Editing Recycling (section)

{{Short description|Converting waste materials into new products}}
{{about|recycling of waste materials|recycling of waste energy|Energy recycling}}
{{redirect|Recycled|the album|Recycled (Nektar album)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2017}}

[[File:Recycling symbol.svg|thumb|150px|The three chasing arrows of the universal [[recycling symbol]]]]
[[File:Municipal waste recycling rate (%), OWID.svg|thumb|Municipal waste recycling rate (%), 2015]]
'''Recycling''' is the process of converting [[waste]] materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the [[Energy recycling|recovery of energy from waste materials]]. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Villalba |first1=G |last2=Segarra |first2=M |last3=Fernández |first3=A.I |last4=Chimenos |first4=J.M |last5=Espiell |first5=F |title=A proposal for quantifying the recyclability of materials |journal=Resources, Conservation and Recycling |date=December 2002 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=39–53 |doi=10.1016/S0921-3449(02)00056-3 |bibcode=2002RCR....37...39V  |issn=0921-3449}}</ref> It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower [[greenhouse gas emissions]]. It can also prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reducing energy use, [[air pollution]] (from [[incineration]]) and [[water pollution]] (from [[landfill]]ing).

Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and represents the third step in the "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" waste hierarchy, contributing to environmental sustainability and resource conservation.<ref name="Lienig & Bruemmer 2017">{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-55840-0_7 |chapter=Recycling Requirements and Design for Environmental Compliance |title=Fundamentals of Electronic Systems Design |year=2017 |last1=Lienig |first1=Jens |last2=Bruemmer |first2=Hans |pages=193–218 |isbn=978-3-319-55839-4 }}</ref><ref name=ECWaste>{{cite web|author=((European Commission)) |date=2014 |title=EU Waste Legislation |url=http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/legislation/a.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312223737/http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/legislation/a.htm |archive-date=12 March 2014 }}</ref> It promotes environmental [[sustainability]] by removing raw material input and redirecting waste output in the economic system.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Geissdoerfer |first1=Martin |last2=Savaget |first2=Paulo |last3=Bocken |first3=Nancy M.P. |last4=Hultink |first4=Erik Jan |title=The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm? |journal=Journal of Cleaner Production |date=1 February 2017 |volume=143 |pages=757–768 |doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.048 |bibcode=2017JCPro.143..757G |s2cid=157449142 |url=http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29108/1/29108.pdf |access-date=8 April 2021 |archive-date=31 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331065450/https://dro.dur.ac.uk/29108/1/29108.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> There are some [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO standards]] related to recycling, such as ISO 15270:2008 for plastics waste and [[ISO 14001]]:2015 for environmental management control of recycling practice.

''Recyclable materials'' include many kinds of glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, [[tire]]s, [[textile]]s, batteries, and [[electronics]]. The [[composting]] and other reuse of [[biodegradable waste]]—such as [[food waste|food]] and [[Green waste|garden waste]]—is also a form of recycling.<ref name="gar">{{cite book |author = ((League of Women Voters)) |title = The Garbage Primer |publisher = Lyons & Burford |year = 1993 |location = New York |pages = 35–72 |isbn = 978-1-55821-250-3 }}</ref> Materials for recycling are either delivered to a household recycling center or picked up from curbside bins, then sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials for manufacturing new products.

In ideal implementations, recycling a material produces a fresh supply of the same material—for example, used office paper would be converted into new office paper, and used [[polystyrene]] foam into new polystyrene. Some types of materials, such as [[Steel and tin cans|metal cans]], can be remanufactured repeatedly without losing their purity.<ref name="NG">{{Cite web|date=2018-04-04|title=7 Things You Didn't Know About Plastic (and Recycling)|url=https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/|access-date=2023-02-08|website=National Geographic | author = Lilly Sedaghat |archive-date=25 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125035237/https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/|url-status=live}}</ref> With other materials, this is often difficult or too expensive (compared with producing the same product from raw materials or other sources), so "recycling" of many products and materials involves their ''[[reuse]]'' in producing different materials (for example, [[paperboard]]). Another form of recycling is the [[Waste sorting|salvage]] of constituent materials from complex products, due to either their intrinsic value (such as [[lead]] from [[car battery|car batteries]] and [[gold]] from [[printed circuit board]]s), or their hazardous nature (e.g. removal and reuse of [[mercury (element)|mercury]] from [[thermometer]]s and [[thermostat]]s).

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