Why Recycle ?
Recycling is a great way to protect our environment and stimulate the economy.
Recycling saves resources, prevents pollution, supports public health, and creates jobs. It saves money, avoids landfills, and best of all, it’s easy.
To understand the value of recycling, we must look at the entire lifecycle of a product ― from the extraction and processing of raw materials, to the manufacture of the product, to its final disposal. Recycling creates a closed-loop system where unwanted products are returned back to manufacturers for use in new products. This prevents the pollution and destruction that occurs when virgin materials –like trees and precious metals– are extracted from the earth.
What Can I Recycle?
Through advances in recycling technology, you have more options than ever. And it’s a good thing because we need to conserve as much of our resources as possible.
Metals
Do you think of your empty soda cans and food cans as a natural resource? They are. Apart from the economic impact, the environmental savings of recycling metal are enormous. Recycling steel and tin cans, for example, saves 74% of the energy used to produce them.
Aluminium Cans
On average, we recycle just over 49% of the cans we use. Since the cans are 100% recyclable, we could drastically reduce the energy needed to produce brand new cans simply by recycling our empties. An aluminium can is able to be returned to the shelf, as a new can, as quickly as 60 days after it’s put into your recycling container. Recycling one aluminium can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours.
A Day in the Life of a Recycled Can
1. Customer takes can to a recycling center or puts it into a recycling bin.
2. The can is transported to a processing facility.
3. A giant magnet lifts out cans that are made of metals such steel. Since aluminium cans aren’t magnetic, they drop down to a conveyor belt and are gathered.
4. The aluminium is shredded, washed and turned into aluminium chips.
5. The chips are melted in a large furnace.
6. The melted aluminium is poured into molds called “ingots.”
7. The ingots are taken to a factory where they’re melted into rolls of thin, flat sheets.
8. From the sheets, manufacturers make new products, including new beverage cans, pie pans, license plate frames, and aluminium foil.
9. Beverage companies fill the cans and deliver them to grocery stores for customers to purchase.
10. Customers take used cans to a recycling center and the process starts all over again.
Aluminium Foil and Bakeware
There are thousands of products made from aluminium. From food wrap to disposable cookware, to the disposable burner bibs you use to keep your stovetop clean, the list goes on and on. Aluminium can be recycled almost infinitely. The process involves simply re-melting the metal, a process far less costly and energy-intensive than mining the minerals necessary to create new aluminium.
Household Hints
Unlike aluminium cans, foil may have food particles attached, making it harder for recycling facilities to accept. But foil is easy to wipe clean. So reuse it as much as you can, and clean it off before putting it in the recycling bin. Consider buying 100% recycled aluminium foil. You’ll be supporting a process that uses five percent less energy than the traditional aluminium foil manufacturing process.
Steel Cans and Tin Cans (soup cans, veggie cans, coffee cans, etc.)
Most people call them “tin cans,” but the containers your green beans come in are mostly made of steel. The term “tin” comes from the fact that these cans have a micro-thin coating of tin inside, to protect the flavour and prevent the can from corroding.
How can you tell a steel or tin can from aluminium one? See if a magnet attaches to it. Steel is magnetic, and aluminium is not. Steel cans make up about 90% of the food can market. About 71% of steel cans are recycled, making them one of the most recycled packaging products. In addition, steel cans typically contain at least 25% recycled steel, but many are made almost entirely of recycled steel.
Where does this recycled steel come from? Mainly from scrap metal.
Recycling steel saves at least 75% of the energy it would take to create steel from raw materials. That’s enough energy to power 18 million homes. During the recycling process, steel cans (in bales or loose) are fed into the furnaces of a steel mill or foundry. They may be mixed with new steel. Some of the new “mini” steel mills manufacture their products from 100% recycled steel.
Paper/Cardboard
Most of us use a paper products every day. That’s because paper products make up about 30% of the municipal waste stream. The good news is that more and more are recycling paper. In fact, upwards of 65% is recycled annually.
Corrugated Cardboard
Currently, about 70 percent of cardboard-boxes shipped commercially are recovered for recycling. Many of the boxes are themselves made of recycled materials or lumber industry by-products like sawdust and wood chips.
When recycled, cardboard is used to make chipboard like cereal boxes, paperboard, paper towels, tissues and printing or writing paper. It’s also made into more corrugated cardboard.
