RECYCLING

What is recycling? ­Recycling is a pretty simple concept! ☞ Take something that isn't useful anymore and make it into something new instead of just throwing it away. It will play a major role in the future of our planet. Recycling can take many forms. On a small scale, any time you find a new use for something old, you're recycling. Recycling becomes more important on larger scales.

­ At this level, used consumer goods are collected, converted back into raw materials and remade into new consumer products. It's rare for a recycled product to be exactly the same as the original material from which it was recycled! Recycled paper, for example, contains ink residue and has shorter fibers than virgin paper (paper made from wood pulp). Because of this, it may be less desirable for some purposes, such as paper used in a copy machine. Example (exercise book) : ➘ It‘s darker

A little history The mass production ➜ reasons we need to worry about recycling. = When products can be produced (and purchased) very cheaply, it often makes more economic sense to simply throw away old items and purchase brand new ones = a lot of waste in the 1930s and 40s, conservation and recycling became important in many other parts of the world. Economic depressions made recycling a necessity for many people to survive, as they couldn't afford new goods.

Why do we recycle? BECAUSE ☟ To prevent waste of potentially useful materials, to reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, to reduce energy usage, to reduce air pollution and water pollution, for lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to plastic production, & to reduce the mass of waste on the landfills

Benefits of recycling Avoids too much garbage One of the main reasons for recycling is to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfills. New goods use up resources Making something from recycled materials means using fewer natural resources.

Recycling (sometimes) uses less energy There's room for debate on this aspect of recycling, but many recycling processes require less energy than it would take to manufacture the same item brand-new. Money Recycling costs less money and can help to improve the image of a company

Problems with Recycling Recycling takes time to sort and store items. You need much space for recycling The recycled products have to be sold. If nobody buys them, companies will no longer produce it ☠ For expample: Exercise books made ​​from recycled paper is darker!

Separating waste in Germany separated garbage is reusable It’s not only separated in residential houses and dormitories, but also in public places such as train stations Germany: specific rules four bins: a grey one, a yellow one, a green one a brown one and also yellow bags Waste segregation is needed in order to protect the environment and community waste industry in Germany employs more than people

turnover: 50 billion Euro 50 million tones of municipal waste / each year Symbol of the separation: Green dot → not only Germany uses the Green Dot: 26 European countries biodegradable waste has positive effects on soils and plants nearly 100 kg of biowaste per inhabitant are collected each yr. (4 mio tons per year). Batteries and accumulators must be collected separately

Metabolon The disposal center „Leppe“ is one of the most modern disposal locations in the EU and it is a reference location of its international audience. The aim of the project “Metabolon” is the reorientation of the existing disposal center Leppe to a competence, learning and innovation space for the transformation and site-specific environmental technology and techniques. Raw materials become more scarce and energy is becoming more and more expensive…

Industrial Recycling Oberberg’s industry is very good at recycling For example a company called A.S. Création In earlier times they always colored the Agger (our beautiful river) when they work

Today most of water is cleaned, for example in the river Rhine there are now fishes like salmon Also the emissions are cleaned In earlier times Germany produced lots of emissions because most energy was produced with coal today we have very strict laws about emissions

Little story: in Dortmund (a big city) the smoke was very strong. Then they started to clean it and now the air is so clean they need pesticides in the parks and green areas. Before this the insects died because of the air In Germany more than 60% of the companies said that recycling is very important for them Also the waste is recycled Another way is to produce as little waste as possible E. g. Jockey plastic (a big plastic company) recycle their waste by shredding and melting it So they produce only a few tons of waste every year Most companies try to reduce waste and recycle the rest E. g. VW tries to produce cars that can be recycled nearly completely (90%)