REuse, REduce, REcycle

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle Edição : Bruno Estevens & André Franco Universidade do Algarve 2010/2011

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Index

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What is recycling?

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The Process Paper Recycling Glass Recycling Plastic Recycling Aluminium Recycling Electronic Recycling Tire Recycling

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Why do recycling?

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Waste & Recycling

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Eco Design

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Eco Products

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Environmental reasons

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What is recycling?

Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for “conventional” waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.

Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” waste hierarchy.

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Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, metal, plastic, textiles, and electronics. Although similar in effect, the composting or other reuse of biodegradable waste (such as food or garden waste) is not typically considered recycling. Materials to be recycled are either brought to a collection center or picked up from the curbside, then sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials bound for manufacturing.

In a strict sense, recycling of a material would produce a fresh supply of the same material, for example, used office paper would be converted into new office paper, or used foamed polystyrene into new polystyrene. However, this is often difficult or too expensive (compared with producing the same product from raw materials or other sources), so “recycling” of many products or materials involves their reuse in producing different materials instead.

Another form of recycling is the salvage of certain materials from complex products, either due to their intrinsic value (e.g., lead from car batteries, or gold from computer components), or due to their hazardous nature (removal and reuse of mercury from various items).

Critics dispute the net economic and environmental benefits of recycling over its costs, and suggest that proponents of recycling often make matters worse and suffer from confirmation bias. Specifically, critics argue that the costs and energy used in collection and transportation detract from (and outweigh) the costs and energy saved in the production process; also that the jobs produced by the recycling industry can be a poor trade for the jobs lost in logging, mining, and other industries as-

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sociated with virgin production; and that materials such as paper pulp can only be recycled a few times before material degradation prevents further recycling.

Proponents of recycling dispute each of these claims, and the validity of arguments from both sides has led to enduring controversy.

Recycling has been a common practice for most of human history, with recorded advocates as far back as Plato in 400 BC. During periods when resources were scarce, archaeological studies of ancient waste dumps show less household waste (such as ash, broken tools and pottery) implying more waste was being recycled in the absence of new material. In pre-industrial times, there is evidence of scrap bronze and other metals being collected in Europe and melted down for perpetual reuse. In Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires was collected by ‘dustmen’ and downcycled as a base material used in brick making. The main driver for these types of recycling was the economic advantage of obtaining recycled feedstock instead of acquiring virgin material, as well as a lack of public waste removal in ever more densely populated areas. In 1813, Benjamin Law developed the process of turning rags into ‘shoddy’ and ‘mungo’ wool in Batley, Yorkshire. This material combined recycled fibres with virgin wool. The West Yorkshire shoddy industry in towns such as Batley and Dewsbury, lasted from the early 19th century to at least 1914.

Many secondary goods were collected, processed, and sold by peddlers who combed dumps, city streets, and went door to door looking for discarded machinery, pots, pans, and other sources of metal.

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Industrialization spurred demand for affordable materials; aside from rags, ferrous scrap metals were coveted as they were cheaper to acquire than was virgin ore. Railroads both purchased and sold scrap metal in the 19th century, and the growing steel and automobile industries purchased scrap in the early 20th century.

By World War I, thousands of such peddlers roamed the streets of American cities, taking advantage of market forces to recycle post-consumer materials back into industrial production.

TheProcess For a recycling program to work, having a large, stable supply of recyclable material is crucial. Three legislative options have been used to create such a supply: mandatory recycling collection, container deposit legislation, and refuse bans. Mandatory collection laws set recycling targets for cities to aim for, usually in the form that a certain percentage of a material must be diverted from the city’s waste stream by a target date. The city is then responsible for working to meet this target.

Container deposit legislation involves offering a refund for the return of certain containers, typically glass, plastic, and metal.

When a product in such a container is purchased, a small surcharge is added to the price. This surcharge can be reclaimed by the consumer if the container is returned to a collection point.

These programs have been very successful, often resulting in an 80% recycling rate. Despite such good results, the shift in collection costs from local government to industry and consumers has created strong opposition to the creation of such programs in some areas.

