Recycling is, everyone will have at least heard by now, one of the most important ways to protect the environment. By recycling, we can accomplish multiple goals at once — protect our access to non-renewable resources, reduce waste, and prevent hazardous materials from contaminating the ecosystems that sustain much of the life on the planet including, ultimately, our own.
When you think of “recycling”, though, you may not be aware that there are various types of recycling, and that some of them only partially make use of recycled materials while also requiring the addition of completely new (or “virgin”) substances, as some of the quality is lost over the course of the product’s life and it may not be possible to recycle the entire product.
Closed-loop recycling has more in common with what an idealistic person might imagine when they think of recycling in general. With a closed-loop, a product can be made once, fulfill its original purpose, and then be processed to create a new product — without any of the components going to the landfill, and without the need to add non-recycled products. While energy is still needed to recycle products in a closed-loop, it’s significantly less, and no materials are wasted.
Aluminum is a prime example of a material that holds up excellently through the recycling process. Cans can, for instance, be used, correctly recycled by consumers, and then sorted and processed to make new cans. This is closed-loop recycling at its finest, but other materials can be recycled this way, too. PET plastic and glass are two other great examples of closed-loop recycling.
Closed-loop recycling is so important because it saves valuable resources from winding up in landfills permanently, prevents the sourcing and (much more energy-intensive) processing of new materials, and helps keep used consumer goods from endangering wildlife like birds and fish.
The success of closed-loop recycling depends on consumers, however — so it’s up to you to both choose goods that use sustainable materials that can be recycled on a closed-loop, and to recycle them correctly.
Recycling efficiency has been increased dramatically with robotic trimming as well. Reduced error from the precision of robotic trimming has lowered the necessity for material being scrapped and reduced to be reused again, but also allows for the minimal resources left over to still be usable. This optimizes the use of scrap material to ensure that no single piece goes to waste if possible. This lowers long term waste management cost as well, and it will only become more and more effective as programs and operation of the processes become optimized correctly.