What is the contribution of recycling in the economy and environment?
Recycle; What is this process of reprocessing most of the materials that we recycle as garbage in the economy and the environment? See new products. This helps the economy and the environment.
Recycling
is the recycling of waste materials for production and economy. Therefore, it directly helps the economy and indirectly the environment. The cost and difficulty of making materials from scratch with raw materials is reduced by recycling. Recycling is economically viable and requires certain conditions to be environmentally efficient. These; There must be an adequate amount of recyclable materials, a system to remove these materials from waste, businesses capable of reprocessing recyclable materials, and a potential demand for recycled materials.
Date
The history of recycling goes back to 400s BC. In human history, due to lack of resources and lack of scientific and technical applications, many tools have been reused or repaired or turned into another instrument. The lack of new materials has made it mandatory.
The need for recycling recently arose due to wars. Wars caused shortages of raw materials and resources. In particular, the major countries that participated in World War II started recycling campaigns to meet the need for resources during the war. People were encouraged to collect fiber and metal materials. The most important example of these campaigns was seen in the United States. Recycling campaigns continued during the war in post-war countries with limited natural resources. Developed countries, realizing the importance of recycling, have made these practices into policies. As global environmental problems increase, recycling has become more important.
Some important dates for recycling are as follows:
- اThis article was first recycled in Japan in 1031. In some shops, materials made from waste paper, called compressed paper, were sold.
In England in the 19th century, there were people who collected wood and coal ash to produce bricks. - Between 1813 and 1914, textile materials were produced in England by combining pure wool with recycled fibers
- .In the 19th century, railways were made of scrap iron. At the same time, alcohol bottles were recycled in a refundable form in England and Ireland.
- The bottle recycling system was established in 1884 in Sweden.
- Iron and metal scraps have become important since their inception in the steel and automobile industries in the early 20th century. During this period, scrap products such as pots, pots and various machines were collected from houses.
- In 1982, aluminum can recycling systems were developed.
- The first e-waste recycling program was implemented in Switzerland in the 1990s.
- In the 2000s, there was a significant increase in the waste of electronic devices. In this case, recycling laws have been set, especially in developed countries.
Definition of recycling
general definition of recycling; Recycling waste materials as raw materials to the economy. It is the inclusion of recyclable waste in the reproduction process in different ways. Converting waste into new objects and materials. Another definition is the recycling of waste, which can be recycled into secondary raw material through different physical and chemical processes and included in the production process. Recyclable materials are collected in a center, separated according to their type and cleaned and reprocessed as new raw material.
Help the economy
Waste recycling has a significant contribution to the economy. First of all, the need for raw materials is decreasing. Converting a used product to raw materials saves energy. Product recycling from waste to raw materials leads to energy savings of 30 to 50 percent compared to raw material production. The amount of energy saved through recycling, which is part of the waste hierarchy of reduction, reuse, and “recycling,” depends on the recycled material and the type of energy used.
Some of the contributions of recycling to the economy are as follows:
- Prevents waste of useful waste.
- Problems such as transportation and storage of waste and garbage are avoided.
- It reduces the consumption of fresh ingredients.
- Reduces energy consumption.
- It enables waste material to serve as a new product.
- It provides economic benefits by eliminating public waste in densely populated areas.
- It creates new jobs and job opportunities.
- Energy savings of 90% are achieved by recycling aluminum cans and 60% by recycling paper.
- By reducing the need for new raw materials, it reduces the amount of imports and helps the national economy.
Helping the environment
Recycling plays an important role in the environment and ecological balance. In parallel with the increase in the world population, the increase in raw materials needs is avoided or the disruption of the natural balance is avoided. Therefore, environmental damage and environmental pollution are avoided to a minimum.
Some of the contributions of recycling to the environment.
- It helps to protect natural resources such as trees, water resources and minerals.
- By reducing the need to collect new raw materials, it prevents air and environmental pollution.
- It helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Compost products or fertilizers from household waste improve the soil and enable the use of nutrients by plants.
- Composted biological wastes constitute a rich source of organic matter.
Recyclable materials
It is not possible to include all types of products in recycling processes. For this, the quality of the materials used in the products is important. Almost all parts of a car can be recycled. The same is true for electronic devices. However, not all garbage or waste can be recycled. For example; Materials such as diapers, plastic bags, mirrors, lamps, greaseproof paper, and motor oil bottles cannot be recycled.
Some recyclable materials can be mentioned as follows; Iron, steel, aluminum, all kinds of metals, paper and derivatives, glass, all kinds of plastics, electronic and electrical materials, electronic consumables, batteries, batteries, concrete, textile products, all kinds of wood, organic waste (such as vegetable oil), motor oil , solvent-based waste, rubber, food, rubber, garden waste (plants, grass, manure, trees, etc.)
Recovery, which is a type of recycling, is the step of separating usable liquids or metals from complex materials. For example, separating gold circuits into thousands of pieces in a car or removing mercury from thermometers is a salvage operation.
Do you know these?
- By converting 1 ton of waste paper, 17 trees are prevented from being cut down. 70 square meters of area is avoided. 32 thousand liters of water are saved.
- Specifically, recycling recycled paper can reduce air pollution by 75-95%, water pollution by 35%, and water consumption by 45%.
- EU countries have a 50% share in the recycling market. Accordingly, more than 60,000 companies involved in recycling programs employ 500,000 people. The turnover of these companies is about 24 billion euros.
- In 2015, 14,000 people were employed in recycling practices in the United States, contributing $6.7 billion to the economy.
- There are more than 50,000 recycling facilities in the United States. Almost 1 million people work here.
- The price of 1 ton of mixed recycled materials in the United States is $100.
- The amount of e-waste worldwide is around 20-50 million tons per year.
- Recycling one million laptops saves enough energy to meet the electricity needs of 3,500 homes per year.
- By recycling one ton of glass waste, 100 liters of fuel is saved.
- Thrown glass bottles in nature will be destroyed in 4 thousand years, plastics in a thousand years and chewing gum in 5 years.
- Recycling is carried out in accordance with the standards set by the international standard organization ISO.