A third method of increase supply of recyclates is to ban the disposal of certain materials as waste, often including used oil, old batteries, tires and garden waste. One aim of this method is to create a viable economy for proper disposal of banned products.

Care must be taken that enough of these recycling services exist, or such bans simply lead to increased illegal dumping.

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Paper Recycling Paper recycling is the process of recovering waste paper and remaking it into new paper products. There are three categories of paper that can be used as feedstocks for making recycled paper: mill broke, pre-consumer waste, and post-consumer waste. Mill broke is paper trimmings and other paper scrap from the manufacture of paper, and is recycled internally in a paper mill.

becoming pulp. Chemicals in the liquid separate the ink from the paper, the pulp is screened and cleaned to remove glue, other debris and any remaining ink, the pulp is refined and beaten to make it ready to become paper again, the pulp is fed into a machine that spits out the pulp onto a flat moving screen where it forms sheets.

The sheets are rolled and dried and ready for their new life.

Pre-consumer waste is material which left the paper mill but was discarded before it was ready for consumer use. Post-consumer waste is material discarded after consumer use, such as old corrugated containers (OCC), old magazines, old newspapers (ONP), office paper, old telephone directories, and residential mixed paper (RMP). Paper suitable for recycling is called “scrap paper�. The industrial process of removing printing ink from paperfibers of recycled paper to make deinked pulp is called deinking.

Paper is made of tiny fibers. Because these fibers eventually become weak, paper cannot be recycled forever. Most types of paper can be recycled, but some types (those with a glossy or waxy coating) are too expensive to recycle. When you recycle paper, you should try to separate newsprint, white paper and cardboard. Here’s a look at the recycling process for paper.

All starts with you bringing your paper to the recycling center, the paper is sorted and transported to a pulping facility. The paper is soaked and heated in huge vats,

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Glass Recycling Glass recycling is the process of turning waste glass into usable products. Glass waste should be separated by chemical composition, and then, depending on the end use and local processing capabilities, might also have to be separated into different colors. Many recyclers collect different colors of glass separately since glass retains its color after recycling. The most common types used for consumer containers are colorless glass, green glass, and brown/amber glass.

Glass makes up a large component of household and industrial waste due to its weight and density. The glass component in municipal waste is usually made up of bottles, broken glassware, light bulbs and other items. Adding to this waste is the fact that many manual methods of creating glass objects have a defect rate of around forty percent.

Glass recycling uses less energy than manufacturing glass from sand, lime and soda. Every metric ton of waste glass recycled into new items saves 315 additional kilograms of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere during the creation of new glass. Glass that is crushed and ready to be remelted is called cullet. Reuse of glass containers is preferable to recycling according to the waste hierarchy. Refillable bottles are used extensively in many European countries, Canada and until relatively recently, in the United States. In Denmark 98% of bottles are refillable and 98% of those are returned by consumers. A similarly high number is reported for beer bottles

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in Canada. These systems are typically supported by container deposit laws and other regulations. In some developing nations like India and Brazil, the cost of new bottles often forces manufacturers to collect and refill old glass bottles for selling carbonated and other drinks.

People bring their glass to recycling centers, the glass is sorted by color at these centers, these glass is transported to a processing facility where it is cleaned and crushed into what is called cullet, the cullet is brought to a manufacturing plant and mixed with more sand, soda ash and limestone.

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The mixture is heated in a furnace and turned into a liquid, the liquid is then poured into molds and shaped into new product.

Plastic Recycling Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products, sometimes completely different in form from their original state. For instance, this could mean melting down soft drink bottles and then casting them as plastic chairs and tables. Typically a plastic is not recycled into the same type of plastic, and products made from recycled plastics are often not recyclable.

When compared to other materials like glass and metal materials, plastic polymers require greater processing to be recycled.

Plastics have a low entropy of mixing, which is due to the high molecular weight of their large polymer chains. A macromolecule interacts with its environment along its entire length, so its enthalpy of mixing is large compared to that of an organic molecule with a similar structure.

