Recyclable packaging is a form of packaging that can be recycled and reused. Fortunately, packaging products in recyclable materials is easier than ever. Many companies choose to use recyclable materials for packaging because they want to minimize the impact on the environment or reduce the waste generation in landfills.

Packaging is an inevitable part of daily life. It protects products, saves them, improves them, displays essential information, acts as a marketing tool and enables safe transportation. However, the unfortunate fact is that packaging is generally considered waste.

Therefore, a key consideration for good packaging design is generating less waste after its useful life while helping the end consumer use it and the products it contains effectively.

Before you start to determine whether recyclable packaging (and which type) is suitable for your business, it is important to understand what it means fully and many other commonly used terms such as biodegradable, environmentally friendly packaging, reusable.

If you want environmentally friendly packaging, make sure it complements your customers, and you do not know what is best or where to start, then recyclable packaging australia is your best choice. Consumers widely regard paper and cardboard-based solutions as recyclable. All municipalities accept these materials in recycling collection, making it a safe way to ensure that your packaging has the most negligible impact on the environment.

What is Recycling

Recycling Packaging is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and new items. Energy recovery from waste is usually included in this concept. Recyclable materials include many types of glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, tires, textiles, batteries and electronic products. The right thing is the material that has been retrieved or diverted from the non-hazardous solid stream for reuse, recycling, or reclamation, and a significant amount of which is consistently used in the creation of items that would otherwise be discarded.

Today, environmental awareness is more deeply rooted in people’s hearts than ever before. Movements like “Zero Waste”, which track the number of producing as small as waste, are becoming more and more popular. There is no doubt that this is a positive development. But it is also clear that it is impossible to create a life without waste. Therefore, it is just as essential for environmental protection and sustainability to recycle the waste generated in the best possible way. This process is called recycling.

Recycling is “any recovery process by which waste is processed into products, materials or substances either for its original purpose or for other purposes”. Literally translated, the term means recycling or reprocessing. At the same time, recycling also includes the cycle that the raw materials over and over again.

In the recycling process, there is a difference between downcycling and upcycling. The former is always referred to when a material no longer reaches the original quality of primary production after recycling. Upcycling describes exactly the opposite situation.

The history of recycling

Some people may think that recycling is a new idea. An idea that arose from the problems in the 20th or 21st century. The history of recycling started a few centuries ago. Namely with the beginning of agriculture. Fertilizing fields with crop residues, manure and manure marks the beginning of recycling. Due to the scarcity of materials such as glass, wood or metal, almost everything was reused in the Middle Ages. Even bones and hair were transformed into functional everyday objects.

The first major change occurred with the increasing progress of industrialization. In addition to the different composition of the waste, especially the mass-produced is increasing rapidly. As a result, the first furnaces and landfills were set up. The poverty and the state of emergency of the population during the First and Second World Wars revived the spirit of the Middle Ages. Every material and every item, no matter how small, was used or repurposed several times.

The green movement of the 1970s and 1980s recognized garbage as one of the major triggers of pollution. New technologies and a rethinking of how to deal with waste were the results. On the basis of this development, technology continues to develop, and waste has become an important economic asset. In this context, the term secondary raw materials were born.

Why recycling is important

The raw materials on our planet are limited. A large amount of plastic garbage is floating in the sea. The microplastics absorbed by various marine organisms ultimately ends up on our dining table. What is the best way to deal with these problems? The solution seems simple: recycling.

What is recycling and why is it needed?

Recycling is the answer to the side effects of the so-called throwaway society. The word means as much as recycling, and it already implies a lot of intentions. Because most garbage does not simply decompose, they are often left unprocessed for many years. Recyclable Packaging Australia provides a solution to this problem: by processing and reusing recyclable waste, the value cycle is closed. Therefore, waste is reused or decomposed into its individual components.

This protects the environment: the result is less energy consumption, less greenhouse effect, less fossil fuel consumption and less water and soil acidification. Therefore, if you cleanly separate and recycle waste, you are actively helping to protect the environment.

For example, melting or reusing glass bottles consumes less energy than making new materials.

The production of recycled paper requires fewer raw materials in the form of wood. 

However, not everything can be recycled. This is why it is important to minimize waste,  especially plastic, and reuse as many items as possible.

The basic idea of recycling is therefore a conscious use of resources.

And the best thing is: everyone can participate in it and protect the environment.

How to recycle in everyday life

Everyone can contribute to environmental protection! Especially in daily life, the possibility of recycling is particularly great. This begins with the separation of waste.

• Throw paper, plastic, organic waste, and glass into designated trash cans or containers to ensure they can be recycled. 
• When shopping, consciously choose non-plastic packaging or simple packaging products. 
• If you take plastic bags at the checkout, use them several times or even better: bring your bags from home. 

Always remember, every contribution counts!

Recycling Process

3 Steps in the Recycling Process

There are many good reasons for recycling. Recycling is a simple way to help not only your community but also the world. This process is a three-part cycle that can create great things not only for the community but also for the country. Some of the benefits of this process are:

• Recycling saves energy
• Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced
• Save natural resources (timber, water & minerals)
• Recycling helps create jobs in the recycling industry as well as in the manufacturing industry.

