimal.
Recycling just is not high on the list of priorities for the average Athenian.
Most bags of household waste contain large amounts of glass, metal, paper and plastic which end up being dumped at the city’s only landfill which – not surprisingly – is now almost full.
As a result, the capital currently faces an acute waste management crisis because no alternative sites have been set up.
Ironically the city does have what is believed to be Europe’s largest recycling plant, built next to the landfill four years ago. But the plant – estimated to have cost at least 75m euros (£50m) – has stood idle.
The reason? It was badly damaged by a mountain of rubbish which collapsed on top of it.
Todays post from Builderscrap.com continues the recycling around the world series. Todays focus is GERMANY: BBC reporter Tristana Moore gives us the details.
The Germans like to think of themselves as the world champions of the environment. There is no denying the fact that Germans take green issues seriously. When it comes to separating your household rubbish, this can be a complicated business.
As a foreigner living in Berlin, you can easily be embarrassed by your German friends who will berate you for not separating your rubbish.
There are at least five types of rubbish bin in the courtyards of apartment buildings and inside people’s houses. Luckily, the bins are colour-coded, to avoid any confusion – a yellow bin for packaging (old milk cartons etc), a blue bin for paper and cardboard, bins for glass (separated into ones for clear, brown and green glass) a “Bio” bin designed for left-over food and plant waste. Finally, there is a black bin for the rest of the rubbish (or for those people who do not bother to sort out their rubbish).
In theory, people are obliged under German law to take any “special rubbish,” such as batteries or chemicals, to a recycling centre. If you fail to do this, it could be considered an “administrative offence”, although in practice prosecutions are rare.
The separation of rubbish is not compulsory for the private citizen, but according to surveys, around 90% of Germans are willing to sort out their rubbish.
Where all this rubbish finally ends up is also complicated. According to a new law which came into force on the first of June 2005, the left-over rubbish must not simply be consigned to a rubbish dump, but it must be subjected to a pre-treatment process.
Continuing the BuilderScrap.com recycling around the world series… we look at DENMARK
Waste is not just waste. That is the underlying philosophy of one of Europe’s “greenest” countries. For decades, the Danish environment policy has been to regard waste as a resource.
Tough standards have been set by consecutive governments, but it is up to the local authorities to collect whatever waste households may produce.
In 2003 that averaged 559 kg of waste per Dane, ranging from plastic and paper to bottles and batteries. In those councils where not all types of waste are collected at the house, nearby disposal sites or citizen helplines are in place.
Nearly 10,000 Danes are in the business of collecting waste – more than 0.1% of the entire population.
The hard push towards a greener Denmark has given he country a proud record.
Government figures for 2003 suggest that 31% of all household waste was recycled, while 62% was incinerated. The remaining 6% was landfill waste.
However, often the total amount of waste is not big enough for Denmark to have its own recycling plants. In particular, plastic waste, waste from electrical and electronic products, and batteries and metal are sent abroad for recycling.
The government also aims to limit the waste mountain by encouraging industry to promote products that leave a minimum of waste after use.
Todays BuilderScrap.com posts continues our look at how other countries deal with waste and recycling.
We are looking at the UNITED STATES: with a BBC report from Matthew Davis
Efforts to improve recycling rates and to reduce household and commercial waste are led by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Today, the US recycles about 28% of its waste, the EPA says, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years.
Recycling of specific materials has grown even more drastically: 42% of all paper, 40% of all plastic soft drink bottles, 55% of all aluminium beer and soft drink cans, 57% of all steel packaging, and 52% of all major appliances are now recycled.
Twenty years ago, only one roadside recycling programme existed in the US.
By 1998 there were 9,000 roadside programmes and 12,000 recyclable drop-off centres across the nation.
Some 480 materials recovery plants have been established to process the collected materials.
The EPA’s WasteWise scheme is aimed at businesses and other organisations and targets the reduction of municipal solid waste and certain industrial wastes.
Recycling rates vary from state to state. At the bottom end of the scale Alaska, Wyoming and Montana recycle less than 9% of waste, while in New York, Virginia and five other states more than 40% of waste is recycled.
Here in the BuilderScrap offices we’re really enjoying these insights into how other countries operate. We love to find out about different systems, contrasting attitudes and how the we can benchmark and improve our systems.
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