Heating alone is not enough to dissolve such a large molecule; because of this, plastics must often be of nearly identical composition in order to mix efficiently. When different types of plastics are melted together they tend to phase-separate, like oil and water, and set in these layers. The phase boundaries cause structural weakness in the resulting material, meaning that polymer blends are only useful in limited applications. Another barrier to recycling is the widespread use of dyes, fillers, and other additives in plastics. The polymer is generally too viscous to economically remove fillers, and would be damaged by many of the processes that could cheaply remove the added dyes. Additives are less widely used in beverage containers and plastic bags, allowing them to be recycled more frequently.

The use of biodegradable plastics is increasing. If some of these get mixed in the other plastics for recycling, the reclaimed plastic is not recyclable because the variance in properties and melt temperatures.

Before recycling, plastics are sorted according to their resin identification code, a method of categorization of polymer types, which was developed by the Society of the Plastics Industry in 1988.

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Polyethylene terephthalate, commonly referred to as PET, for instance, has a resin code of 1. They are also often separated by colour. The plastic recyclables are then shredded. These shredded fragments then undergo processes to eliminate impurities like paper labels. This material is melted and often extruded into the form of pellets which are then used to manufacture other products.

So, people bring their used plastics to a recycling center, the plastic is brought to a recycling plant where it is washed and inspected, after that the recyclable plastic is washed and chopped into tiny flakes, the flakes are separated in a flotation tank, the flakes are dried and then melted into a liquid, the liquid is fed through a screen for even more cleaning.

It comes out in long strands the strands are cooled and cut into pellets, the pellets then make their way to manufacturers who use them to make new products.

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Aluminium Recycling Aluminium recycling is the process by which scrap aluminium can be reused in products after its initial production. The process involves simply re-melting the metal, which is far less expensive and energy intensive than creating new aluminium through the electrolysis of aluminium oxide (Al2O3), which must first be mined from bauxite ore and then refined using the Bayer process. Recycling scrap aluminium requires only 5% of the energy used to make new aluminium. For this reason, approximately 31% of all aluminium produced in the United States comes from recycled scrap.

The recycling of aluminium generally produces significant cost savings over the production of new aluminium even when the cost of collection, separation and recycling are taken into account.

Over the long term, even larger national savings are made when the reduction in the capital costs associated with landfills, mines and international shipping of raw aluminium are considered.

Recycling aluminium uses about 5% of the energy required to create aluminium from bauxite, because the latter requires a lot of electrical energy to electrolyse aluminium oxide into aluminium. Just how much is vividly shown when aluminium oxidises, in Thermite and Ammonium perchlorate composite propellant.

If energy directly equated to carbon dioxide, then recycled aluminium could be said to create 5% of the carbon dioxide produced in the creation from raw materials. In practice, this cannot be assumed. Electrolysis can be done by electricity from non-fossil-fuel sources, such as nuclear, geothermal, hydroelectric, or solar. Aluminium production is attracted to sources of cheap electricity. Canada, Brazil, Norway, and Venezuela have 61 to 99% hydroelectric power, and are major aluminium producers.

The vast amount of aluminium used means that even small percentage losses are large expenses, so the flow of materiel is well monitored and accounted for financial reasons. Efficient production and recycling benefits the environment as well. Aluminium beverage cans are usually recycled in the following basic way: Cans are first divided from municipal waste, usually through an eddy current separator and are cut into little, equal pieces to lessen the volume and make it easier for the machines which separate them, that pieces are cleaned chemically/ mechanically and are blocked to minimise oxidation losses when melted. (The surface of aluminium readily oxidizes back into aluminium oxide when exposed to oxygen.

Blocks are loaded into the furnace and heated to 750 °C ¹ 100 °C to produce molten aluminium.

Dross is removed and the dissolved hydrogen is degassed.

