What Is Recycling

Tap to Read ➤ We are aware of the importance of recycling. But do we really follow this issue and promote recycling or do we join the bandwagon that propagates ideals but practices lofty promises? Azmin Taraporewala

"Generations have trod, have trod, have trod [. . .] And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod." Recognize these lines? 'Gods Grandeur' is that one composition inked by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which bears testimony aptly expressing the relationship between man and nature in the times to come.

The environmental issues faced in the present scenario, reflect the equation that nature and man share. It is indeed a premonition preconceived, even before the term 'recycle' was discovered!

We often end up equating the term recycle for ozone ostracized. The matter of recycling has become the most controversial issues to spell and create row about on dinner tables and dispel concentration levels in conference cabins.

However, do we really know what is recycling and why it is deemed important. Have we made an effort to comprehend what role do we as responsible residents of this planet play in restoring the environment?

Have we ever considered the pure concept of recycling without it being synonymic to ozone depletion and waste management? Well, now is the time to do just that!

The Atavism Called Recycling

Recycling is to reduce and reuse waste. Waste products find refuge and gain a new face of life when they are converted to reusable goods. We may say that the product has been successfully recycled when the product has been purchased and used again.

The process of recycling is a lengthy one and involves the waste matter to be transported to a specific factory that deals in converting waste into the reusable products.

A product is said to have been recycled and is deemed reusable, when the converted product conforms to the code of conduct in terms of its potential, credibility and hygiene-centric conditions. The product that is made sustaining the recycling process should be in conjunction to products that are manufactured from virgin materials.

What Does the Recycling Symbol Signify?

Have you seen the recycling symbol? It is a symbol forming a triangular structure with arrows that stand for the three looped recycling process. It explains what is recycling in an apt manner involving three steps.

It also works well to help your kids realize and understand the importance of recycling. They are: Collecting material that can be recycled. Taking the old product and converting it into a new one. Buying the newly transformed or recycled product made from material that we intended to discard.

What Can Be Recycled?

● Glass is one product that is completely recyclable and saves energy.

Recycled glass can be transformed into beverage bottles and food jars. Colored glass when recycled can be manufactured into brand new colored glass products. Do not include window pane glasses or broken light bulbs as these may serve to be a challenge for the glass manufacture to save his furnace from the terrible damage that it would endure.

● Paper can be recycled into tissues, new newsprints, writing paper and paper towel products. Corrugated paper can also be used to make new cardboard or corrugated boxes.

● Aluminum , when recycled conserves energy. Aluminum cans can be recycled into new aluminum cans.

● Cans made from steel can be a good source of renewing steel waste, moreover the tin and steel caps are also an important addition that the manufacturers look out for.

● Plastic that is used in plastic soda bottles and plastic milk jugs are the ones that can be reused.

● Leaves and other dried plant waste matter can be used to make a compost bin in your backyard. Composting can serve to be an organic fertilizer and nutrient supplier for your plants.

This can make your backyard look and feel clean, with an added advantage for your plants to seep in the natural properties that the recycled matter produces.

What Are the Benefits of Recycling?

Lowers the cost incurred on purchasing raw material to manufacture new products. Elevates the efficiency with which the production of goods takes place. Waste disposal cost is reduced. Energy is conserved while manufacturing process of the product takes place.

Recycling conserves and saves on limited resources. It is eco-friendly and helps in reducing the effects of the global phenomena regarded as Global Warming. Reduces water pollution. Helps us to manage waste better.

What Can You Do to Recycle?

As we have discussed the benefits of recycling and its potential to better the environment, why not try to make a difference to the environment in our own small, but significant ways.

● Do you go grocery shopping? If you do, why not carry your own bags to the store! By not demanding fresh bags from the salesman on the billing counter, you are saving on the plastic that is being used.

● Accept paper bags wherever and whenever offered. Do not ask for a plastic bag when you know that the paper bag would work just fine to carry the load.

● This may sound cliche; however, this is a reminder that every other environment purist is bound to enforce. Switching off lights, fans or any other electrical appliance when you are not in the room, saves electricity, which inversely means energy is being saved.

● The same goes for saving water. Twist the taps close, when not in use. A shower bath once in a while is a good change; however, if you are keen to save water, switch to a bucket bath.

It has been found that an individual is bound to use more than twice the quantity of water when using the shower than when one bathes using the bucket. Luxurious baths can be encouraged but not all the time, especially when conservation is on our mind!

● Do not dispose the vegetable wastes. You might as well use it to make your very own compost bin.

● Hoarding may not be the answer all the time to satiate your needs. Just as you are replenishing your closet with fresh fabrics, so, too, it is important that you give away clothes that you no longer wear.

You may either donate your old clothes to orphanages or have them passed on to the recycling banks. However, make sure that the clothes that you donate are in presentable condition. They should not be torn and sutured from all ends.

● You may reuse old clothes as cleaning cloths or dusters for the house. There is no need to visit a supermarket and buy dishcloths or dusters when you could homespun them!

● We are aware of the fact that we are able to access the world, interact and post our opinions at the press of a button. Access news on the net instead of subscribing for a newspaper service everyday. This practice will save paper.

● You may also recycle glass. Apart from donating it to recycle banks, you may use glass jars and containers by transforming them into a flower vase, pen holder or knife keeper!

You may also donate your old spectacles to an eye clinic where an ophthalmologist agrees to use them for the less privileged patients who may be unable to bear the cost of getting a new pair designed for them.

Recycling is the most important matter to have taken shape in a scenario where respect for nature has depleted. The proximity between nature and man has monolithically widened.

We need to conserve nature and its resources for generations to trod and aid them to continue their journey towards esoteric sublimity, so that they never have to ask nor answer a question about recycling!