Recycling
Recycling in the United States has been going on in one way or another since the continent was colonized. In the early 1990s the State of Illinois began to recognize the connection between recycling, waste management, and the potential of economic development. In 1995, the state combined the functions of several of the state's natural resource agencies in order to make their operation more efficient and better focused (Swager).
The Solid Waste Management Act (SWMAct) was enacted in 1986 and later amendments assigned DCCA the responsibility of being the lead agency in Illinois in implementing waste reduction programs (Swager). This law allows DCCA to provide grants and loans to business, non-profit organizations, and non-profit entities (SWMAct). Some specific requirements under SWMAct include state procurement of products made from recycled commodities and development by state-funded colleges and universities of comprehensive waste reduction plans.
Under the Solid Waste Planning and Recycling Act (SWP&RAct), Illinois counties are required to develop comprehensive solid waste management plans. It is this piece of legislation that dictates the specific state recycling and waste reduction goals. These goals are summarized in Chart 1.
Both the SWMAct and SWP&RAct legislation have failed to take into account a growing segment of the public waste stream computers. Since and advent of the first widely accepted personal computer (PC) in 1976 the public has been drawn to this new technological innovation. Nationally more than 22 million computers become obsolete every year. Current 2/3 of these computers end up in landfills. Now with new technological innovations computer prices have dropped to levels that almost ...
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...cterization, Collection, Costs and Markets. University of Illinois Center for Solid Waste Management and Research, Office of Technology Transfer, Chicago, Illinois 1995.
---. Technologies for Recycling Post-Consumer Mixed Plastics. University of Illinois Center for Solid Waste Management and Research, Office of Technology Transfer, Chicago, Illinois 1995.
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Illinois. Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. Illinois Recycled Products Guide: 1998-1999. Illinois Department of Commerce and Community 'Affairs, Bureau of Energy and Recycling, Springfield, Illinois 1998.
---. Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. Summary of Illinois' Solid Waste Legislation.
Stephens, Henry A. "Recycling limits may get broader in Indian River County." TCPalm.com. TC Palm, 6 Feb. 2008. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. .
A political con associated with the policy is the fact that the law encourages states to add but not take away rules outlined in this legislation. As stated by Dale, "the act encourages states to create their own regulatory programs to manage waste so long as those programs utilize standards consistent with—or in excess of—federal limits." (Dale, 2015). This leave states with little room to make improvements to cater to their states specifically. The tension between state and federal waste management agencies are typical today. This is not beneficial for development of waste management.
Welsh, M. (2009, Mar 1). Green bin waste trucked to N.Y. Toronto Star. Retrieved from
‘Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle’ are what a person chants if someone mentions the word recycling. Nicks J defines recycling as ‘[T]he processing of waste materials in order to make them reusable” (11). Individuals who recycle are not just throwing papers in green bins, or cans in blue; in fact, they are helping the environment more than they can imagine. People who want to preserve and protect their planet take the initiative to recycle waste materials. Rather than throwing away old plastic or glass bottles, aluminum cans, and certain types of paper, one can simply recycle them, and they will go through a cleaning and the remanufacturing process to be remade into a new usable item. There are many benefits of recycling, but a lot of people will argue against it. As Bauer, Mary states, “[Recycling] is a messy process That uses caustic chemicals and produces harmful byproducts and emissions” (12). Regardless, recycling programs have been implemented in many places such as California and Georgia and have been successful. Hence, individual’s states in the United States should make recycling mandatory because recycling will reduce E-Waste pollution, reduce waste, and benefit the economy.
Florida International University recognizes its contribution to the accumulation of waste considering that it produces about seven million pounds of waste each year (Figueroa, 2010). Unlike other universities that still remain adamant in investing on green practices, FIU has, “governed by the State of Florida under Florida Statute 403.714 and The Florida Solid Waste Management Act of 1988” (FIU, 2011), established its own internal ‘green machine’ or solid waste and environmental protection system via the FIU Custodial Services Office. The university’s efforts in ensuring efficient solid waste management even “far exceeds the minimum standards” (FIU, 2011) required by law. What makes the solid waste management efforts of the university one-of-a kind is the establishment of a “single stream recycling program which means that all recyclable items can be placed into one bin and do not have to be sorted” (FIU, 2011). Nevertheless, despite the use of single recycle bins, proper labeling has to accompany each bin to ensure that only materials that are recyclable are placed in the bins. There are also different sized of bins which are placed stra...