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This is typically done with chlorine and nitrogen gas. Hexachloroethane tablets are normally used as the source for chlorine. Ammonium perchlorate can also be used, as it decomposes mainly into chlorine, nitrogen, and oxygen when heated. Samples are taken for spectroscopic analysis. Depending on the final product desired, high purity aluminium, copper, zinc, manganese, silicon, and/or magnesium is added to alter the molten composition to the proper alloy specification. The top 5 aluminium alloys produced are apparently 6061, 7075, 1100, 6063, and 2024.

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The furnace is tapped, the molten aluminium poured out, and the process is repeated again for the next batch. Depending on the end product it may be cast into ingots, billets, or rods, formed into large slabs for rolling, atomized into powder, sent to an extruder, or transported in its molten state to manufacturing facilities for further processing.

Electronic Recycling Computer recycling or Electronic recycling is the recycling or reuse of computers or other electronics. It includes both finding another use for materials (such as donation to charity), and having systems dismantled in a manner that allows for the safe extraction of the constituent materials for reuse in other products.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations came into force in January 2007 and aim to reduce the amount of this waste going to landfill and improve recovery and recycling rates.

Obsolete computers or other electronics are a valuable source for secondary raw materials, if treated properly; if not treated properly, they are a source of toxins and carcinogens. Rapid technology change, low initial cost, and even planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of computer or other electronic components around the globe.

Technical solutions are available, but in most cases a legal framework, a collection system, logistics, and other services need to be implemented before a technical solution can be applied. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated 30 to 40 million surplus PCs, which it classifies under the term “hazardous household waste�, will be ready for end-of-life management in each of the next few years. The U.S. National Safety Council estimates that 75% of all personal computers ever sold are now surplus electronics.

In 2007, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that more than 63 million computers in the U.S. were traded in for replacements—or they simply were discarded. Today 15 percent of electronic devices and equipment are recycled in the United States.

Most electronic waste is sent to landfills or becomes incinerated, having a negative impact on the environment by releasing materials such as lead, mercury, or cadmium into the soil, groundwater, and atmosphere.

Many materials used in the construction of computer hardware can be recovered in the recycling process for use in future production. Reuse of tin, silicon, iron, aluminum, and a variety of plastics can reduce the costs of constructing new systems. In addition, components frequently contain copper, gold, and other materials valuable enough to reclaim in their own right.

Computer components contain valuable elements and substances suitable for reclamation, including lead, copper, and gold. They also contain many toxic substances, such as dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cadmium, chromium, radioactive isotopes, and mercury.

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A typical computer monitor may contain more than 6% lead by weight, much of which is in the lead glass of the cathode ray tube (CRT). A typical 15-inch computer monitor may contain 1.5 pounds of lead, but other monitors have been estimated as having up to 8 pounds of lead. Circuit boards contain considerable quantities of lead-tin solders and are even more likely to leach into groundwater or to create air pollution via incineration.

Additionally, the processing required to reclaim the precious substances (including incineration and acid treatments) may release, generate, and synthesize further toxic byproducts.

A major computer or electronic recycling

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concern is export of waste to countries with lower environmental standards.

Companies may find it cost-effective in the short term to sell outdated computers to less developed countries with lax regulations. It is commonly believed that a majority of surplus laptops are routed to developing nations as “dumping grounds for e-waste”.[4] The high value of working and reusable laptops, computers, and components (e.g., RAM) can help pay the cost of transportation for a large number of worthless “commodities”. Broken monitors, obsolete circuit boards, and shortcircuited transistors are difficult to spot in a containerload of used electronics.

Tire Recycling Tire recycling or Rubber recycling is the process of recycling vehicles tires (or tyres) that are no longer suitable for use on vehicles due to wear or irreparable damage (such as punctures). These tires are among the largest and most problematic sources of waste, due to the large volume produced and their durability. Those same characteristics which make waste tires such a problem also make them one of the most re-used waste materials, as the rubber is very resilient and can be reused in other products. Approximately one tire is discarded per person per year. Tires are also often recycled for use on basketball courts and new shoe products.

