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Is recycling actually useful?

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Recycling saves a lot of energy and if done well, it could outweigh the recycling costs significantly and reduce the accumulation of waste globally. Why should you even bother recycling, though, if there is so much proof that recycling often ends up in landfills? Well, ask yourself why that waste was discarded in such a manner - is it laziness or is it actually too contaminated to recycle? Currently some recycling facilities even give up on recycling and sell their business. It is crucial that such recycling plants are encouraged to function and that governments and the public prevent them from shutting down, especially after China's import ban (check my third blog for more info). Recently California’s (USA) largest recycling center business, RePlanet, and a few plants in Victoria, Australia have been closed, which is naturally a huge shock to the system and leaves countless communities across the globe unable to recycle. The message on the closed RePlanet center Source: a...
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"Whatever we put in the recycling bin gets recycled"! Well, think again.

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There is a common misconception going around that I tried to clear with my second post about recycling contamination. Let's build on that now. There is a rise in awareness for the need to recycle due to people becoming more concerned about global warming and the causes behind it. What may come as surprising is that around 80% of the UK's and the US's population make attempts to recycle. Expansive knowledge on the topic on how to recycle is rare, however. Due to factors such as contamination, misuse and lack of incentive to recycle, it turns out that only 9% of the plastic produced globally gets recycled. Looking at the graph above, it looks as though in Europe way more than 9% is getting recycled. How come it is just 9% then? When we say recycling rate this does not just mean what percentage of waste is recycled within the country of origin, but also includes the waste that has been exported to "be recycled". There is an issue with this kind of export, th...
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China's import ban on recyclables - disaster or opportunity?

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Imports of recyclable materials were one of the driving factors of China's rapid economic growth as the world's factory. It was cheaper for China to recycle and use the recycled materials than to create materials from scratch. However, this recycling practice lead to many Chinese villages using recycling as a means of  income, which sounds good enough, right? Well, it came with harsh consequences such as severe environmental pollution and the development of "cancer villages" due to that pollution. There were growing environmental concerns and for this reason China's waste import ban became reality. Before the ban China alone was responsible for roughly half of the world's plastic imports. You might say: "Well, that's China for you," but if you think about it, for the past 30 years that was above  150 million metric tons of plastic waste. To accentuate the magnitude of this, that's 150 000 000 000 kg of plastic. Not quite insignificant ...
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Global recycling contamination catastrophe

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Some may say phrasing it as a crisis is too drastic, yet I oppose that very strongly. It's becoming more popular to try and recycle but many fail to do it effectively and end up not helping but hindering the process of recycling. Waste contamination is a very dominating issue on a global scale and without awareness and mindfulness there cannot be much progress. I would roughly separate contamination into three groups - recyclable material thrown in general waste, uncleanness and mixing recyclable material. People broadly believe it's not a problem leaving a bit of food in the recycling and that would be the case if it was only a few people but alarmingly that is not even close to being accurate. Source: BBC "How do I fix that," you might ask. Well, first begin by informing yourself by reading this short blog post. The first category is self-explanatory and also a bit infuriating. It's all about cases when people do not even attempt recycling. All of t...
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The mighty resource trio of the blue recycle bin

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Recycling is going to save the planet! Or is it? Turns out a very small percentage of people actually recycles effectively. For that reason I, your friendly recycling blogger, am all about informing you how to do it well and possibly even make a change! Let's start with the metal part of the blue bin - tins. When thinking about tins your mind most likely goes to the beans you ate for breakfast or the can of tomatoes you used for a sauce.  Think of the box of danish butter cookies (not sponsored): you see the box in your grandma's drawer, your mouth starts watering, you open the lid and, lo and behold, it's the sight of crushing disappointment. You found your grandma's sewing supplies. Yes, that tin can also be recycled. Soft drink and empty aerosol (deodorant) cans? Blue bin. Aluminum foil and single-use foil trays? They belong in the blue bin but ONLY if there is very little to no food residue on them. Paper and Cardboard are up next. All your newspaper...
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