The three steps to recycling are:

1. The first step is to collect materials that can be recycled. Normal garbage collection can be done on the curbside, or it can be collected at the drop-off locations for items that cannot be collected on the curbside. Many communities use deposit or refund programs for certain bottles and packaging materials. Many cities provide bins for households to keep the recyclables materials in them until they are taken away. The most basic items that can be recycled curbside are paper and cardboard, glass, cans, and plastic.
2. Once the items have been collected, the next step is to find the secondary use of the material. Recycled materials are used in many manufacturing processes, and many companies find these materials to have very innovative uses. Recycled materials are sold in the same way as raw materials. Using recycled materials consumes less energy and reduces the environmental impact of various products.
3. The next step in the process is to buy goods made from recycled materials. When checking the labels in a grocery store, you will generally see that the product is made with a certain percentage of post-consumer products. The most commonly used household items are:

• Newspapers and paper towels
• Motor oil
• Aluminium cans
• Nails
• Trash bags
• Egg cartons

This is only a small part of what recycled materials can be used for. For example, the recycling of tires can take old car and truck tires and turn them into mat materials, which can be used as padding for playground equipment. Grass and weeds cannot grow through it, and the walkway will last longer than many other products.

An item that can be used forever is glass. Glass can be transformed into glass over and over again. Soda bottles, wine bottles and any other glass containers can be remade over and over again. Keeping glass away from landfills is an easy way to protect the environment.

The three steps of the process of recycling are combined to help protect the environment. By collecting recyclable material and purchasing post-consumer recycled products, everyone can do their part to protect the environment and save energy and landfill space.

When is packaging waste recyclable?

We have a clear definition of recyclable material. We believe that packaging waste is recyclable if it meets the following three criteria:

• Packaging waste can be collected using the existing collection systems.
• Packaging waste can be sorted in sorting plants where sorting has been or can be proven on a large scale.
• Packaging waste can be recycled in an economically and ecologically justifiable way. Recycling has been or can be proven on a large scale.

What are the criteria for economically and ecologically justifiable recycling?

We are talking about economically and ecologically justifiable recycling if the following criteria are met for the entire recycling chain:

• transport routes for collection, sorting and recycling as short as possible;
• economically viable costs of collection, sorting and recycling;
• sorting plant with the capacity to sort the streams most contained in packaging waste;
• Proven recycling technology on a large scale with guaranteed customers.

Why are some materials not currently recycled?

Several factors explain why some waste cannot currently be recycled:

• Technological progress: The recycling of any material requires that the necessary recycling technology is available. For some materials, recycling technology has not yet been developed or does not yet allow recycling in large quantities.
• Economic and ecological interest: The lack of guaranteed customers, insufficient amounts of waste, and high costs prevent it from making neither economic nor environmental sense to consider recycling some materials.
• Competitiveness in relation to virgin material: A recycling chain must be competitive in terms of virgin material. Price fluctuations for raw materials can therefore also influence the development of recycling chains.
• Packaging with innovative materials: Advances in the marketing of packaging made from innovative materials are often an obstacle to quality recycling, as the technology that enables the recycling of these materials has not yet been developed.

How does Recycling Program Work?

Under the recycling program paper, cans, plastic, cardboard, and other recyclables are collected by the recycling crew and taken to a recycler for processing.

The materials are then delivered to various recycling facilities to be turned into new recycled items. Thus it is the goal of every organization to implement the recycling program and contribute a little towards society.

Importance of recycling programs-

1. It protects the environment.
2. It reduces landfills.
3. It saves energy.
4. It conserves resources.

Different Types of Recyclable wastes

• Household Waste
• Laundry Detergent Waste
• Plastic Bottles
• Laundry Detergent Bottles- Recycling is one of the most straightforward ways to help the environment. Rather than throwing away your old laundry detergent bottles, simply clean them and place them in the recycling bin. Plastic bottles, such as those used in laundry detergent, are among the least recyclable containers available today. Do you need to rinse laundry detergent bottles before recycling? Empty jars, bottles, and cans should be rinsed before being tossed in the recycling bin if there is visible residue inside the container. Simply fill the jar, container, or can halfway with water and swish it around until the majority of the residual contents are cleared off the sides. That concludes the discussion.
• Shampoo Bottles
• Plastic Wrap
• Tote Bags
• Meat Trays
• Egg Cartons
• Squeezable Bottles
• Shower Curtains
• Compact Disc Cases
• Shopping Bags
• Motor Oil
• Other Plastics

Waste Stream- The word refers to the whole life cycle of the junk we generate, from trash collection to landfilling, energy production, and recycled material usage. Instead of being sorted by the depositor into different commodities and treated individually throughout the collection process, single-stream recycling or recyclate stream refers to a technique in which all paper fibres, plastics, metals, and other containers are mixed in a collection truck.

The next step in this is to take the unnecessary materials to the drop off centers which is a collection site where the persons sort the source-separated recyclable materials into the designated containers. Nowadays Curbside collection is a service that allows residents to dispose of trash at their homes. Trucks gather rubbish and transport it to a landfill or a recycling facility, where it is processed for reuse. Recycling services are quite very prompt.

Conclusion

For whatever reason, your company opts for a sustainable packaging concept, especially the material and the material combination are the decisive factors. High recyclability is particularly characterized by the fact that packaging consists of clearly separable, individually recyclable materials. These can be sorted and returned to the recycling cycle via various recycling processes.

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