However, material recovered from waste tires, known as “crumb,” is generally only a cheap “filler” material and is rarely used in high volumes. Tires are not desired at landfills, due to their large volumes and 75% void space, which quickly consumes valuable space.

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Tires can trap methane gases, causing them to become buoyant, or ‘bubble’ to the surface. This ‘bubbling’ effect can damage landfill liners that have been installed to help keep landfill contaminants from polluting local surface and ground water.

Shredded tires are now being used in landfills, replacing other construction materials, for a lightweight backfill in gas venting systems, leachate collection systems, and operational liners.

Shredded tire material may also be used to cap, close, or daily cover landfill sites.

Scrap tires as a backfill and cover material are also more cost-effective, since tires can be shredded on-site instead of hauling in other fill materials.

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Tire stockpiles create a great health and safety risk. Tire fires can occur easily, burning for months, creating substantial pollution in the air and ground. Recycling helps to reduce the number of tires in storage. An additional health risk, tire piles provide harborage for vermin and a breeding ground for mosquitoes that may carry diseases. Illegal dumping of scrap tires pollutes ravines, woods, deserts, and empty lots; which has led many states to pass scrap tire regulations requiring proper management. Tire amnesty day events, in which community members can deposit a limited number of waste tires free of charge, can be funded by state scrap tire programs, helping decrease illegal dumping and improper storage of scrap tires.

Tires can be recycled into, among other things, the hot melt asphalt, typically as crumb rubber, tires can also be recycled into other tires.

Pyrolysis can be used to reprocess the tires into fuel gas, oils, solid residue (char), and low-grade carbon black which cannot be used in tire manufacture. A pyrolysis method which produces activated carbon and high-grade carbon black has been suggested. Recent developments in devulcanization enable dealing with substantial volumes, taking 40 mesh whole tire crumb and converting it into value added compounds without degrading the polymer and without generating any pollution. This new generation in devulcanization technologies operates with very high productivity while maintaining a low energy footprint.

The compounds produced from processed tire scrap can be blended with virgin rubber compounds, maintaining performance while substantially reducing the raw material cost.

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The substantial economies of scale and value addition now make it possible to make burning of tires entirely unnecessary.

The pyrolysis method for recycling of used tires is an innovation technique that uses a special mechanism to heat the used tires in a closed, environment. There are many different ways to achieve the melting procedure.

For a long time, external heating methods were used. Recently an electro–magnetic field technology was developed by Coral group, in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.

This method produces carbon, metal, gas and artificial oil as by-products of the recycling process. The quality of these by-products depends on the heating technique used, with simple outside heating techniques producing heavy oils (mazut); however, newer techniques that produce a “softer� pyrolysis produce by-products such as benzene, kerosene and diesel. The process of remediation of tire waste using microwaves to excite the rubber until it is in a gaseous state which will be condensed into its component parts including diesel, syngas as well as carbon black and plated steel.

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Why do recycling?

Recycling is an important way for individuals and businesses to reduce the waste they generate and reduce the negative impact of that waste.

Because recycling is big business, every time you recycle, it also supports the many companies and employees doing this important work.

Recycling conserves our natural resources, saves landfill space, conserves energy, and reduces water pollution, air pollution and the green house gas emissions that cause global warming. Together, Reducing, Reusing, Recycling and buying Recycled products make up a comprehensive waste and resource reduction strategy that benefits our natural world and our economy.

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Saving natural resources and Conserving landfill space Everything that goes into a landfill stays natural areas Making products with recycled material slows the depletion of non-renewable resources such as metal, oil and natural gas, and reduces the encroachment of new mining and drilling operations. Conserving renewable resources through recycling also helps preserve undisturbed land and natural diversity by reducing the amount of land needed for agriculture and timber production.

