Recycling

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

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.

This is even a bigger problem in the Republic of Moldova since the waste management in our country is very bad. In the majority of our rural communities there are practically no organized services for the management of rubbish, the big amount of garbage stored on the ground being a source of water and land pollution. Consequently, many useful recycling materials are lost. Unfortunately, people are not well-informed about what recycling is and which are the benefits of recycling materials, this making the problem of irrational consumption even worse.

Food for Thought:

The average person generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day – about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year. Although the EPA estimates that 75 percent of solid waste is recyclable, only about 30 percent is actually recycled.