Recycling as part of the Circular Economy

1. Unit 2.1 Recycling

2. Unit 2.1 Recycling - Aims
The aim of this unit is to introduce students to the concepts and principles of
recycling and how this fits into part of the tools used to foster and support
the Circular Economy. This unit will result in a range of competences for the
indicated EQF levels. The expected learning outcomes from this unit is set
out below:
Learning
Objectives:
• Understand and explain the concept of
recycling,
• Provide specific examples of recycling and
material handling,
• Describe closed and open loop recycling
and provide examples,
• How to articulate the benefits of recycling
to an organisation.
EQF Levels: This Content is mainly suitable for EQF level 5
(undergraduate)

3. What is recycling?
Recycling of waste is defined as any recovery operation by which waste materials are
reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other
purposes.
It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery
and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling
operations.
The differentiation between the terms reuse, recycling and recovery is important for
the understanding and application of the targets stated in EU waste legislation.
Definitions for recycling and reuse in waste specific Directives partially deviate from the
corresponding definitions of the Waste Framework Directive
Recycling is what we are most familiar with and some societies have been doing this for
many years. Material streams like plastic bottles, glass, paper and card, separated at
our homes and businesses are recycled. They are taken away to specialist factories,
refined and then find their way back in to manufacturing as an input material to a
product.

4. Europe’s recycling rate?
From Eurostat data we compare the recycling rates for different countries? What does
this tell you about the (a) the best performing countries, and (b) where the biggest
improvements have taken place over the past 16 years?
Answer
a) It tends to be
northern European
countries who have
performed well for
many years and have
made minor
improvements
b) Other countries like
Slovenia, UK, Poland
have made
impressive progress,
because they have
been catching up
with the countries
with a more
established recycling
infrastructure

5. The EU has set targets
Waste is a policy area where the EU has taken a lead. Over the
past 20 years the EU has introduced a number of Directives
and Regulations that each country in the EU is expected to
make law in their own country.
One interesting fact is that different types of waste generate
from different sources. For instance in the UK we produce:
• 120 million tonnes per year of construction and demolition
waste, consisting of mainly rubble, soils, concrete and other
material from the building process.
• 31 million tonnes per year of municipal waste. You would
expect us to have a definition for municipal waste and we
do – it is waste which generated from the household or
similar in composition to household. So waste from our
homes, shops, offices and similar commercial wastes are all
municipal.
• 11.5 million tonnes of packaging waste. This will be
included in the municipal waste stream, but is a target
waste because of packaging recycling and recovery targets,
wit around 60% of packaging being recycled and a further
4% being recovered through energy recovery through
burning.
1. A common EU target for
recycling 65% of municipal
waste by 2030;
3. A common EU target for
recycling 70% of construction
and demolition waste by 2020
2. A common EU target for
recycling 75% of packaging
waste by 2030
4. A common EU target to
reduce landfilling of municipal
waste by 2030
Question: Can you think of other waste streams that we might
want to look at specifically fro recycling?

6. How is waste treated across the EU
Waste needs to be managed. Across Europe we produce 450kg per person
of municipal waste. But what happens to it. See the Eurostat data below.
What can you conclude from the information provided in terms of trends
over time.

7. Understanding what material is in a
waste stream is an important
consideration in deciding what
recycling strategy we should have, and
what materials we should focus on.
This is done through waste
compositional analysis which is a fancy
term for taking batch samples of
waste and then separating the waste
into buckets for different materials.
Each bucket containing
plastic/glass/metal/paper etc is then
weighed and the proportions
recorded.
Many composition studies are carried
out, but one study – see opposite
looked at municipal waste across all
OECD countries predicted what
material might be found.
Paper and card is the most followed by
organics (food and garden waste
mainly).
Question – Do you think the waste
composition of a developed and a
developing country might differ?
What is in our waste?

8. Open and closed loop recycling
We now introduce two important
concepts for recycling:
• Closed loop recycling is where the waste
product material is taken and reprocessed
back into the same product.
• Open loop recycling is where the same
waste product material is taken and
reprocessed into a different product. Often
considered downcycling
• Watch the following two videos to learn
about closed loop recycling of milk
bottles and the open loop recycling of
bricks from plastic
• Can you think of other examples of open
and closed loop recycling

9. Innovation – New solutions for
waste and closing the loop
In the UK there is a well known saying “where
there is muck, there is brass, which essentially
means there is money to be made in waste. But
with all sorts of wastes and materials there is
great scope for innovators to identify market
opportunities and devise new solution for
dealing with waste.
Watch the following TedTalk presentation.

10. How do we get value from recycling?
Recycling focuses on the recovery of materials from waste
products, and relies heavily on the collection and sorting of the
different fractions of material types from the waste stream.
There are several key factors for recycling success. These are:
• Good recycling collection service offered by the municipalities
• Good engagement by the public to collect and separate the waste.
• Technologies for the automated sorting and segregation of materials;
and
• Markets for the recycled materials, even if these markets are
overseas.
Watch the following video to learn how waste material can be
sorted effectively at Material Recovery Facilities

11. Well done for completing this
presentation – lets summarise
1. Recycling is an important part of the circular
economy
2. There are two types of recycling – closed and open,
with closed being the preferred
3. Developed countries have well established recycling
programmes, but there is scope for improvement
4. There are opportunities for the development of
innovative solutions in creating markets for recycled
materials