Should we recycle?

Should we recycle?

Although recycling is useful and more recycling is desirable, we need to make good decisions. Too much focus on material recovery can be misleading – just because we can recycle, doesn’t mean we should. Recycling always aims to produce secondary raw materials from “wastes” that can compete with primary raw materials in terms of quality and can be manufactured cheaper than or equally to the primary raw materials themselves. During the processing some parts of the processed material as well as unwelcome impurities and interfering substances make it harder to meet the standards of quality that can be found in primary sourcing of materials. In all steps of the process special attention must be paid to these issues. Sometimes the high energy and chemical input in the recycling process is underestimated and recycling a particular substance may not be better for the environment or more cost-effective. For every material there is an ecological, economic and societal optimum that has to be determined. If the recovery of a given resource has a higher energy demand and/or has a higher impact on the environment than primary mining, it could cause more damage than it prevents and should be avoided. The environmental impact of recycling the raw material needs to be less than its primary production. These are important criteria when evaluating reusing and recycling processes.