Saving energy It generally takes less energy to make products with recycled materials than virgin materials, often significantly less. For example, it takes 20 times more energy to make aluminum from bauxite ore than using recycled aluminum. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a computer for 3 hours. Benefits of reduced energy consumption include reduced costs and reduced dependence on foreign suppliers.

there, taking up space. As waste breaks down which can take hundreds of years it releases the greenhouse gas methane and can emit many toxic pollutants into our water table. Keeping recycleable items out of our landfills keeps air and water cleaner, reduces the need to build new or expanded landfills, and conserves resources by putting existing materials back to good use.

Creating industry and jobs Recycling isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for business. Firms are among industry leaders in research and development of recycled content products and mechanical and chemical systems for recycling material into new products.

Reducing pollution Because most energy is generated by burning fossil fuels, using less energy means generating less water and air pollution-especially the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Recycling also reduces other forms of pollution as well: Runoff from mining operations and farms, soil erosion and the toxic chemicals released when raw materials are processed.

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Waste & Recycling Managing Waste As a Valued Resource. We live in a busy world where our clients are daily making complicated choices about how to best manage their waste streams while balancing their critical service and budget goals.

As a company that has worked in the industry for 25 years, Resource Recycling Systems not only understands these demands but has an extensive service set that helps our clients develop and implement sustainable waste and recycling programs.

Providing a Systems Approach Our clients’ needs are multi-dimensional and need to be examined with a “systems” perspective and approach. Success is achieved by making sure that each program component works well with the rest of the system—from the collection system to the facilities and operating procedures, from recycling capacity and education to waste and resource management. Our hands-on experience across multiple industries allows us to bring a full range of interdisciplinary services to each of our clients and projects.

With an emphasis on resource conservation, decreased system costs, increased program revenues and greater participant satisfaction, we make certain you get more for your waste management and recycling dollar. Sustainable program planning is at the core of our business. Our strategies are built on sound business case justifications resulting in viable, sustainable programs for our clients. Creating Shared Goals and Desired Outcomes. Our planning process helps determine appropriate goals and strategies to pursue in order to achieve the desired set of outcomes. We provide maximum benefit to our clients’ programs and bottom lines by evaluating priorities, options, costs and partnership opportunities.

Providing Incentives to Recycle More

Our clients’ programs are broadly accepted by their communities and have avoided many of the pitfalls that are part of achieving a sustainable solid waste program.

They have used emerging technologies to advance recov-

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ery efforts and have yielded significant programmatic cost savings along with providing incentives to recycle more.

Commercial Recycling Development

Resource Recycling Systems offers firsthand practical experience and analytical tools to help upgrade and/or “tune up� your existing program and facility. We assist our clients through the use of financial analysis, program benchmarking, data management services, route optimization and technology evaluations.

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Running at Full Capacity and Building Facility Capacity and Capabilities Peak Performance In collaboration with our partners, Emerge-ReTRAC and RecycleBank, we utilize state-of-the-art surveying tools and incentive-based recycling initiatives to ensure that your program is running at full capacity. Our client-specific tools assess your current operation and then manage for peak performance whether you work with in-house operations staff or contracted service vendors. With ouzr technical assistance, our public and private sector clients have successfully upgraded their programs so that they are able to reach maximum performance and improve program service levels while lowering their overall costs.

Resource Recycling Systems provides engineering and designing services for a variety of solid waste and recycling infrastructure projects.

We have designed and optimized the following: Small to large scale material recovery facilities (MRFs) and transfer stations Yard waste and biosolids composting systems; construction and demolition debris processing plants; small to large Design and Optimization Projects; RRS’s expertise is solidified by our 25 years of professional infrastructure development within all phases of a project. Our capabilities additionally extend into fullservice citizen drop-off centers, feedstock preparation and processing systems, and waste management facilities for hospitals and universities.

Our comprehensive support services include identification of reliable supplies of feedstock, adequate sources of capital and operational funds and effective management techniques. We recognize that successful waste management systems are built around facilities that have the capacity and capabilities required to get the job done—challenges that we know how to tackle.

Analysis Health Care Facilities Health care facilities face an array of challenges as they foster a safe and healthy workplace for their staff and patients.

