Recycling

Recycling An ancient practice with many modern applications, recycling is the recovery and reuse of materials from spent products. In recent years recycling, also called materials salvage, has become a major part of environmental policy, due to the increased costs of solid- and hazardous-waste disposal, the scarcity of natural resources, and the growing concern over polluted land, water, and air. There are two types of recycling operations: internal and external. Internal recycling is the reuse in a manufacturing process of materials that are a waste product of that process. Internal recycling is common in the metals industry. External recycling is the reclaiming of materials from a product that has become almost obsolete. An example of external recycling is the collection of old newspapers and magazines for the manufacture of newsprint or other paper products. In some areas, industries are required to pre-treat wastewater before it is funneled into a waterway. In homes, wastewater is sent to a sewage-treatment plant, where it is purified, recycled, and put back into the water-supply system. Many gardeners recycle organic, biodegradable kitchen scraps by mixing them with leaves and grass clippings in a compost mound. There the organic waste decomposes and is recycling, materials, waste, states, solid, recovery, disposal, air, solid-waste, products, organic, internal, external, each, areas, world, wastewater, united, tons, small, should, salvage, reuse, recycled, pyrolysis, programs, product, process, problems, preserve, practice, pounds, pollution, per, paper