Future Work

Last RE-cycling post (for now)

I have been writing this blog for the last 3.5 months as coursework of the Global Environmental Change module. This is part of the University College of London “Climate Change” MSc.

During these months I tried to talk about recycling and, more generically, about waste management. I decide to organize the work starting from some background concepts related to the typology, quantity and methods to dispose the waste we produce (Digging the topic 1, 2 & 3). Other important group of posts is aimed to understand the role and importance of the recycling process: following the Waste Hierarchy, I explained why recycling (together with Reuse and Reduce), represents the best disposal method to treat the waste (Recycling: yes or not? 1,2,3,4 & 5).

In between, I gave space to some news (as source I mainly used “the Guardian” website and Adam Vaughan pieces of writing) and some extra links and initiative (“America Recycles Day” or the “Guardian Big Energy Debate”).

Moreover, I dedicated few posts to the recycling process and facilities within our University: I wrote about initiatives like the “Christmas Switch Off” or, simply, about the new recycling 3-stream-bins and relative signs. Importantly, I had the luck to meet the Green UCL staff. We had a wonderful chat about several UCL-recycling-topics like quantity of waste produced, recycling ratio, new 3-stream-bins, quality of recycled, WARPit & Junk in the Trunk projects and about the way to improve the recycling results.

I think that the best way to conclude is by writing what a list of future topics would be. In a blogger style, I am keen to highlight here an hypothetical future posts schedule:

1. Costs of recycling

2. Recycling and waste management in developing countries

3. Psychology and people behaviour/approach

4. Reuse and Reduce: some practical examples

5. Recycling and waste management in London

6. A day in a landfill site

7. Interviews

8. Updates about news and events about recycling and waste

9. Updates about Green UCL activities

….and thanks everyone for reading this blog!

Where are we?

Sketch and videos

Before posting the last posts, I thought it was nice and useful to make a (very rough) schematic outline of the blog. Just in case you lost yourself.

Moreover, you can find a few nice and simple videos that show how the recycling process takes place. At the same time, they summarize some of the concepts that I have explained in these few months (source: Recycle Now).

That's all, enjoy!

Video 1: Cans
Video 2: Food waste
Video 3: Paper
Video 4: Plastic bottles
Video 5: Glass bottles

See you soon on RE-cycling!

Introducing recycling, introducing this blog

A brief welcoming post about all these green bins

Starting for now with a simple description, we can define the concept of recycling as a process that consists in three main steps: waste collection, waste sorting and production of new items. This set of actions can be applied to a wide range of recycling products. If we mention, for instance, paper, plastic or glass we probably all think about the garbage subdivision that we should do everyday at home and, therefore, we can easily infer what the process means. However, if we take into account also food wasting, we need to extend the concept to other directions that can be less straightforward compared to the general idea of recycling that most of us have in mind. Furthermore, when we include in the process other environmental components like water resources and several types of energy the concept of recycling assumes an even broader meaning and needs a more careful approach.
The word "recycling" is often linked to two other words, “reuse” and “reduce”, and the three terms together give a wider sense to all the implications involved in this issue. Reusing wasted food to produce energy or reducing our own water usage in order to prevent water scarcity or, more simply, reusing shopping bags rather than getting a new one every time are only three of a variety of actions that we mention that give a general idea of what we intend for the recycling-reusing-reducing concept. These three “re”-actions rarely can be separated from each other in this context. To demonstrate this connection, I report the idea of Adam Vaughan that "manufacturing new products from recycled material rather than new virgin material almost always results in lower CO2 emissions". In this particular example, it is shown how the “reducing” action could be interpreted in two ways: as a tool related to “reusing” action (i.e., use again shopping bags reduces the waste production) or as an improving consequence of “recycling” process.

Through "RE-cycling towards an eco friendly society" I wish to explore more in detail the three steps listed at the beginning of this post, focusing on the recycling and waste process and on potential benefits derived from it. Is this fundamental in our society? Do we have to care about it? What does the process involve? How long does it take? How much does it cost?

Beyond these questions, I wish to present few practical cases (as the recycling method within our university and how the recycling in London is regulated), I will write about recycling initiatives and about any other related story.

See you soon on RE-cycling!