The British recycling system problem.
Britain produced 330 million tonnes of waste a year in 2012. A quarter of this waste came from households and business. The rest was created by construction, demolition, sewage, and farm wastes.
Source: DEFRA 2012
The British recycling system process.
The waste material is transported by vehicle to a recycling collection depot.
It is separated, stored in, specially built, containers or silo areas and then processed.
Glass is crushed and mixed with raw materials, soda ash and limestone, that have been transported to the recycling site. The remixed cullet is then transported to a glass manufacturing plant.
Plastic is washed, inspected, chopped, flaked, float separated, dried, melted, cleaned, screened, stranded, cooled and formed into pellets. It is then stored in specially manufactured containers or silo areas. It is then picked up by specially manufactured vehicles and transported to a specially manufactured plant for re-moulding.
Wood is separated, pulped, shredded and placed in specially built, containers or silo areas for re-use.
Metal is shredded and placed in specially built, containers or silo areas. It is then picked up by specially manufactured vehicles and transported to a specially manufactured processing facility.
Then it is heated in a furnace using oil or gas, turned into a liquid, formed into ingots and cooled.
It is then transported to storage areas for re-use.
Paper is sorted, and stored at the Recycling depot and placed in specially built storage racks. It is then transported to a pulping facility usually lined to a paper mill, soaked, pulped, screened, glue removed, debris removed, ink removed, refined, beaten, re formed into paper sheet, rolled and dried.
Re-useable clothes are sorted. Some clothes are sent out to charities. The charities distribute them by transportation world wide. Other clothes are washed, sorted, shredded and separated into containers. They are then transported into textile manufacturing plants.
Garden waste is shredded, mixed, stored in composting piles, turned for 12 weeks, liquid is removed, the pile is reduced by 6 months composting, it is then screened and stored. The compost is then transported to composting manufacturers and farms.
Cars are transported to a specially built recycling , booked in on a world wide database, The vehicles then have there wheels, tyres, battery, glass, fuel, oil, liquids removed. The bodywork is then shredded, the shredded items are sorted by magnetic, air, water, air, vibration the shredded and sorted materials are then separated into containers. The scrap metal is then transported to manufacturing plants worldwide.
All products once they are reformed are transported back into the economy, stored, picked up by vehicles and transported to a wholesaler, stored and then transported to retailers which store them. Consumers then transport the products to their homes where they store them until they are needed. The consumers then store the used products in waste collection bins. The waste collection bins are then picked up, transported to a recycling collection depot and the whole process repeated.
The British recycling system flaws.
The whole recycling process adds a multi-stage, national, process to solve a single stage, individual, problem.
It uses up land by the building of specialist recycling centres.
It uses up green belt farming area by allowing land filling with waste.
It uses energy to create and operate buildings that are not needed.
It creates and uses vehicles to move the waste around.
It uses energy and fuel to move the vehicles.
It perpetuates the manufacturing of materials that are not needed.
It perpetuates consumerism instead of necessity and so ignores conservation of resources.
It uses more energy than it saves because it creates a system beyond the point of use of the products to recycle the products.
The recycling system solution
The current recycling system of Britain is at best inefficient and at worst a man-made depletion system for energy, natural resources and the environment.
Parts of this process can be replaced by consumers reusing the products at their home by simply cleaning it and using it again.
Wood Retain at the point of use, re-use.
Shred and burn at the point of use in controlled conditions to produce energy.
Shred at the point of use to produce compost,
woodchip.
Glass Retain at the point of use, wash out and re-use.
Plastic Retain at the point of use, wash out and re-use.
Shred and burn at the point of use in controlled conditions to produce oil and energy.
Metal Retain at the point of use, wash out and re-use.
Paper Retain at the point of use, shred, re-pulp, reform paper
and re-use.
Shred and burn at the point of use in controlled conditions to produce energy.
Clothes Retain at the point of use, wash, mend and re-use.
Shred at the point of use and reuse as materials.
Garden waste
Collect, store, compost at the point of use, re-use on
garden.
Cars Retain at the point of use, re-use.
Use as a power source, plant room, cooler system, hydraulic system at the point of use.
Ian K Whittaker
Email: iankwhittaker@gmail.com
14/10/2020
851 words over 3 pages