2006 Trends in Recycling
By: Lance Winslow
In 2005 we saw a more innovation in the recycling field and more ways to recycle some of what we throw away. We noticed the entrepreneurial innovation to do so in an efficient manner in order to compete against the inherent economies of scale to produce new instead of recycling. In many cases there was no contest and recycling experts could not produce as cheap as making new, but that was not the situation in all cases. Researchers have now found ways to recycle the foam under the dashboards of cars and collect the material melt it down cheaper than making new. Some innovate entrepreneurs have discovered ways to make old tires treads into shingles. Still others are turning animal waste into energy generating plants thru innovative biomass techniques.
In 2006 we see robotic scavenger devices being tested which can tell the difference of different types of plastics to separate them out, others to collect paper and newspapers, while others designed with magnets to collect steel and iron and separate it from non magnetic alloys such as tin, aluminum, etc. We have also seen an increase in prices of some materials making it more cost effective to recycle than to mine, ship, transport and melt into the correct blend. As these technological advances and efficiencies of recycling continue, we will see in 2006 our civilization wasting less and re-utilizing more and that my friends is a very good thing indeed. So be thinking on this.
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