Recycling

Recycling turns discarded material into a form that can be used to manufacture products or materials. It differs from reusing an object, which extends its life without first reprocessing its material. Waste laws may define recycling and recovery precisely; for example, the European Union's Waste Framework Directive treats them as distinct concepts. Recycling is one part of waste management rather than a substitute for preventing waste: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's hierarchy places source reduction and reuse ahead of recycling.

A typical system begins when households, businesses or other generators separate materials for collection. Collection may be curbside, at a drop-off site or through a deposit-return arrangement. At a recovery facility, materials are sorted, cleaned and processed into usable feedstock. Manufacturers can then incorporate that material into new products, and demand for those products helps create an end market for recyclables. Collection, processing, transport and sales are linked: what a facility can sort and what manufacturers will buy influence which materials a local program accepts.

Programs commonly collect some combination of paper, cardboard, glass containers, metal cans and plastics. Each material stream requires suitable sorting and processing, and a product's recyclability in principle does not guarantee that it will be collected or processed in a particular community. Materials recovery facilities and recycling markets also differ in what they can handle. For this reason, recycling instructions are local: an item accepted in one program may need a different disposal route elsewhere.

Using recycled material can reduce demand for newly extracted resources, conserve energy in some processes and divert waste from landfills or incinerators. The size of these benefits varies with the material and how it is collected, transported, processed and used. Recycling systems also face practical and economic constraints: contamination, unclear labels, limited collection access, processing costs and fluctuating commodity prices can all affect results. A collection drive alone does not complete recycling if the material cannot be processed or has no suitable end use.

Governments use collection services, product rules, targets and producer-responsibility policies to shape recycling systems. In the European Union, the Waste Framework Directive establishes a waste hierarchy and legal principles for waste management; other jurisdictions use their own laws and program designs. Recycling is also part of the broader idea of a circular economy, in which products and materials are kept useful for longer through measures such as prevention, refurbishment, reuse and recycling. International assessments therefore consider recycling together with wider choices about how much waste is produced and how materials are managed throughout their life cycle.