Recycling

In the quest for sustainability the most important concern is recycling.
Recycling comprises the collection and restructuring and conversion of various materials. Presumably one of the most important materials to be recycled is plastic. Plastics are found in different grades according to the different type of resin used in manufacturing. The most common types used in making recycled goods is the PET

 (polyethylene terephthalate) which is primarily found in in soft drink bottles and similar containers. PET has a tougher chemistry is found to be useful in manufacturing although less difficult to process than tough PVC which is becoming more common enough in the recycling process. HDPE is much more common in recycling usage than any plasic--being used for plastic lumber, truck cargo liners, waste receptacles and much more. Unfortunately biopolymers, and materials like polyhydroxyalkanoate, and polylactic acid are not yet widely enough in usage to create a large enough industry to be beneficial economically although this is gradually changing with more companies making the choice to use biopolymers.

Another material that has recently begun to be recycled is carbon fiber which is used to make a variety of high tech and durable and lightweight materials. Carbon fiber is made of very thin fibers, which is actually more dense than steel.Previously it was an improbable recyclable, but it was discovered the fiber can be recycled by being shredded and then ground into granules. The recycled fiber is much cheaper than the new and will give advantages to companies who can manufacture using the recycled carbon fiber. Carbon fiber usually is made into sheet form or manufactured as a type of woven fabric.

Recently carbon fiber in the recycled form has been used for making heated garments which can also be used to remotely control nano technology like the ipod.

Paper products are the largest component of solid waste, waste paper is recovered and made into pulp which is used in making new product. Recycling paper saves a large amount of energy, it is estimated that using recycle saves 40% of energy compared to making paper from the new pulp. In addition a large amount of space is made available in landfills by recycling common items like newspapers and phone books. The paper is separated into different grades which are used for higher end products or lower end like newsprint depending on the grade.