Recycling and Sustainability - Literature review Example

Project Report of Recycling and Sustainability Joining the Recycle Centre Tour 1. Introduction Achieving a sustainable future is the primary goal of most environmental strategies thus being involved in activities aiming to sustain the future is a great opportunity. The following discusses climate change and the potential contribution of recycling in achieving a sustainable future, details of my involvement with “Recycle Centre Tour” and communication tool development, collaborative aspects of the work involved, and final reflection of the project. 2. Context/Background Climate change is affecting individuals and communities as economic models associated with climate change suggest that it is responsible for significant agricultural damage, increase morbidity and mortality, loss of species and damage caused by sea level rise and extreme events (Beukering, 2001, p.67). The biggest problem associated with climate change is greenhouse gases emitted from energy sources such as carbon-based fuel. According to Vrolijk (2002), lowering carbon fuel emissions can significantly reduce CO2 emissions thus slows down climate change (p.4). Manivanan (2006) on the other hand suggest that waste prevention and recycling are critical in slowing and reducing the impact of climate change as it can reduce carbon-based energy consumption (p.358). For instance, greenhouses gases can be reduced by saving energy such as using recycled materials in manufacturing, increase carbon uptake of forest by recycling paper, and eliminate need for methane releasing landfills and incinerators through reuse and recycling of waste (ibid, p.358). In terms of adaptability, water recycling is also seen as a solution to recharge groundwater aquifers and augmenting surface water reservoirs. It can also enhance wetlands and riparian habitats (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2008, p.291). Recycling is seen as an effective solution because it is less energy intensive compared to normal production processes thus reducing the impact of climate change (Beukering, 2001, p.67). Moreover, providing recycling and composting services and setting fees can help reduce the quantity of waste than will end up in landfills as well as discourage waste in the community (OECD, 2010, p.125). Waste quantities can also be reduced through education campaigns coupled with collection services that offer both recycling and composting for consumer waste products (ibid, 125). Rising concern over increasing rates of litter, landfill, and significant material losses in the industrial system resulted to environmental policies concerning product packaging. According to Horne et al. (2009), product packaging generate tonnes of waste per day such as single-serve beverages, packaged ready-foods, and other mass-produced products including newspapers, magazines, and waste from fast-service restaurants (p.148). In Australia for instance, the National Packaging Covenant or NPC is a national co-regulatory approach between government and industry to improve the environmental performance of consumer packaging. These include improving all stages of production, distribution, use, collection, reuse, recycling, re-processing and disposal of waste from packaged products. Moreover, it intends to reduce material used in packaging and reducing the amount of packaging material discarded in landfill (ibid, p.149). Positive environmental impacts of recycling include conservation of resources while reducing emission of harmful gasses from landfills. Methane and carbon dioxide emissions occur when food, paper, and other rotting rubbish biodegrades without oxygen (Committee on Climate Change, 2008, p.352). Reuse and material recycling reduce the overall amount of materials consumed and therefore reduce the quantity of waste discarded to landfills or burned in incinerators that are also producing great amount of carbon dioxide (Carroon, 2010, p.6). Although recycling processes also produces emissions, they are significantly less compared to the amount of emissions produce by fossil fuels when obtaining new raw materials. For instance, recycling paper decrease demand for virgin paper thus leaves more trees standing in the forest to sequestrate carbon. Moreover, fossil fuel used to acquire raw materials for paper production will be less, therefore saves energy, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions (Gutberlet, 2008, p.7). Other benefits of recycling are cleaner land, air, water, better community health, and more sustainable economy (Malik & Grohman, 2011, p.516) because it reduces the volume of waste for disposal and extend material reserves. It also decreases the need for continuous consumption of raw materials and non-renewable resources, and lowers the energy requirements of product manufacturing. For instance, glass, metals, paper, plastics, textiles, demolition wastes, electronics, and different types of batteries can be recycled and therefore decrease consumption of raw materials associated with them (ibid, p.516). In summary, recycling minimized waste for disposal and conserve exhaustible natural resources resulting to a host of financial, environmental, and social benefits. These include reducing the need for land filling and incineration, preventing pollution caused by manufacturing of products from virgin materials, alternative source of raw materials for the industry, conservation of energy, reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, and conservation of natural resources. Recycling therefore is an important strategy in terms of sustainability, as it does not only slow down climate change but also conserve the world’s natural resources. 3. About the Project and Involvement, Participation, and so on The project that I was involved is about recycling and in particular, a project to increase awareness of all groups of community in Canberra to the importance of reuse, recycling, and conserving our natural resources. My primary involvement was taking part in the “Recycle Centre Tour” where we visit the Hume Recycle Centre and different landfills. We me together at the Downer Community centre then went to Hume Recycle Centre where education officer Linda Kwong gave us some general information about recycling such as processes, issues being encountered at the recycle centre while recycling materials, and materials that must be include or excluded in cycling process. We spent some time in the Hume Recycle Centre and after learning valuable information from Ms. Kwong, the group went out to observe different landfills and learn some more about waste and its impact on the environment. We went back to the Hume Recycle Centre and collected some useful materials about recycling and the environment such as brochures, posters, bags, pictures, and so on. The tour is very educational and provided valuable information about