Whats what recycling - Recycling Glossary

When you no longer need or want something and you throw it in the bin, it becomes waste. Ecobot's Waste Facts show that we are throwing away more things, and creating more waste, than ever before.

Because of the large amount of waste we make, we may run out of room to put it all if we are not careful. This means we may have to dig more holes closer to where we all live to put all of our smelly waste, now that would not be very nice, would it!

Also, everything that we make starts life as a raw material taken from inside the Earth - which cannot always be replaced. If we do not start to make better use of these raw materials then we may one day run out.

So, why is waste a problem?

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RAW MATERIALS

New things require lots of raw materials. There are lots of different types of raw materials, and they can be made into almost anything.

A few examples of raw materials that cannot last forever are:

Oil

Oil is used to make plastics - plastics are used to make many goods like televisions, food wrappers, bottles, mobile phones, computer cases and computer cases.

Wood

Wood is used to make paper, furniture, newspapers, magazines and is often used to heat peoples' homes. If we keep using as much wood as we do now it will mean that one day we may lose lots of our beautiful forests.

Iron Ore

Iron Ore is used to make steel which can be used to make food tins and drinks cans.

Bauxite

Bauxite is used to make aluminium. This too is often used to make food and drinks cans.

Limestone

Glass is made out of silica and limestone. We have lots of silica as this is another name for sand. However Limestone is much harder to dig out of the ground and we do not want to ruin our countryside by creating any more limestone quarries.

Once we have used up that raw material it cannot be replaced. If we do not reduce the amount of things we buy, reuse old things or recycle things into new products then we will eventually run out of raw materials.

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LANDFILL SITES

If we throw things away without recycling them, then they just end up in big holes in the ground called landfill sites. The UK is running out of space to make new landfill sites. If we don't reduce the amount of waste we put into landfill sites then one day we may end up having nowhere to put all of our stinky waste!

Some of the problems with landfill sites is they attract pests, flies and gulls to the rubbish piles which make it even smellier. The gulls carry away bits of food and drop them all over the place. Rats also like landfill sites and are also a problem.

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ENERGY

If we throw away things without reusing or recycling them it means we have to make new products from scratch - which uses a lot of energy. This energy is used in the following ways:

• Getting the raw material out of the ground (e.g. cutting down trees, pumping oil out of the ground etc)
• Transport the raw materials sometimes all over the world, to convert the raw material into goods in factories (e.g. turning wood into paper requires a lot of machinery - which uses a lot of energy).

It also takes energy to recycle your plastics, tins, cans and paper into new products, but it is usually a lot less than making the product from scratch. For example:

• Recycled paper uses up to 70% less energy than making new paper.
• A recycled aluminium can will have taken 95% less energy to manufacture than one that has been made from raw materials. (source Waste Watch 2004)

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THE ENVIRONMENT

All of these things will also have an effect on our environment. Landfill sites are ugly and smelly. Raw materials also have a lot of value for animals and plants. For example if we cut down more and more trees there will be fewer places for wildlife to live. Waste is also bad for animals as some creatures can get hurt or killed in waste (e.g. broken bottles, sharp tins/cans and plastic bags).

Also, because landfill sites are not very good at breaking down food and garden waste, they release a gas called methane. This is a Greenhouse Gas which contributes towards Global Warming and Climate Change.

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