|
Industry, by its very nature of activity, produces
significant quantities of waste at various stages
of production/manufacturing processes. In addition
to industrial wastes, substantial quantities of wastes
are produced by commercial and domestic activities.
The handling of waste disposal has evolved over the
past many years. Earlier, man assigned least importance
to wastes - Wastes were considered as wastes only.
The inconvenience and the problem of space forced
mankind to dispose wastes in places away from living
areas. Therefore these wastes were disposed off by
dumping them in wastelands.
By dumping in wastelands, one cannot escape the detrimental
effects of the toxicity, environmental hazards, sanitary
and public health problems. This lead to the concept
of incineration as one of the solutions for disposing
wastes.
Today, there is paradigm shift in the way that waste
is handled. Waste is seen as a material which can
be converted to a useful value added resource.
Definition
Recycling is the process of transforming materials
that would otherwise be discarded as waste, into useful
commodities. The recycled material may be either the
raw material or the final product.
Benefits of Recycling
Recycling the waste materials into reusable products
has multi-fold benefits. Some of the benefits of Recycling
process are
- Conservation of material resource
- Conservation of Energy
- Energy consumed to transport the material at
the manufacturing site
- Energy consumption for the manufacturing process
itself
- Competitiveness
Conservation of material resource
Recycling of waste products reduces the usage of virgin
raw materials, which in turn conserves natural resources.
Use of fly ash from thermal power station for manufacturing
blended Portland cement would be an example of recycling.
Typically, in cement industry manufacturing 100 million
tons of ordinary Portland cement, 140 million tons of
limestone is required. If fly ash is used along with
limestone , 28 million tones of limestone can be saved.
Use of wood from the demolished old building for new
buildings reduces deforestation, thereby leading to
a sustainable activity.
In a paper industry, utilisation of waste paper can
substitute the use of virgin wood/bamboo, thereby protecting
the natural forests.
The use of treated effluent water for cooling water
requirements of HVAC systems could be a classic example
of recycling a resource.
Conservation of Energy
Energy conservation is a major benefit accruing out
of recycling. Energy conservation by recycling manifests
itself in two forms
- Substituting the recycled products for fresh
raw materials eliminates energy consumption in transporting
raw material to the manufacturing unit.
- The recycled material will have undergone several
stages of production. By recycling, the energy consumption
required till the stage the material is taken for
recycling is eliminated.
Competitiveness
Reduction in cost of raw materials and savings in energy
input costs reduces the overall cost of the product
and increases the competitiveness of industry.
For more details on Recycling contact gbc@ciionline.org
|