how to save the environment and important processes in recycling wastes. For instance, there are three steps in saving our environment – reduce, reuse, and recycle. “Reduce” involves efficient usage of resources and reduction of pollution while reuse and recycle are associated with efficient energy use and resources employed in the refinement and processing of materials in the industry. For instance, reuse of materials reduces the need for raw material extraction from the environment and therefore decreases greenhouse gas emissions (Dalton et al, 2010, p.86). Similarly, the process of recycling include sorting of waste materials and in HMRF, this can be sorting of cardboards and papers using blowing fan. Paper products have to be sorted out before they can be usable paper again and in this process, a steady stream of air send the pieces whirling around. A big fan then blows the lighter sheets to the top while the heavier ones drop to the bottom (Paige, 2009, p.7). Sorting steel materials is a little different but using the same principle in sorting out paper, sorting steel from solid waste stream using magnetic force as metals have varying magnetic properties (Powell et al, 2004, p.56). For instance, steel and iron are magnetic while aluminium is not. Sorting aluminium requires eddy current separation technique usually with belt conveyor with multi-pole magnetic rotor fitted to the deflection drum located at the exit side of the belt conveyor. The eddy system generates a magnetic field that has an opposite orientation than the rotor resulting to ejection of metallic waste and retention of non-magnetic materials like aluminium (Schmitz, 2007, p.52). Sorting of plastics and glasses on the other hand is done manually using established sorting criteria. For instance, plastics are manually sorted according to their types while glass materials are sorted into clear and coloured fractions (Tammemagi, 1999, p.185). Sorting plastics by type is necessary because not all plastic can be re-melted and reformed into new products. For instance, plastic made of polyurethane and epoxy resin cannot be re-melted and therefore must be sorted for use as fillers or insulation. Similarly, glass must be sorted by colour before they can be reused to make new glass containers (Curley. 2010, p.112). In summary, recyclable materials are sorted and separated from garbage (e.g. kitchen scraps etc.) which is essentially organic waste that can biologically decompose and turn into useful soil conditioner in landfills (ibid, p.113). Sorting of recyclable materials such as paper, plastic, glass, steel, aluminium, and others help reduce the amount of materials that may dumped to landfills and therefore environmentally sustainable. 4. Communication Tool Development The communication tool developed for this project is a brochure intended to educate children with age ranging from two to four. The main objective is to educate these children on the importance of recycling and saving the environment. The brochure contains five sections that include the “Do you know!’ section where children identify and learn the different types of recyclable materials and the importance of having lids attached to the container. The “What can go in the recycling bin” section on the hand educates children on the proper use of the recycle bin. The section included a graphic representation of the recycle bin and the waste materials that can go into it such as plastic containers, paper and cardboard, cans, tins, and foils, and glasses (bottles and jars). In contrast, the “What cannot go in the recycling bin” section is intended to inform children of waste materials that should go to the recycling bin such as plastic bags, kitchen waste, nappies, fabric, clothes, and so on. The other section such as “The Free Service” also educate children on materials that may collected free of charge that include broken furniture, demolished building materials, metal products, old blankets, and others. The last section which is “The Three Steps to Save the Environment introduce school children to the concept of reduce, reuse, and recycle where they can learn how to reduce or minimize the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, save scarce resources, and protect the environment. The brochure is primarily aimed at introducing the concept of reduce, reuse, and recycle to school children and in the process educate them about the basics of recycling such as familiarity with recyclable and non-recyclable materials, classification and sorting, and steps in saving the environment. Challenges in communicating and educating schoolchildren through this communication tool include the limited ability of younger children to read. Moreover, brochures may present adequate, accurate, and balanced information to enable participation (Bankert & Amdul, 2006, p.149). However, since the brochure is designed for children, the project was able to make it appropriate to schoolchildren by combining text and images so they can easily understand the messages. Similarly, the combination of text and images can help parents better understand and explain the purpose of the brochure to their children particularly in using the recycling bin. Collaboratively, the project enables me to meet and work with a number of people committed to recycling and saving the environment. In particular, the Hume Recycle Centre education officer was very helpful in explaining the recycling process that helps us create our communication tool. Developing the communication tool was at first difficult as we have to think of design and content. However, since we actually saw how materials are being are recycled and the physical condition of landfills, the work becomes easier particularly when identifying which materials must go or cannot go to the recycle bin. Moreover, our understanding of the reduce and reuse concept helped us improve the brochure by incorporating some more items such as the “free service” and the three steps sections. 5. Final Reflection on the Project Since involves working with another organization (Hume Recycling Centre), the project not only strengthen my understanding of sustainability but actual practice to save the environment. For instance, the project reinforced my belief on the positive impact of recycling on the environment and proper steps in processing waste materials. The project also enables me to think about educating others and disseminate information that can help the community sustain its future. More importantly, the project helped me to create a communication tool that is not only informative but also realistic and practical. 6. 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International Pvt. Ltd. Tammemagi H, (1999), The Waste Crisis: Landfills, Incinerators, and the Search for a Sustainable Future, UK: Oxford University Press Vrolijk C, (2002), Climate Change and Power, UK: Routledge Read More