wearable and unwearable tewtiles

WEARABLE TEXTILES

SHOES : Resold abroad in countries like Pakistan, India, Africa and East European countries.

CLOTHES : Resold in the U.K. and abroad. Oxfam's Wastesaver provides clothes to Mozambique, Malawi or Angola for emergency use, as well as providing warm winter clothing to former Yugoslavia, Albania, Afghanistan and Northern Iraq.


UNWEARABLE TEXTILES

TROUSERS, SKIRTS, ETC. : Sold to the 'flocking' industry. Items are shredded for fillers in car insulation, roofing felts, loudspeaker cones, panel linings, furniture padding etc.

WOOLLEN GARMENTS : Sold to specialist firms for fibre reclamation to make yarn or fabric.

COTTON AND SILK : Sorted into grades to make wiping cloths for a range of industries from automotive to mining, and for use in paper manufacture.

destination of post-consumer textiles

Recycling textiles: What can YOU do?

• Take your used clothes to a textile bank. Contact the recycling officer in your local authority if there are no banks in your area and ask why; they may collect textiles through other means. Alternatively you can take used clothing to local charity shops.
• Give old clothes/shoes/curtains/handbags etc. to jumble sales. Remember to tie shoes together: part of the 6% of textiles which is wastage for merchants are single shoes.
• Buy second-hand clothes - you can often pick up unusual period pieces! If bought from a charity shop, it will also benefit a charity.
• Buy things you are likely to wear a long time - a dedicated follower of fashion can also be a green one if items are chosen carefully.
• Look for recycled content in the garments you buy. This should be on the label, though at present there is no conventional marking scheme and some companies do not always advertise the recycled content.
• Buy cloth wipers instead of disposable paper products as the product can be used repeatedly.
  

recycling paper

What are the main types of paper in everyday use which can be recycled?

• Office white paper
• Newspapers, magazines, telephone directories and pamphlets
• Cardboard
• Mixed or coloured paper
• Computer print out paper

What can I do to reduce the amount of paper being wasted?

• Try not to use as much in the first place! Use the back of sheets of paper as well as the front - look to see if that piece of paper you were going to put in the bin could be used as scrap paper for many uses eg to make a shopping list, to jot down your dental appointment or to leave a note for someone.
• Buy recycled paper products wherever possible.
• Reuse envelopes - sticky labels to cover the old address and re-seal the envelope are widely available, also made from recycled paper. Many charities sell them, so you can support them at the same time.
• Playgroups and schools may appreciate being given odd rolls of wallpaper, or any other kind of paper, for painting on or for other uses in the classroom. They are also often glad to receive newspapers to cover the tables for craft activities.
• When you buy a pint of milk or a soft drink, think about the container it is in. Is there an accessible recycling bank for the packaging, or might you end up throwing it away? It would be better to choose the product in the container you know you can dispose of locally for recycling.
• Contact The Mailing Preference Service (details under further contacts) to avoid receiving unsolicited mail.
• By putting a "no junk mail" sign by your letterbox you can cut junk mail such as pizza delivery leaflets by around 90%.
• Contact the BioRegional Development Group for information about paper made from fibres other than wood pulp.
  
  

tin cans

recycling metal

WHAT KIND OF METALS CAN BE RECYCLED

• Steel and tin cans e.g. pet food, baked beans and sardine cans etc
• aluminium drinks cans
• empty aerosol cans
• aluminium foil plates

recycling metals - How YOU can make a difference

Rinse - there is no need to remove labels but it's important that cans and aluminium foil plates are clean.
Why ? For health and safety reasons as there is a person on the truck who sorts all the items.
Metal containers may be stored for several weeks until there is sufficient quantity for transporting to manufacturers.
Dirty items, and food or liquid left in cans smell and attracts flies wasps and vermin.
Squash cans-
Why? Squashing helps reduce the amount of space they take up in the crate and the truck.
When squashed cans are less likely to be blown around and become litter.
Aerosol cans need to be empty and have their lids discarded. Place all items loose in the recycling crate.