How It’s Recycled:
- The cardboard is re-pulped and the fibers are separated and bleached. This is a chemical process involving hydrogen peroxide, sodium silicate, and sodium hydroxide.
- The fibers are screened and cleaned to eliminate contaminants.
- The fibers are washed to remove leftover ink.
- Fibers are pressed and rolled into paper.
- The rolls of paper are then converted into boxes or made into new products.
Magazines
Magazines are made from paper that’s been buffed and coated to achieve a glossy appearance. Next, the paper is covered with white clay that makes colour photographs look more brilliant. The shiny appearance does not contaminate the paper at all. About 45 percent of magazines are being recycled today.
Recycled magazines are used to make newspaper, tissues, writing paper and paperboard. Recycling just one ton of paper saves enough energy to power an average home for six months; so don’t be afraid to recycle your old magazines. It’s the right thing to do.
Office Paper
Just over 45% of office paper is recovered for recycling today. High-grade papers, such as white computer paper, bond, and letterhead, can be turned back into office paper if it’s kept separate from other waste paper. It can also be used to produce tissue paper, paperboard, stationery, magazines and other paper products. Lower-grade papers, such as newsprint, colored paper, file stock and ground wood papers, are made into cardboard, tissues, newspaper and toilet paper.
Newspapers
More than 60% of all newspapers in Nigeria are collected and recycled. The average newspaper today is made of a high amount of recycled fiber. Twenty years ago, newsprint contained only about 10% recycled fiber.
Recycled newspapers can be made into cereal boxes, egg cartons, pencil barrels, grocery bags, tissue paper and many other products, including new newspapers. Newspaper is a fine insulator. Using recycled newspapers to produce cellulose insulation is widespread.
Paperboard
Once used mainly for products such as breakfast cereal boxes, paperboard is now being used for many other kinds of packaging. Recycled paperboard is made from 100 percent recovered fiber, which may include newspaper, magazines, corrugated boxboard, paperboard folding cartons, and telephone books.
One side of the recycled paperboard is usually grey in color. Like glossy magazines, recycled paperboard often includes a coating to improve its printing surface and provide protection from fingerprints. It’s still perfectly recyclable.
Paper Cardboard , Dairy and Juice Cartons
Also called “gable-top cartons,” these are the non-plastic milk and juice cartons you see in the refrigerated section of the supermarket. Known in the industry as “poly-coated paperboard containers,” the cartons are made of about 80% high-quality paper fiber, a renewable resource, and 20% polyethylene, a type of plastic that keeps the paper from getting wet.
Nigerians consumes quantities of milk and juice, requiring tremendous outlays of energy to produce, ship and landfill the cartons. Only a fraction of these are recycled.
After Pick-Up, What Happens?
Poly-coated paperboard containers undergo a process known as “hydro-pulping.” Bales of containers are first reduced to pulp, which separates the polyethylene from the paper fiber. The fiber is used to make other paper products such as tissue and paper towels.
The polyethylene is used in furniture, to generate energy, or reduced even further into paraffin, which “blends” the cartons so the non-paper and paper layers separate. The recovered paper fibers can be recycled into items such as tissue and paper towels.
Sometimes dairy and juice cartons are recycled as “mixed paper,” a process that does not use hydropulping but instead follows the regular paper-making process.
Phone Books
The pages in a phone book are 100% recyclable and are often used to make new phone books. There are enough phone books created each year to measure 106,700 miles when lined up end to end.
This means they would circle around the earth about 4.28 times! By recycling just 500 books, we could save about 20 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 463 gallons of oil, 587 pounds of air pollution, 3.06 cubic yards of landfill space and 4,077 kilowatt hours of energy.
Glass
Most glass bottles and jars in production now contain at least 25% recycled glass – which also saves on energy to produce glass made from new materials. Some glass cannot be made into other products, or doing so is not economically feasible. If your local recycler doesn’t participate in glass recycling, it’s due to the market for that glass being very small or non-existent. However, if glass recycling is available, it’s important to keep in mind as you recycle that even small amounts of some materials mixed in can contaminate entire loads. Find out more about the types of glass and how they are recycled below.
Clear (Flint) Glass
About 55% of glass containers in production are clear. Clear glass is made of a combination of silica (sand), soda ash, and limestone.Marketing professionals often prefer clear glass containers because they make the product inside visible.