The collected solid waste is delivered to one of three solid waste facilities (Kwajalein, Meck, or Roi-Namur) by the solid waste division or by individual departments. Although incineration and landfilling activities occur on Roi-Namur and Meck Islands, the Kwajalein Solid Waste Management Facility is the central receiving area for the majority of solid wastes generated. Waste reduction and waste minimization at USAG-KA is primarily focused on reducing the volume of solid waste generated and increase solid waste diversion to prevent potentially useful material from being thrown
Reduce, recycle and recycle could be a construct that individuals area unit beginning to perceive and to use to each life round the world (GOV.UK, 2013). This knowledge base essay can explore info concerning use by totally different resources that are provided to use such as the web, books, journals and alternative resources that needs to offer American state info on use. This essay can discover use as business, environmental and policy perspective. Use is that the methodology by that we tend to recover valuable resources to be re-used once more and once more. However just one a part of healing the atmosphere, it's a sensible action that people altogether businesses participate in daily routines on recycling (Reclaim, 2013). While recycling is only one part to healing the environment it is a practical action that individuals in all businesses and people take part in every day.
To implement a recycling program requires a collection process that includes the containers to gather the materials, the trucks to transport them to the processing site, and the manpower to manage the program. Unfortunately, recycling is more of a business than an attempt to save the environment. The value of the material being recycled overshadows the negative impact of dumping items into the landfill. At a point in time, the demand for recycled paper declined, so recyclers stored the material in hopes that values would increase. “The hope is that eventually the markets turn around and that the materials is sold, but I have heard of instances where it gets landfilled, because a community doesn’t have the demand or the space or the company to deal with it, “ says Gene Jones, the executive director of Southern Waste Information Exchange (Westervelt,
When most people hear the word recycling they think of plastic water bottles, milk jugs, or even old paper that they can reuse, but this is not necessarily the case anymore. Scientists and researchers have discovered a new form of recycling that is going to help better the environment and it can even help make people money! Smokers around the world do not think about recycling their used cigarette butts, but this new form of recycling has changed some of their minds on this subject. Recycling has been a major environmental issue, but most people have forgotten about it or they just do not care for it anymore. Paper recycling dates back to as far as 400 B.C. Some people even say that the early Romans recycled their bronze coins so that they
There are many people in the United States today that are unemployed due to our economy. Therefore, recycling could create jobs for those people. Recycling is a complex process that needs multiple workers. First, the plastics and other recyclable items have to be collected. Next, the plastics have to be separated into categories. This might seem simple but it is a three step process. The first separation is made directly by the codes on the plastic. The second separation makes smaller categories of like plastic materials. The third separation is made by determining certain properties of the plastics that are comparable. The categories are then shredded, sanitized, and then melted down. Finally, the factories then mold the plastic into direct items or palletize them for use in the future (Manrich, 9). The recycling companies could make their money by making deals with major corporations. For example, they could collaborate with Pepsi by creating their plastic soda bottles. The recycling companies would be able to sell and create these bottles for cheap since they do not have to pay for the materials to make them. Also, they use less oil than a plastic production factory would use. Thus, it is a cheaper way to create new plastic items. Therefore, there are endless possibilities that allow the recycling business to
from different resins. In order to recycle plastics, the different types must be kept separate.
Lots of people consider recycling to be kind of a no-brainer, something we all should do. It’s good for the environment, it re-uses materials rather than creates new ones, it reduces landfills -- the list goes on and on. But one major benefit that people often overlook is the impact recycling programs can have on a community.
White, P. & Franke, M., 1999: Integrated solid waste management: a lifecycle inventory. Gaithersburg, Md.: Aspen.
Recycling is important in the effort to preserve our environment for future generations. We are running out of locations to put landfills. Recycling is a simple and effective way to reduce the amount of waste stored in landfills, yet many people do not know how easy it can be. For example, whenever I go to Shoprite® and I b...
This process saves energy, and conserves resources by reducing the amount of renewable resources that would normally end up in a landfill or in an incinerator. These recycling plants “increase jobs in manufacturing while simultaneously increasing the Unite State’s competitiveness in industry. ”(Recycling | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle | US EPA.) There are also several long term benefits of recycling. For example, “collecting and processing secondary materials, manufacturing recy... ...