In many countries around the world celebrates on May 17th the International Day for Recycling. Opportunity to recall the strategy of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, which seeks to redirect the behavior of all citizens with a view to enhancing the great flagellum of the XXI Century, the urban solid waste.
Although the origin of this celebration is not clear, it has become a custom of which take advantage many organizations or environmental and conservationists groups in several countries of the world to conduct campaigns and informative or educational activities on the theme of recycling.
This is in order to promote in the world’s people more responsibility, not only from the perspective of the citizen consumer, but rather from the one that extracts the raw material and transforms it into a commodity.
This day is a good moment for the family begins to assume one of the most important habits for the future of humanity. To become aware of the inherent duties that are required in front of our consumption habits, to overcome the damage we are permanently causing to Mother Earth .
Recycling is a process that consists in submit to a physico-chemical or mechanical process to a material or product already used to a treatment cycle total or partial to obtain a raw material or a new product.
It also could be defined as obtaining raw materials from waste, introducing them back into the cycle of life and occurs by the prospect of the exhaustion of natural resources, macro economic and to eliminate waste efficiently.
Origin and meaning of recycling symbols
The original recycling symbol was created in 1970 in a design competition among American students, organized by the Container Corporation of America as part of the first Earth Day. The winner was Gary Anderson, a senior student at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
The symbol is a Möbius circle and each of its three arrows represents a step in the recycling process: collection of materials for recycling, the process of recycling and the purchase of these recycled products, so that the system continues one and again. Anderson was based on his design in the band discovered in 1858 by the German astronomer and mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius (1790-1868).
Keys to understand the symbols of recycling
Identifying allows to know more about the products and packaging, how to recycle and be aware of the importance of this habit.
The Möbius circle or ring has become the international symbol of recycling, although it has given rise to various identifiers, it is pertinent to know their applications. When the symbol appears alone , means that the product or package is made of materials that can be recycled.
If the symbol is within a circle means that part of the product or packaging materials have been recycled. The symbol may specify the percentage of recycled product contained (in this case a 20%). This data set often in packages and cartons.
The “Tidyman” symbol is a human figure which deposits a residue in a trash can, which indicates the consumer to be responsible for disposing of it in an appropriate place.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle:
Recycling falls within the waste management strategy of the Three R’s
* Reduce, actions to reduce the production of objects that could become waste.
* Reuse, actions that allow reuse a product to give a second life, with the same or a different use.
* Recycle, all the operations of collection and processing that allow reintroduction into a cycle of life.
Recycling has three main ecological consequences:
* Reduction of waste volume, and therefore the pollution that would cause (some materials take decades or even centuries to degrade).
* Preservation of natural resources, as the recycled material is reused.
* Reduction of costs associated with the production of new goods, because many times the use of recycled material reports a lower cost than the virgin material (such as the recycled high density polyethylene (HDPE) or the recycled corrugated cardboard ).
Editorial Blue Channel 24