However, clear glass may cause some products to degrade because of light exposure. That’s why about 45% of the glass produced is coloured. Clear glass is sometimes used for beverages. More often, it’s used to package solids or thick liquids, such as pasta sauce, that may not be sensitive to light.
Brown (Amber) Glass
About 18% of glass containers in production are brown in colour. To produce brown glass, the manufacturer adds nickel, sulphur and carbon to molten glass.
The “brown” in the glass cannot be removed. Thus, brown bottles can be used only to make other brown bottles. Brown glass protects the container’s contents from direct sunlight, thus preserving freshness and flavour.
Green (Emerald) Glass
About 12 % of glass containers in production are green in color. To produce green glass, the manufacturer adds iron, chromium or copper to molten glass. Green glass comes in a variety of shades. The “green” cannot be removed. Thus, green bottles can be used only to make other green bottles.
Green glass helps keep sunlight and temperature from affecting the contents, which explains why it is often used in the manufacture of beer and wine bottles.
More About Recycling Glass
Some curbside programs and recycling centers take only certain colours of glass. That’s because manufacturers who buy the glass have to maintain the integrity of the colour when producing new glass.
How Is Glass Recycled?
The glass is taken to a manufacturing or recycling plant where it is broken up into smaller pieces known as “cullet”. The cullet is crushed, sorted, cleaned, and prepared to be mixed with other raw materials.
When glass is produced from virgin materials, it requires high temperatures to melt and combine all the ingredients. Since cullet melts at a lower temperature, the more of it you add to a batch of raw materials, the less energy needed to melt it.
Ceramics such as coffee cups and plates present a problem in the glass-making process because they can weaken the glass. Even a small amount of ceramics can contaminate a whole batch of glass and cost the glassmaker millions of Naira.
What Not To Recycle
Not all glass can be recycled. The following items should not be placed into your recycling bin:
- Any glass contaminated with stones, dirt, and food waste
- Ceramics, such as dishware, ovenware, and decorative items.
- Heat-resistant glass, such as Pyrex.
- Mixed colours of broken glass.
- Mirror or window glass.
- Metal or plastic caps and lids.
- Crystal.
- Light bulbs: Find out how to recycle here.
- Cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) found in some televisions and computer monitors.
Plastic
While plastic offers the advantages of being flexible and lightweight, it also consumes fossil resources for its manufacture and contributes waste in our environment.
Make Sure It’s Clean!
Does that plastic lunch container still have yesterday’s pizza in it? Don’t recycle it until it’s clean! One dirty product, or one with food waste still in it, can contaminate an entire bale, containing thousands of pounds of collected plastics.
This can cause thousands of recyclable items to go to a landfill instead of being recycled. Cleanliness is essential.
What’s Accepted?
Plastics come in variety of shapes, colours and chemical formulations – all with different recycling needs. The code number does not mean the plastic can be recycled. It is simply a way to identify the resin, or plastic type.
How can you tell what kinds of plastic to put into your recycling bin? The code number on the bottom of your product is not a reliable indicator of whether something can get recycled. Recycle by shape! Bottles, jars, and jugs – is the best way to know what is accepted.
Learn About Recycling Plastics
Remember to keep dirty containers out of your recycling bin. One partially empty soda bottle in a bale of plastic can spoil the whole load.
Plastic grocery and produce sacks are commonly placed in recycle bins. These bags can shut down an entire recycling plant and should be kept out of the recycling bin. Plastic bags are often collected in barrels at grocery stores, and usually end up as plastic lumber.
PET plastic is the most common material used for single-use bottled beverages, because it is inexpensive, lightweight, unbreakable and easy to recycle.
Batteries/Bulbs
Households are full of recyclable items. Car batteries, products that use household batteries, incandescent light bulbs, and new CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) are some of them. However, CFLs contain mercury, which can be harmful to humans and the environment if not disposed of properly.
Car Batteries
Car batteries are the most recycled products of them. A typical car battery is made of 60% lead, nearly all of which can be recycled. Most of it is reused over and over again in new batteries. Your battery probably contains about three pounds of plastic, which can be reclaimed to create new batteries and other products.
The sulphuric acid can be recycled and used in new batteries. It can also be converted to sodium sulphate to create fertilizer, dyes and other products. It can even be neutralized, purified, tested, and eventually released as clean water.
