What is recycling and how does it benefit the environment? I like to start with the basics – In Middlesex, recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials, such as certain plastics and metals, that might wind up in landfills otherwise.
Recycling can significantly reduce the amount of total waste that goes to landfills and incinerators. That’s good news because items like used mattresses can contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and electronics can contain heavy metals like mercury, lead, and cadmium that can do damage to the environment
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The trouble with not recycling is that the items will decay in landfills or be burned in incinerators. A mattress takes up 100 cubic feet of space in a landfill and can take many decades to decay in a landfill, where toxins could be sent into the soil, groundwater, and air.
The incinerator route is not much better since burning these disposable products creates toxins, which are likewise sent into the atmosphere. The best option is to recycle these materials because that prevents new manufacturing/mining and keeps harmful materials out of landfills/incinerators.
Create Positive Feedback with Middlesex Recycling
Products that get recycled stay out of landfills and incinerators, where they can pollute the environment, true. But did you know that more new products than ever are being produced by recycled materials?
By recycling more products you’re doing your part to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions out there, as well as the number of microplastics that harm the environment.
Aluminum Cans
Aluminum cans, for instance, are recyclable and can be spun back around into new cans in two months!
Aluminum cans can also be turned into new cars you see purring down the street. Car bodies and tractor-trailers can be constructed from recycled aluminum cans.
The beauty of recycling aluminum cans is that they can be recycled indefinitely without compromising the aluminum. This is a lot better than letting the can go to waste and getting crushed in an incinerator somewhere down the line.
The staggering part about recycling aluminum cans is that doing so uses about 1/20th of the energy of producing aluminum cans from scratch, i.e., from the bauxite ore.
Cardboard
Because at Junk King we do complete foreclosure cleanouts and estate cleanouts, we come across a lot of cardboard boxes that can get recycled. Cardboard is typically recycled into a new board.
Although that might sound obvious, the process checks a lot of boxes in terms of usefulness and being environmentally conscious. More than 90 percent of products that go through the mail system in North America are housed in cardboard packaging.
It is also reported that over 40 percent of the solid waste stream is composed of cardboard. In other words, you can help save a lot of energy and decrease the volume of solid waste that clogs up landfills by recycling cardboard.
Recycling cardboard is said to be 25 percent more efficient than manufacturing new cardboard, in terms of the energy required to get a usable product from each process.
Paper
Junk King also handles garbage collection and dumpster rentals for homeowners and business owners (B2B). At Junk King we take all of the items found below as far as junk removal:
- – Boxes
- – Knick-knacks
- – Books
- – Tools
- – Tires
- – Rubbish
- – Paper
- – Cardboard
- – Tires
- – Floorboards
- – Plasterboard
- – Frames
- – Windows
- – Shingles
- – Corrugated Iron
Junk King is North America’s ‘greenest’ junk removal company, and Junk King Middlesex is committed to recycling as many of the items above as possible.
Paper, like cardboard, is one of those nearly ‘all-purpose’ recyclables because it can be turned into so many different products upon getting processed.
Today’s recycled paper can be turned into needed items like tomorrow’s newspapers and telephone books. Recovered cardboard and paper can also be turned into tomorrow’s egg cartons and computer paper used for printing documents.
Paper can also get turned into tissues, magazines, napkins, road surfaces, and loft insulation. Amazingly, the paper you might otherwise throw out can be recycled into so many new products.
The recycling experts say that recycling a ton of paper is the energy equivalent of being able to power a home for 6 months!
That’s incredible – even more so when you consider that recycling paper benefits the environment twice over. Leaving more trees out there in nature leads to more carbon capture and less carbon dioxide in the environment, as well: more ways recycling benefits the planet.
Plastic
Some of the new uses for plastics are equally eyebrow-raising and surprising. For instance, your plastic milk container could be turned into the playground equipment that youngsters play on tomorrow.
The frisbee getting tossed right next to the playground may also have come from your recycled plastic item. Likewise, with the upholstered chair that is resting on the carpet – both upholstery and carpet can be recycled from plastic products.
Glass
Glass bottles, like aluminum cans, can be recycled and recycled indefinitely without compromising the material. Junk King and Middlesex recycling are great ways to ensure more aluminum and glass get recycled.
Glass can be made into flooring, stones, and tiles. It is reported that approximately 90 percent of recycled glass zips over the container industry, where it is used to make new bottles and jars.
About seven percent of the garbage in the United States is composed of glass. Glass is really important to recycle, like aluminum, because it can be totally and continually recycled. This means that recycled glass won’t lose strength or quality with repeated recycling.
Junk King and Recycling in the US
Junk King in the United States is said to be a $200-billion industry. The recycling industry also provides the economy with many more jobs than the landfill industry, and the former (recycling) is also a lot more eco-friendly.
Recycling the items mentioned above is often many times more efficient in terms of energy conservation than, for instance, mining for new raw materials and manufacturing new products from scratch.
Ready to go green with Middlesex recycling? Contact Junk King by booking an appointment online, calling 1-888-888-5865 (JUNK), or texting a photo to 1-737-888-5865.
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