Waste and recycling
The UK produces in excess of 100 million tonnes of waste per year through business, industry and household processes. Most of this waste ends up in landfills sites located through the country. Being such a wasteful society also increases demand for new products to be produced to replace those which have been disposed of.
In order to move towards a sustainable society the commitment which needs to be taken to how waste is dealt with in the UK is vitally important. Landfilling is regarded as the worse environmental option when it comes to processing waste and other redundant materials. Waste in landfill, as well as being unsightly, odorous and attractive to pests, waste in landfills site produces landfill gas. Landfill gas is a potent composition of which approximately 50 percent is methane. Landfill gas is around 20 times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide so anything to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill is very important.
The amount of waste getting recycled has seen a steady increase over the past 10-12 years. However, in comparison to our European counter parts we are still someway off. Germany, a country with a similar population to the UK, put approximately 7 million tonnes of household waste for the year2004-2005 into landfill sites compared to the 24 million tonnes that the UK sent to landfill sites during the same time period. Clearly Germany is way ahead of the UK in terms of the way in which it deals with its waste through less waste production and recycling. The UK has been nicknamed the ‘dustbin of Europe’.
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Waste refers to the unwanted materials which are dumped by the human beings after use. The waste causes very harmful effects to the environment. The industrial wastes are the most poisonous materials which cause severe air and water pollution and are accepted to be very dangerous for aquatic life as well as human beings. The waste by human beings like the food wastes and other sewages, if are not properly disposed, they can cause air pollution as well as lead to the creation of several harmful intoxicants. These wastes from human beings can also cause the greenhouse effect. The major waste materials are the paper wastes like newspapers, cardboards, packing materials, plastic wastes like pet bottles, packing materials, beverage containers, metal cans, scrap materials, glass bottles, building materials and human and animal wastes. In order to remove the problems created by wastes recycling process is being implemented.
Recycling is mainly the process of converting the used materials and appliances into new products. Recycling has many major advantages like it reduces the use of fresh and new raw materials, minimise air and water pollution. This process also reduces the consumption of conventional energy and minimises the dumping of wastes as well as waste disposal. Recycling process mainly includes recycling of glass, paper, plastic, fibres and textiles, metal and electronic devices and appliances. All these types of constituents are collected in bulk and are then cleaned, disinfected and are further recycled into newer equipments. All these recycling processes are made in the recycling plant. Mainly disposal of plastic items which are very harmful to environment and ecologically danger are collected and further reprocessed into new items. Thus recycling helps in controlling air and water pollution because they do not emit any sorts of carbon contents.
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