Paper recycling was first recorded in 1031 when Japanese shops sold repulped paper. In Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires was collected by "dustmen" and downcycled as a base material for brick making.
Paper recycling was reportedly invented in 1690 in America, by the Rittenhouse family of Philadelphia. Metal recycling was claimed to be invented by patriots in 1776 when a statue was melted to make bullets.
US Recycling Start
Finally, in 1690, recycling reaches the New World. The Rittenhouse Mill in Philadelphia opens and begins recycling linen and cotton rags. The paper produced from these materials was sold to printers for use in Bibles and newspapers.
The first paper recycling happened in Japan as early as 1031. In Britain, dust and ash from coal fires was collected and turned into a base material for making bricks.
Early recycling efforts (1920-1950)
Waste paper collections from households and factories started in Melbourne in the 1920s, with the practice becoming widespread across Australia by the 1940s due to the start of WWII.
Over a third of Australians 36% do not believe their waste is properly recycled and 15% believe it all goes to landfill.
Recycling history in Australia
This all started in 1815 when the first Australian paper mill was created. History states that the paper mill used recycled rags and turn them into paper material. Additionally, Planet Ark reported that BHP first began using recycled steel back in 1915.
In 1959, Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin made the prototype for what would inevitably become the plastic bag we are accustomed to seeing today. They were developed as an alternative to the widespread use of paper bags, which were losing popularity at the time due to their contribution to deforestation.
Germany. Germany has held the highest recycling rate in the world since 2016, with 56.1% of all waste being recycled in the country. A country-wide packaging audit was conducted in Germany in 1990 to address the amount of waste going to landfills.
until landfills started filling up in the 1970's. “Landfilling was the most popular form of disposal after World War II,” Melosi says, and recycling is a way to reduce tipping the balance. “It takes things out of the waste stream, preserving landfill space.
Waste management experts say the problem with plastic is that it is expensive to collect and sort. There are now thousands of different types of plastic, and none of them can be melted down together. Plastic also degrades after one or two uses. Greenpeace found the more plastic is reused the more toxic it becomes.
Did you know that steel is the most recycled material in the world? In North America, we recycle around 80 million tons of steel each year. That's more than the weight of all of the cars in the entire state of California.
German recycling bins
The German recycling system uses six different bins classified according to a color system, which tells users what kind of waste they can put into each of them.
Here are the three main types of recycling: mechanical, energy and chemical. Every single type is subdivided into minor categories, but understanding them gives us a better idea of how the world processes most of its recyclables. Any of these three main recycling types involves three basic steps.
South Korea created its Waste Management Law in 1986, a practical step to achieving a no-waste country. The law focused on reducing the millions of tonnes of waste dumped at landfills. To reduce the high quantities of plastic in the garbage, the government banned the use of disposable plastic bags and containers.
The first efforts to convert waste to energy began as early as the mid-20th century with the implementation over time of a cohesive national recycling policy. This boosted recycling rates and placed the nation as a global leader in recycling.
The long-lasting nature of glass also means that glass can be recycled forever. It never wears out as a raw material, so old bottles and jars can be remanufactured into new glass containers over and over and over again. Recycling glass saves other resources in addition to landfill space.
When it comes to recycling, metal is hard to beat. That's because it's endlessly recyclable - every last bit can be turned into something else. And it's a cycle that can go on for ever.
It may come as a shock, but a good proportion of the plastic bottles, packaging and other recyclables that we faithfully drop into our recycling bins each week have, until now, been shipped off to China. Why? Because it's cheaper to process the plastic in China than in Australia.
In January 2018, China's ban on the importation of 24 types of recyclable materials sent Australia's waste management industry, which indirectly employs around 50,000 people, into a tailspin.
In Australia, we recycle 55% of all the waste collected from households, businesses and construction and demolition. There are around 100 Material Recovery Facilities operating in Australia which separate out the different materials for recycling.