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Interesting Facts About Waste and Recycling

Hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and generally exhibits one or more of these characteristics:

• ignitability
• corrosivity
• reactivity
• toxicity

Generally, toxicity is quantified through the use of the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure or TCLP test, as required by EPA.

Hazardous wastes may also be "listed" by EPA. Listed hazardous wastes are generated by specific industries and processes and are considered hazardous waste irrespective of sample results. Examples include waste pickle liquor from iron and steel manufacturing and certain electroplating sludges.

Many types of businesses generate hazardous waste. Some are small companies that may be located in a community. For example, the following types of businesses typically generate hazardous waste: dry cleaners, automobile repair shops, hospitals, exterminators, and photo processing centers. Some hazardous waste generators are larger companies like chemical manufacturers, electroplating companies, and oil refineries.

A US facility that treats, stores or disposes (TSDFs) of hazardous waste must obtain a permit for doing so under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Wikipedia - More Information About Hazardous Waste

Recycling

Recycling is the reprocessing of used materials that would otherwise become waste in order to break them down and remake them into new products. This is in contrast with reuse: collecting waste such as food containers to be cleaned, refilled and resold. Recycling prevents the waste being sent to a landfill or incinerator, reduces the consumption of new raw materials, and can require less energy than virgin production. Commonly recycled materials include glass, paper, aluminium, asphalt, steel, textiles and plastic. These materials can be derived either from pre-consumer waste (materials used in manufacturing) or post-consumer waste (materials discarded by the consumer). Recycling is a key concept of modern waste management and is the third component of the waste hierarchy.

Benefits and Drawbacks

One of the main benefits of recycling comes from reducing the amount of new material required. In theory, recycling allows a material to be continually reused for the same purpose, and in many cases this theory holds true, most notably in the recycling of metals and glass. In the case of fiber, however, recycling most often only extends the useful life of material in gradually less-versatile forms. This is referred to as downcycling. When paper is recycled, for example, the fibers shorten, making it less useful for high grade papers. In some cases, the risk of contamination can further restrict the potential uses of recycled materials.

Since less raw material is required, recycling creates further benefits for materials where cost the initial extraction or production is high—either economically, socially or environmentally. The recycling of aluminium, for example, saves 95% of the CO2 emmisssions—a environmentally harmful greenhouse gas—compared to refining new metal.

Concerns about limited resources such as raw materials and land space for disposal of waste have increased the importance of recycling. However maximum environmental benefit is gained by reducing the amount of waste produced, and reusing items in their current form, for example refilling bottles. All recycling techniques consume energy, for transportation and processing, and some also use considerable amounts of water. Both of these resources have an environmental impact which is why campaigners use the slogan Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to indicate the preferred order for waste management.

Wikipedia - More Information About Recycling