If you’re not already recycling, find out more about how easy it is and how you can really make a difference. For those who already recycle, discover the positive effect your recycling efforts are making and find out what else you may be able to do.
Recycling Conserves Resources
When we recycle, used materials are converted into new products, reducing the need to consume natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting fresh, raw material from the Earth, through mining and forestry.
Recycling helps conserve important raw materials and protects natural habitats for the future.
Recycling saves energy
Using recycled materials in the manufacturing process uses considerably less energy than that required for producing new products from raw materials – even when comparing all associated costs including transport etc.
Plus there are extra energy savings because more energy is required to extract, refine, transport and process raw materials ready for industry compared with providing industry-ready materials.
Recycling helps protect the environment
Recycling reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials all of which create substantial air and water pollution.
As recycling saves energy it also reduces green house gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change. Current UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of C02 a year – the equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road.
Recycling reduces landfill
When we recycle, recyclable materials are reprocessed into new products, and as a result the amount of rubbish sent to landfill sites reduces. There are over 1,500 landfill sites in the UK, and in 2001, these sites produced a quarter of the UK’s emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
- 1st priority is to reduce consumption
- 2nd priority is to try to reuse whenever possible
- 3rd priority is to recycle
Remember with recycling that everything must be clean, dry and loose.
Let me explain:
Clean – rinsed out, so there are no food remains
Dry – you don’t have to dry out a bottle for example, the point here is do not leave the lid of your recycling bin open and let the rain pour in. Do not put wet paper or cardboard in the recycling bin, this will probably contaminate all your recycling.
Loose – do not tie magazines/books together in a bundle, don’t put items in black bin liners or plastic bags in an effort to sort them, this might cause lots of the recycling to be rejected.
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