Throughout the 1960s and ’70s it absolutely was thought that emissions from factory chimneys and sewage pipes constituted the biggest environmental problem. But since then, as a result of new, worldwide “Eco-laws”, these discharges have decreased significantly. Instead, the focus has switched to the environmental problems associated with the goods that are produced and consumed in society. Many of the most environmentally damaging substances are currently being supplied through glass bottles, newspapers, plastic bags, coke cans, cardboard boxes and sweet wrappers just to mention a few.
Glass is amongst the most common man-made materials. It’s made from sand, limestone and sodium carbonate and silica. The ingredients are heated to a high temperature in a furnace until they melt together. The molten glass from the furnace cools to form sheets, or may be moulded to make objects. Actually glass is completely recyclable and making products from recycled glass rather than beginning scratch saves energy resources. Recycled glass is made in to new beverage bottles, food jars, insulation and other construction materials. Usually, clear glass containers are recycled into new clear glass products, while coloured glass containers are recycled in to new coloured glass services and products.
In fact , the recycling of glass as well other services and products, such as aluminum and steel cans, cardboard, car tyres, newspapers and certain plastics is a growing industry in many of the world today. In South Africa nevertheless , we don’t have a very advanced of recycling. There aren’t enough people who take an energetic interest in the environment and try to do their bit in preserving nature, by for example , taking used bottles, aluminum cans or even leaves and other garden will not recycling sites. This is probably due to a lot of reasons. The first and foremost being that, in South Africa, we don’t have many recycling centres and, lets face it, how many of us really sort our rubbish before throwing it in the rubbish bin?
Since it is now these items, and no longer industrial emissions, that accounts for most of the environmentally harmful substances being discharged in nature the conditions for environmental efforts have fundamentally changed. As the “release sites” or the polluters, have become so numerous, an entirely new system for controlling and handling environmentally harmful wastes is needed.