glass produced/glass recycled

glass recycling

What you can do to help recycle glass

• If a bottle is returnable it is usually preferable to return it, rather than to recycle it.
• Rinse the bottles or jars - ideally in washing-up water you have in the bowl anyway.
• Wherever possible, remove metal or plastic tops, corks and rings from bottles or jars. Any tops which remain will be removed by magnets, vibratory screens or other methods, but they can cause damage to furnaces if any get through.
• Recycle all glass containers, not just drinks bottles. Containers which hold food, pharmaceutical and household items which are made of glass are all recyclable.
• Never deposit light bulbs or cookware such as 'Pyrex' or 'Visionware'. These have different properties to the glass used to make bottles and can contaminate a load, resulting in a sub-standard finished product. Flat glass, such as window glass, whole or broken, should not be put in bottle banks either - see below.
• Make sure that you put the bottles in the correct bank - clear, green or brown. Most importantly, ensure clear glass is not contaminated with colours as this will considerably reduce the value as a higher price is paid for uncontaminated clear glass. Bottles made from blue glass can be put in the green glass bank. Bottles with a coloured coating can be recycled as any finishes added later will burn off in the furnace. To find the original glass colour check the top of the bottle where the cap was and put the bottle in the appropriate bank.
• Try to plan your trip to bottle banks along with other essential activities such as going shopping or to school. This way the environmental impact of the journey is kept to a minimum.
• Do not leave any boxes or bags at the bank that you have used to bring your glass in, there is normally a bin provided for these. Try to use bottle banks during the day, to avoid disturbing the local

plastics produced /recycled

the benefits of plastics

The considerable growth in plastic use is due to the beneficial properties of plastics. These include:

• Extreme versatility and ability to be tailored to meet very specific technical needs.
• Lighter weight than competing materials, reducing fuel consumption during transportation.
• Extreme durability.
• Resistance to chemicals, water and impact.
• Good safety and hygiene properties for food packaging.
• Excellent thermal and electrical insulation properties. Relatively inexpensive to produce.

Types of plastic

There are about 50 different groups of plastics, with hundreds of different varieties. All types of plastic are recyclable. To make sorting and thus recycling easier, the American Society of Plastics Industry developed a standard marking code to help consumers identify and sort the main types of plastic. These types and their most common uses are:

• PET : Polyethylene terephthalate - Fizzy drink bottles and oven-ready meal trays.
• HDPE : High-density polyethylene - Bottles for milk and washing-up liquids.
• PVC : Polyvinyl chloride - Food trays, cling film, bottles for squash, mineral water and shampoo.
• LDPE : Low density polyethylene - Carrier bags and bin liners.
• PP : Polypropylene - Margarine tubs, microwaveable meal trays.
• PS : Polystyrene - Yoghurt pots, foam meat or fish trays, hamburger boxes and egg cartons, vending cups, plastic cutlery, protective packaging for electronic goods and toys.
• OTHER : Any other plastics that do not fall into any of the above categories. - An example is melamine, which is often used in plastic plates and cups.

How can you help recycle plastics?

*Rather than throwing them away, give plastic toys or containers to children's scrap stores or playgroups for reuse.

*Use plastic containers and bags again or make them into something else. For example use yoghurt pots to grow seedlings, use the top part of drinks bottles as cloches for plants and offer clean plastic carrier bags to charity shops.

*Buy products that are refillable.

*Think of ways of reducing the need for packaging. Don't add extra packaging yourself - a melon, a grapefruit or a bunch of bananas already has natural packaging - does it need to go in a plastic bag as well as your shopping bag, and does that already efficiently packaged dairy product or piece of meat really need another wrapper?

*Ask your local authority recycling officers which materials are currently collected or may be collected in the future.

*Look for products, e.g. bin liners and refuse sacks, made from recycled plastic, now available in many supermarkets. Also look out for products packaged in at least partially recycled material.

*For example, Shell Oil's 1 litre and 4 litre Helix oil packs now contain a proportion of recycled plastic, collected from domestic and industrial waste.

*If it does not already run one, suggest to your local authority that it considers starting a plastics recycling scheme. The development of market opportunities has meant that at the moment demand is outstripping supply of plastic bottles, so new initiatives are needed to feed the process and ensure its success. Encourage your local authority to buy products, such as street furniture, made from recycled plastic rather than wood.

what would happen if noone recycled?

We recycle to save the world's resources. For example, there is a limit to the amount of oil from which we can make plastic, and aluminium ore to make drinks cans. Resources that run out eventually are called 'finite resources'. By recycling these materials we can save finite resources for the future. By recycling, we also reduce the amount of rubbish which ends up in rubbish tips (also called landfill sites).
If no one recycled, we would eventually run out of finite resources and space to bury rubbish.

what can be recycled?

-mixed paper (newspaper, magazines, mail, phonebooks...)
-glass (glass jars, bottles...)
-aluminium (foil trays, beverage and food containers...)
-tin cans (pop cans, jar lids...)
-plastics (plastic bags, containers...)
-cardboard (shipping boxes, cereal boxes...)

intro

Did you know that every year american people throw away 208 million tons of municipal solid waste? That means that every day each person throws away an average of 4.3 pounds of garbage or trash/waffles!!!!What happens to this trash? Some gets recycled or recovered and some is burned but the majority is buried in landfill.