recovery and reuse
What can be recycled
Many materials could be recycled but what can be recycled in practice is dependent on economics. Aluminium is worth recycling because it can easily be turned into new aluminium products, and because aluminium is quite expensive. Steel is much cheaper to produce so there is less incentive to recycle it, although it can easily be recycled. This is why there are schemes which give cash for aluminium cans but not for steel ones.
The economics of recycling improves if there is a market for goods made with recycled raw materials. So buying recycled promotes recycling.
Other materials are much harder to recycle because the products containing them contain a mixture of materials. A computer may contain several sorts of plastic, various metals, including some which may be toxic such as cadmium, glass and ceramics. Even a soft drinks bottle may contain several sorts of plastic, while a milk carton cannot be recycled as paper because it is lined with plastic or foil. More and more goods are being marked with symbols which help with recycling by indicating what they are made of and if they can be recycled.
Local authorities are responsible for waste disposal so always contact your local council first to find out what recycling facilities they offer. Some may make special one-off collections. Some local authorities run kerbside recycling services, serving 43% of British households, while others use bring-banks, large skips to which people take recyclable rubbish, and some extract recyclable materials from mixed waste. Steel, for example, can easily be recycled from mixed rubbish because it is magnetic.
> This document was last modified: 29 August 2006
