A Beginner’s Guide for Recycling Modern Day Waste

The impending environmental repercussions predicted by researchers have triggered a worldwide response. Citizens and governments all the over globe are making efforts to slow down the decay of the environment, which at one time we had taken for granted.

Under new international agreements, countries are cutting on the carbon footprints. Plethora of coal based power plants are being shutdown. We are seeing a dawn of renewable energy, such solar power, wind energy, geothermal energy, including others; Germany recently started producing 80 % of its power by the nonconventional means.

The same attitude has swelled to the companies too, that are making in-house recycling a norm. However, contrary to the common assertion, recycling is not all crushing and retreatment. There are different approaches for different waste.

Academically, recycling is divided into three components: Primary, secondary and tertiary recycling

In primary recycling, the recyclable material/waste is collected and reused; no changes made to it form, and are typically for the very same purpose. This is the easiest of all, obviously. Implementing sorting methodology though is the important, which involves management basics, such as 5 S and other related concepts.

In secondary recycling, some sort of modification is done to the material or waste, however, without using chemicals. The most common examples include use of egg-tray for low-cost sound proofing, use of upper half of a plastic bottle for a plant pot.

In tertiary recycling, waste materials or products are reprocessed either through chemically or through the application of heat. The common examples are melting metals, chemical treatment of paper and plastic products and bottles to make new products, altogether. The tertiary recycling can either be external— the recycled waste materials are recovered and reprocessed with the help of public participation—or internal—the waste materials are recovered and processed within factories and manufacturing facilities.

The internal recycling has become a norm within the industry, since usually these places are the origin of the waste materials, which are stuffing landfills all around the world. Instead of throwing out the waste, the companies are recycling them to save the transport expenditure, as well to enjoy tax cuts.

This has given rise to commercial recycling equipment industry. There are different types of recycling equipment for sale, like horizontal balers, Styrofoam cold compactors and heat-melt foam densifiers, foam and plastic crusher and shredder, dewatering machines, washing lines, and palletizing systems. Each piece of equipment has its specific purpose, such as baler machines, which can be either horizontal or vertical, are used to compact the crushed cans that are pre-processed by dewatering machines and crushers, into dense cube, which are easy to transport.