Ensuring compliance with federal, state and local regulations requires continuous auditing and monitoring as does reducing risks and liabilities. Having solid policies and procedures for all material handling operations is paramount.

Compliance and Cost Containment Resource Recycling Systems employs a full-system approach to managing waste materials, emphasizing compliance and cost containment from the point of generation to the point of final disposal or recycling. RRS provides a comprehensive range of services for our health care clients in the following categories:

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Waste Stream Management – Ensure proper disposal of your general, regulated medical, universal and hazardous wastes from the point of generation to the point of final disposal. Our staff will help identify and prioritize materials for waste reduction and recycling to help lower your costs and environmental impact.

Sustainability Planning – We help integrate sustainable change into your facility with waste stream management, environmental purchasing, sustainable building design, carbon and energy planning and facility management services. RRS will help you set goals, develop and implement a plan and make your actions measureable.

Resource Management – RRS offers an onsite resource management team that works to aid sustainability efforts while continually monitoring performance, compliance and safety on a day-to-day basis.

Contract Management – RRS’s extensive contract management experience gives us the ability to negotiate pricing with substantial cost savings for your facility. We monitor the cost and performance of all recycling and waste subcontractors, giving you confidence that your institution is optimizing collection and processing overhead costs.

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EcoDesign Ecodesign aims at reducing the environmental impact of products, including the energy consumption throughout their entire life cycle.

Apart from the user’s behaviour, there are two complementary ways of reducing the energy consumed by products: labelling to raise awareness of consumers on the real energy use in order to influence their buying decisions (such as labelling schemes for domestic appliances), and energy efficiency requirements imposed to products from the early stage on the design phase. The production, distribution, use and end-of-life management of energy-using products (EuPs) is associated with a considerable number of important impacts on the environment, namely the consequences of energy consumption, consumption of other materials/resources, waste generation and release of hazardous substances to the environment. It is estimated that over 80% of all productrelated environmental impacts are determined during the design phase of a product.

Against this background, Eco-design aims to improve the environmental performance of products throughout the life-cycle by systematic integration of environmental aspects at a very early stage in the product design.

The Council and the European Parliament therefore adopted a Commission proposal for a Directive on establishing a framework for setting Eco-design requirements (such as energy efficiency requirements) for all energy using products in the residential, tertiary and industrial sectors. Coherent EU-wide rules for eco-design will ensure that disparities among national regulations do not become obstacles to intra-EU trade. The directive does not introduce directly binding requirements for specific products, but does define conditions and criteria for setting requirements regarding environmentally relevant product characteristics (such as energy consumption) and allows them to be improved quickly and efficiently. It will be followed by implementing measures which will establish the eco-design requirements. In principle, the Directive applies to all energy using products (except vehicles for transport) and covers all energy sources.

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EcoProducts What are eco products?

Also know as eco design or sustainable products, these items use one or a combination of ways to reduce their overall environmental impact.

A range of eco electrical items can now be bought on-line or at many High Street retailers, includingeveryday household items such as mobile phones, TV’s, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and printers.

How do they reduce their environmental impact?

Eco design electricals can: use recycled materials - like plastics and metal reduce the energy they use adjust the energy they use to suit different tasks reduce the size, weight or packaging i.e. less materials used be made to last longer be repaired easily generate their own energy i.e. solar power or wind-up contain less harmful chemicalsbe taken apart easily for recycling.

Many brands now produce electrical items that reduce the impact on the environment. Take a look below at a few great examples.

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Water Clock A clock running water. No need to stack, just water. Just put it under the tap, fill the tank, add a little lemon and you have an awesome clock running for about 6 weeks.

This is much ecological that use the typical 3 alkaline batteries! In addition to being a clock that runs on water, with which wake up each morning, also displays the day of the week and the air temperature.

Burning Lamp Bulbs Idea of the designers of the Canadian Beaver Design agency, reuse of incandescent bulbs burning can be done with much creativity. Since we no longer work to illuminate the lamps used to decorate the light from another lamp.

