Recycling bins are an important starting point in the recycling process.

Sept. 5, 2010 - PRLog -- Recycling bins are an important starting point in the recycling process.  Recycling involves 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. The humble recycling bin is by far one of the most important starting points for the recycling process.

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 first put into the correct bin in the recycling bin, which is then picked up by your rubbish truck which is 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 (e.g., paperboard) 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 (e.g., removal and reuse of mercury from various items).

The use of a recycling bin also plays an important part in helping to reduce carbon emissions. Recycling reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials all of which create substantial air and water pollution. As recycling saves energy it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change. Current UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of C02 a year – the equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road. Recycling uses less energy and produces less pollution than making things from scratch.

For example:-
- Making Aluminium cans from old ones uses one twelfth of the energy to make them from raw materials.
- For glass bottles, 315kg of CO2 is saved per tonne of glass recycled after taking into account the transportation and processing.
- Making bags from recycled polythene takes one third the Sulphur Dioxide and half the Nitrous Oxide, than making them from scratch.

There are many different types of recycling bins available and http://www.homerecycle.co.uk offers a wide range of solutions for homes and kitchens alike.

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Home recycle offers a range of recycling bins and home recycling solutions http://www.homerecycle.co.uk