Household and Button Batteries
If you’re using more than about a dozen disposable batteries in a year, you could save money by switching to rechargeables. If you still have old batteries on hand that may have been manufactured before 1997, it’s likely they contain mercury. Button batteries often contain silver, zinc, or other toxins and should be recycled.
Rechargeable Batteries
Hundreds of products – everything from laptops, PDAs, hair dryers, and cordless tools – are powered by rechargeable batteries. Batteries are usually nickel-cadmium (nicad), lithium ion, or nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH). All should be recycled to reclaim valuable compounds and to keep toxins out of the environment.
Incandescent and LED
One of the simplest ways to conserve electricity is to choose energy-efficient lighting options. Incandescent bulbs are inefficient, because the light they produce is simply a by-product of the heat they generate. A 60-watt incandescent bulb generates the same amount of light as a 15-watt fluorescent.
Another lighting option is the light-emitting diode lamp (LED), which uses a series of tiny electronic light bulbs that, when placed next to each other, emit as much or much more light than a similar-size standard light bulb. The LED does not burn out all at once, and it uses only a fraction of the electricity of an incandescent.
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
CFL bulbs contain small amounts of mercury. If the CFL bulb breaks before it’s properly recycled, people can be exposed to this harmful metal. Some states, cities and countries have outlawed putting CFL bulbs in the trash.
Electronics
Electronics that are obsolete, broken, and destined for recycling or disposal are sometimes called “e-waste.” There are many chemical and mineral elements in e -waste. A circuit board contains copper, gold, silver, platinum and palladium, as well as lead. If recycled properly, this waste is a valuable source of secondary raw materials.
Computers (CPUs, monitors, peripherals, keyboards)
Computers should never be dumped into a landfill. They are a valuable resource. Computers contain a variety of recyclable material, including plastic, metal, and glass. In fact, nearly 100% of a computer is capable of being recycled.
When recycling electronics, make sure you’re working with a reputable recycler who operates with integrity and transparency. Ask questions: What do you do with the equipment? Where do you send parts to be recovered? Where are the CRTs, metals, and plastics sent? Who handles the data destruction? Is the hard drive wiped clean of information? Is documentation of this provided? Can you give me information so I can delete all data and personal information myself?
Peripherals can also be recycled. These include keyboards, cables, mice, computer speakers, printers, scanners, floppy drives, optical media and external hard drives.
Office Equipment (photocopiers, printers, fax machines)
Upgrading your office? Be sure to recycle your obsolete equipment. Printers have become so inexpensive that many people think of them as disposable. However, recyclers can dismantle the old equipment to reclaim the base materials that, in turn, become the raw material needed to produce new products.
Printer cartridges do not belong in landfills. Certain kinds of toner dust contain hazardous materials, as do inks used in inkjet printers.
Televisions
As you make the transition to digital television, what should you do with your old analog TV? Most TVs work with either a digital or analog signal. If you do not have cable or satellite service, you will need a converter box that you can purchase at most electronics stores to receive the digital signal.
Some countries do not allow TV sets to be discarded into landfills. Older television sets contain up to eight pounds each of lead. Lead was originally used to protect viewers from radiation. Certain retailers and manufacturers, including LG and Sony, offer TV recycling programs.
Consumer Electronics (VCRs, stereos, home/office phones)
Is your VCR collecting dust in the closet? Is there a second life for that old stereo? Broken or obsolete equipment can be disassembled and the scrap value of various components reclaimed. Printed circuit boards and wiring may contain recoverable quantities of precious metals and base metals.
Frames and cases may contain recyclable steel or plastic. MP3 players contain toxic substances, such as lead, cadmium and mercury. Most materials in DVD players – from the circuit boards to the plastics – can be recycled to make new components. The consumer electronics category also includes audio equipment, calculators, recording devices, and digital clocks.
If you can’t find a place that will refurbish your product for reuse, check with GREENBASE to find out e waste pick-up days or drop-off locations.
Cell phones
Every year, millions of cell phones are purchased, yet fewer than 20% of old cell phones are recycled.
Cell phones are made from copper, other valuable metals, and plastics – all of which require energy to extract and manufacture. Recycling cell phones helps recover these valuable resources and saves energy.
Recycling just a million cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to removing 1,368 cars off the road for a full year.