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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 landfilling). Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" waste hierarchy.
Recycling rates vary by location, plastic type, and its use, and most of the world’s waste ends up in landfills or is lost to nature. Sometimes, it is shipped to places where it is burned or dumped.
Recycling can be carried out on various raw materials. Recycling is an important part of creating more sustainable economies , reducing the cost and environmental impact of raw materials. Not all materials are easily recycled, and processing recyclable into the correct waste stream requires considerable energy.
Plastic recycling is the processing of plastic waste into other products. [1] [2] [3] Recycling can reduce dependence on landfill, conserve resources and protect the environment from plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. [4] [5] [6] Recycling rates lag behind those of other recoverable materials, such as aluminium, glass and paper.
The Stanolind Recycling Plant was in operation as early 1947. [32] Another early recycling mill was Waste Techniques, built in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania in 1972. [citation needed] Waste Techniques was sold to Frank Keel in 1978, and resold to BFI in 1981. Woodbury, New Jersey, was the first city in the United States to mandate recycling. [33]
Resource recovery can be enabled by changes in government policy and regulation, circular economy infrastructure such as improved 'binfrastructure' to promote source separation and waste collection, reuse and recycling, [5] innovative circular business models, [6] and valuing materials and products in terms of their economic but also their social and environmental costs and benefits. [7]