RECYCLING AND REUSE

Recycle and reuse of materials recovered from

solid waste is essential if an integrated solid
waste management scheme is to be
implemented in a region.

In fact, recycling and reuse is no longer

optional but should be practiced by every one
if we truly believe the environment should be
sustainable for the future generation.
 SOME RECYCLING FACTS
Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in
the dustbin could be recycled.
The unreleased energy contained in the
average dustbin each year could power a television
for 5,000 hours.
On average, 16% of the money you spend on
a product pays for the packaging, which ultimately
ends up as rubbish.
As much as 50% of waste in the average dustbin
could be composted.
Up to 80% of a vehicle can be recycled.
 RECYCLABLE MATERIALS
1. Aluminium cans are much sought after
because not only it provide high revenue
but also it takes much less energy to
manufacture the new cans.
2. Glass is an inert material and as such do not
pose a threat to the environment directly.
Glass used for containers such bottles and
jars are suitable for recycling.
3. Paper of which newspaper, corrugated
and office papers are the important sources.
4. Plastics of resin based such as PET,
HDPE, LDPE, PVC, PP and PS.
5. Tyres can pose environmental problems
if not separated from waste materials either
sent to incinerators or landfills.
Used tyre stack piles is a fire hazard
and attract mosquitos and rodents.
Burning of tyres release thick smoke
and toxic chemicals.
Nevertheless, retreading of tyres can find its
new road usage and thereby saving
of new raw materials.
.
 Besides, bundled used tyres when
anchored underwater are suitable as fish
habitats or otherwise use as crash barriers
on highway bridges.
Shredded old tyres are also used as fuel for
incinerators.
Scrap tyres have also been used to
recover oil and gas when pyrolysed.
6. Construction and demolition waste
are usually dumped on landfills.
However, recycling has helped to
find good usage of the materials which
include concrete, bricks, woody materials,
scrap metals, copper wires and
pipes, pavement, paper, cardboard,
shingles, beverage containers, carpets
and others.
7. White goods include refrigerators,
washers, dryers and air conditioners.
The metal parts of these goods are
usually recycled after removing the non-
metallic parts containing the chemicals if
any.
8. e-waste i.e waste arising from electronics
goods.
Electronics goods pose environmental
problems as they fill up landfill spaces
rather quickly as when they are non-
functional they are simply thrown away
Besides, they contain lead, cadmium and
mercury which although in small amounts
but collectively, are potentially hazardous.
 However, there are certain components
of the waste which are valuable
especially the gold and platinum.
Because of this treasure,
e-waste has been found to be attractive
as a source of income when the
recycleable materials are recovered.
http://www.gateweld.com/
 1 recycled tin can
would save enough
energy to power a
television for 3 hours.
Aluminium cans can
be recycled and ready
to use in just 6 weeks.
Paper recycle
1 recycled glass bottle
would save enough
energy to power a
computer for 25
minutes.
Glass is 100%
recyclable and can be
used again and again.
Glass that is thrown
away and ends up in
landfills will never
decompose.
70% less energy is required
to recycle paper compared
with making it from raw
materials.
Recycled paper produces
73% less air pollution than if it
was made from raw materials.
It takes 24 trees to make 1
ton of newspaper.
1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough
energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours.
Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic
per year, which could otherwise be recycled.
Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose.
METHODS OF RECYCLING FOR BULK PROCESSES
Recyclable goods are either processed by sending to
a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) or sent to a
refuse derived fuel (RDF) processing plant.
Material Recovery Facilities are buildings or
facilities where the various recyclable materials are
housed for sorting and distribution. Once the
recyclable materials reached an MRF, commingled
recyclables are usually spread on the floor where
paper, cardboard, glass, aluminium cans and plastic
items are usually separated either manually or by
the use of devices such as screens.
 In a material recovery facility, the real
processing on the separated items
are usually not performed but rather there,
the items are gathered and bundled
either through bailing or compaction. The
individual items are then transported
to the various manufacturing plants when
sold.

See Fig 14.

SEPARATION AT SOURCE
SEPARATION AT FACILITY
RECYCLING PROCESSES
 Municipal solid waste can be used to derive
fuel. The quality of the fuel derived from the
waste also depend on the separation process
especially removal of non-combustible
materials.
Hence in a refuse derived fuel facility, the
potential fuel component of the waste which
is paper and plastics must first be separated
from the commingled waste either by the use
of manual or mechanical separation devices.
Then they must be shredded to reduce the
size while being dried to remove much of
the moisture and finally compacted to
palletize the final fuel. A simple flowchart
is shown in Fig.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

Recycling help the environment in three main ways:

1. Reduce the amount of rubbish sent to the landfill

Reusing and recycling items means that less waste

has to be buried in the ground in landfill sites, plus
we save valuable resources by turning waste into
new products! Burying less rubbish means we have
to build fewer landfill sites, which frees up another
important resource: land.
2. Save energy and raw materials
Recycling uses less energy than making items from scratch,
for example, recycling an aluminum can saves 95% of the
energy needed to make a completely new can.

3. Help tackle climate change

Reducing the energy used to make and transport products

means less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.
Recycling also cuts the amounts of methane, another
powerful greenhouse gas, which can be given off by
biodegradable materials as they rot under pressure in
landfill sites.
RECYCLING CAMPAIGN
Recycle Centres in Malaysia