Want to find out after the waste in the green bin is collected? Read our article to find out!

1. Recycling is one of those simple tasks that we all do, or know we should, to help the
environment and limit the waste we produce, thereby decreasing the size of our carbon
footprint. We know that by doing so, we’ll reduce the waste that ends up in huge landfills. Not
only does the breakdown of these create huge amounts of toxic chemical waste slowly
polluting the planet, but using all new materials to create products is slowly depleting the
Earth’s resources as well. And in the light of climate change and an increasing call to action to
consider how we treat the planet, that’s something that more and more of us are beginning to
think of now.
But considering how much faith some of us unthinkingly put into the service, it’s one that we
may not know much about beyond separating our plastic and glass and picking up the recycled
loo roll over the quilted
stuff when doing the
weekly shop. The actual
recycling process is really
quite an involved one and
there may well be more
to it than you would
initially think. So how
does recycling work?
The initial stage, when the
waste to be recycled is
picked up, is most likely
the one you’re most
familiar with. This can be
done in one of four
methods.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling
Either from:
• Outside of your property, when the material you have put out for pick up is collected. Some
of the sorting process is done at this point by workers.
• Recycling centres and banks.
• Buy-back centres, where you can sell back scrap materials, such as metal or wood, for a
profit, depending on the market value.
• Refund/deposit programs. The availability of these will depend on where you live, but
anyone who’s ever spent a weekend at a festival will no doubt be familiar with trawling through
the crowds looking for old cans to return to the vendors for a small refund. Or at least, have
noticed other people doing so…

2. From here, the materials will be transported to a recycling facility where the materials will be
properly sorted and separated. The process from here on out will differ according to the
product being recycled.
Image Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2009/feb/26/recycling-waste
Paper, for example, accounts for a large amount of household waste and although trees are
planted to provide pulp, this involves a far greater amount of energy than recycling waste paper
takes. When paper is picked up, it will be sorted according to weight, use, type, colour and
whether or not it has been previously recycled. From there, different chemicals and solutions
will be used to turn it into a pulp and extract dye, while various other methods are used to
remove any staples and other unwanted chemicals. Following this, it will then be ironed out
into sheets, before it is cut into different sizes to be shipped off for resale.
Glass, on the other hand, can be recycled in one of two ways: either by thoroughly cleaning and
disinfecting the existing bottles for reuse, or by sorting the glass according to colour, grinding it
down where it is sorted through using layers and then melting it down before it is reformed
into new glass.
Plastic sees a similar process: sorted by colour before they’re broken down or melted into
smaller parts that can then be reused. While cans are also broken down into smaller parts,
which are then heated to remove the paint, before they are melted and formed into sheets in
order to be resold.

3. At this point in the process, regardless of the form the waste takes, it then needs to be
compressed and stored before it can be transported for resale. To do this, recycling centres rely
heavily on the use of baling wire, which is essential to the process. The material is put through
baling machines, which will process and compress the waste into bales of a standard size, which
makes them easy to store, handle and then transport. Baling wire is used in conjunction with
these machines, to create these bales. The type of wire used can vary, as it is entirely
dependent on the baling press used.
The different types that can be
used include:
• Black annealed or
galvanised formers: both are
used on automated baling
presses.
• Cut and looped: a special
type of wire that’s finished
with a looped end, for manual
tying. This can also either be
black annealed or galvanised.
• Rewound coils: used for
automatic baling presses.
Depending on the customer’s
requirements, these can be
created in different sized.
Cut and Looped Black Annealed Wire
Image Courtesy of D R Baling Wire Manufacturers
(Please, visit our website to browse our extensive range of black annealed wire products:
http://www.drbalingwire.co.uk/black-annealed-wire)
It’s only following this part of the process that the material can be transported and sold to
companies to be made into new products.
After this, recycled products can then be sold to companies, who can then use the recycled
waste materials to create new products, which are then, obviously sold on to the consumer,
thereby effectively completing the cycle.
While the environmental benefits of recycling are widely known and often quoted, the process
can also reap huge economic ones. The most obvious way in which it can create these benefits
is by creating and maintaining an industry that in its turn leads to a huge number of jobs. For

4. some companies, recycling is the sole source of their income, as they rely on buying, recycling
and reselling waste materials. And in areas that are densely populated, the money that can be
saved on landfill space can amount to millions. Not only that, but when it comes to certain
types of materials, recycling waste can be much more cost effective than creating products
from raw materials. Steel is an excellent example of such a product. As a result of this and an
ever-increasing demand from more environmentally aware consumer base, an increasing
number of companies now use recycled materials to create their products.
Of course, it’s up to you to choose the recycled loo roll over the quilted stuff.