Recycle

What is recycling?

Recycling is the processing of used materials into new products.

What are the types of recycling?

Due to economic and technological constraints, used materials are rarely recycled into the same new product. Instead, used materials are generally recycled into a different new product. Depending on the relative value of the used and new products, materials are said to be either down-cycled or up-cycled.

• Down-cycled: when the new product created from a recycled used product is less expensive or less desirable than the original product. For instance, high-quality paper is usually down-cycled into less valuable copy paper that has ink residue and shorter fibers than the original high-quality paper.

• Up-Cycled: when the new product created from a recycled used product is more expensive or more desirable than the original product. This is uncommon in practice, with the best examples being “junk-yard art.” Junk-yard art often consists of discarded items being transformed through creative display or combination into display pieces.

What are common criticisms of recycling?

Recycling itself is generally not criticized. Instead, government supported or mandated recycling programs are usually the targets of criticism such as:

• Voluntary recycling will occur if recycling a particular resource actually saves resources because there will be market incentives.
• Jobs in the recycling sector are generally less desirable than the jobs they replace in the extraction industry.
• The process of recycling is more energy intensive than traditional trash disposal and manufacture from unrecycled materials.