New Good Things From Rubbish
by NIOS (Informational Text)
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This informational lesson explains how recycling rubbish saves money, reduces pollution and conserves the earth's valuable resources. Most of the world's rubbish, paper, metals, glass and even some plastics, can be reused. Plastic is the hardest to recycle because it comes in so many varieties, and recycled plastic can only be turned into lower-quality products; a lot of plastic still has to be thrown away. Metals are far easier and more profitable to recycle: valuable metals like gold, silver and aluminium are well worth recovering, and recycling aluminium has cut the energy used to make it by a quarter. Glass is best reused as bottles or recycled as 'cullet', and is best separated by colour before being remelted. Half the world's waste is paper, which can be pulped, cleaned and bleached into new paper, Japan makes half its paper this way. The lesson warns that India, which traditionally avoids waste, is beginning to imitate the wasteful habits of the West, and that all of us need to think about this.
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Why recycle?
Recycling rubbish not only saves money but also helps the environment, because it lessens the pollution caused by burning rubbish and saves valuable resources. Western countries waste a great deal: in the USA about 75,000 trees are felled every week just to print the Sunday edition of the New York Times, and recycling used paper would easily save these trees. Most of the world's rubbish, paper, metals, glass and even some plastics, can be reused.
Plastic and metals
Plastic is one of the most difficult substances to recycle because it comes in so many varieties, and there is as yet no simple way to turn an old plastic bottle into a new one. Plastic scrap can only be turned into a product of lower quality, stuffing for cushions or plastic 'timber' for fencing, and a lot of plastic still has to be thrown away. Metals are different: any car on the road today is partly made of earlier cars that were scrapped and recycled. The more valuable the metal, the more it pays to recycle it, and recycling aluminium is worthwhile because extracting it from bauxite uses huge amounts of electricity, recycling has cut this energy by a quarter since the early 1970s.
Glass and paper
Glass is worth recovering: the most sensible method is to reuse bottles, in some countries the average milk bottle makes about 30 trips, while broken glass, called 'cullet', can also be recycled through bottle banks that depend on people's goodwill. Glass is best separated by colour, since mixed cullet can only make green glass, and then remelted into new objects. Half the world's waste consists of paper; many countries import waste paper, which is pulped, cleaned and bleached to remove ink and dirt before it becomes new paper, Japan now makes half its paper by recycling. Though India generally avoids waste, it is beginning to imitate the wasteful habits of the West, and all of us need to think about this.