Lamps Trash Me The American designer Victor Vetterlein lamps developed for appraising project Trash Me in the term “transitional�. The proposal was to create products from materials that can be easily found in the trash and that they had a short life cycle.

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Laminated Bamboo Lumber The Teori launched the project called Laminated Bamboo Lumber, which has six designers, developing bamboo pieces from Kurashiki. The bamboo is increasingly becoming popular precisely because they combine the concept sustainable and responsibility to the environment because their fast growth and easy cultivation, extraction brings a less aggressive to the environment, moving away from the crisis caused by lumber in general.

Bottle Solar Heater Aiming to reduce the environmental impact of packaging discarded irresponsibly, the solar heater of PET bottles and Tetra Pak cartons has affordable, it is an environmentally friendly product and has high performance and can reach 37 º C in winter and 50 º C in summer , Providing a saving of approximately 35% of electric power.

Friends of Nature Dell announced its line of desktops “friends of nature, “ 80% less than conventional desktops, consuming 70% less energy and 95% of its packaging is recyclable.

Equipped with Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM, 320GB hard disk recorder, DVD player and Blu-ray, wireless, wifi.

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Environmental reasons Do your bit to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. Even for households that are already composting, new research has found that almost half of the food waste in their rubbish bins could have been composted. Did you know, composting at home for just one year can save global warming gases equivalent to all the CO2 your kettle produces annually, or your washing machine produces in three months?

We’re often asked “Why do I need to compost when my waste will break down in landfill anyway?”

“Just like you I am keen to do my bit for the environment and at the same time help my garden. All you need to do is follow the advice on this website and you too can get the best out of your bin and start giving Mother Nature a helping hand” Philippa Forrester.

The time for putting that finished compost to use has arrived. Before starting, you’ll probably want to find out if it actually is ready to go! You can do this by making sure your compost is dark brown and smells nice and earthy. It should also be slightly moist and have a crumbly texture. It probably won’t look like the compost you buy in the shops and it’s very likely that yours will still have twigs and eggshell in it!

When waste is sent to landfill, air cannot get to the organic waste. Therefore as the waste breaks down it creates a harmful greenhouse gas, methane, which damages the Earth’s atmosphere. However, when this same waste is composted above ground at home, oxygen helps the waste to decompose aerobically which means hardly any methane is produced, which is good news for the planet. And what’s more, after nine to twelve months, you get a free fertiliser for your garden and plant pots to keep them looking beautiful.

Benefits for your gardenYour compost is a nutrient-rich food product for your garden and will help improve soil structure, maintain moisture levels, and keep your soil’s PH balance in check while helping to suppress plant disease. It will have everything your plants need including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and it will help buffer soils that are very acidic or alkaline.

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Don’t worry... it’s still perfectly good to use!

Simply sift out any larger bits and return them to your compost bin. Your fresh compost is nutrient-rich food for your garden and will help improve soil structure, maintain moisture levels and keep your soils pH balance in check while helping suppress plant disease. It has everything your plants need, including nitrogen, phospherous and potassium and it will help beffer soils that are very acidic or alkaline. Compost improves your soil’s condition and your plants and flowers will love it! ... on flowerbeds help your new plants and flowers bloom by digging a 10cm layer of compost into the soil prior to planting.If your flowers have already been planted, you simply need to spread a thin layer of compost-enriched soil around the base of the

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plants. Nutrients will work their way down to the roots and your plants will enjoy the healthy boost compost provides. It is important that you leave gaps around any soft stemmed plants. ...to enrich new bordersThe borders of your garden will also greatly appreciate your compost. Spread up to a 5cm layer of compost over the existing soil. Worms will quickly like getting to work mixing it in for you! Otherwise you can dig your finished compost into the soil prior to planting. It is important that you leave gaps around any soft stemmed plants. ...as mulch using your compost as mulch is a great idea.

Mature lawns can really benefit from this little extra kick of nutrients but be aware that newly seeded or turfed lawns can be scorched by it.

must be the change you “You wish to see in the world. ” Mahatma Gandhi

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