The majority of the people recycle four times a month. I think this is because recycling bins are collected every week. Some recycle less than four times a month this could be because they make less rubbish than other houses or the other reason could be that they don’t like to recycle. Others recycle more than four times a month; this could be because they care about the environment and so they take their rubbish to recycling centers to make sure most of their rubbish is recycled.
Paper and plastic are the two main materials that are recycled in most houses. This is because many houses receive junk mail, newspapers, leaflets, brouchers and many other books or documents that are all printed on paper. Plastic is the second main thing because it is used for wrapping on almost every single household or food items. It is used for food items like yoghurts, drink bottles etc. Very few people recycle cardboard or glass, this is because there are very few items that are made of glass and cardboard. Metal is also recycled very less, this could be because it lasts very long and does not need throwing away. The other reason could be because most metal items are large so no one can be bothered to take them to recycling areas and they just throw them away in a skip or some other place.
The small percentage that does not recycle, mostly said that they do not recycle because it is a hassle. This is true because different materials have to be sorted out in different bins or bags. Plastics have to be separated from rubbish every time and sometimes you just don’t have the time to do that. Others responded that it is expensive; this is true for some types of material like glass. Sometimes glass is cheaper to make than to recycle. Some also said that it is not beneficial this could mean that recycling has no benefits as it still produces a lot of pollution and resources are still running out.
Conclusion
The results show that more people recycle because of the fact that it is a law. Many people do not want to break the law so they recycle even if they hate it. Basically they are forced to recycle. Also some people recycle because they worry about the environment or about the fact that the resources will run out and so they recycle to prevent any loss. A small percentage of people recycle because they don’t want any landfills as they disturb the view of the countryside. The reason why very few people recycle for that reason is probably because not many landfills are dug next to people’s houses and so no one cares if the landfills disturb the countryside or not. Others believe that recycling is cheaper than making new materials and so they recycle to save money, but the reason why very few people think like that is probably because many people know that sometimes it is also more expensive in the case of recycling some types of glass.
The results agree with the information given on the website . The website shows that almost 31% of household rubbish was recycled in the UK in 2006/07 which is much higher than the past years. This means that many people recycle now after the law was established
The results from my survey show that paper was recycled the most and then it was plastic. Paper is one of the main materials used for passing information between friends, customers and sellers, schools and parents etc. It is also used for junk mail and brouchers. Also paper is easy to recycle which means that more people recycle it. Plastic is recycled more probably because it is used for many things like bottles, containers, wrappings etc but not all plastics can be recycled which means that the percentage of recycled plastic would be lower if I were to ask more people. Glass and cardboard are recycled very less. This is probably because not many things are made from theses two materials. Very few household items are made of glass, e.g. Jam jars or some drink bottles. Other than that mostly everything is made from plastic. Also cardboard is used very rarely in homes. It is only probably used for boxes. Metal is hardly recycled because many metals items are huge and so many people cannot be bothered to take them to recycling areas. Some metals like cans are recycled a lot by some people as they drink a lot of fizzy drinks or alcohol but I think I would need to ask more people or ask from different places in my area to get proper results.
The information given on the website agrees with my results mostly. It shows that paper and card is recycled the most after compost but I never included composting in my survey so my results cannot agree with that. My results do disagree with the information on the website when it comes to plastic but I think this is because plastic is mostly co-mingled with other materials in the same bin and the percentage for that on the website is high so it could agree in a way. The amount of glass recycled is also the same. The number of metals is quite high in the website in the case of cans but I think I would probably need to ask more people to get a proper result.
I found out that many people recycle four times a month. I think this is because in most areas the recycling bins or bags are collected every week. Some people recycle less than four times a month this could be because they produce very less rubbish or because they do not want to recycle. They might not have time to sort the rubbish in different bins or they just can not be bothered. A small percentage of people recycle more than five times a week. I think this is because they care a lot about their environment and so they take large recyclable items to special recycling areas.
Reliability and Validity
I think that the results could have been more reliable if I had asked more people, e.g. about 80 people. The other way that it could have been made reliable is by repeating the same survey again once or twice and then getting an average of the results. Other than that I think my survey was good as I got most of the results to agree with the information on the website which shows that my results were mostly accurate.
The results were valid because I asked the same questions from the same area. This is important because sometimes different areas have different collection dates and so the results for ‘how many times do you recycle’ could have been invalid. The validity can be improved by making sure that the person who recycles in the house answers the question because other members might make an error when answering the questions.
Recycling
Recycling is the process of converting old materials into new materials so that they can be used again. There are disadvantages and advantages to it.
An advantage of recycling is that it saves resources. This means that the material can be used again without having the need of making new materials from ores. This saves the materials which is very useful for non-renewable material like metal. Non-renewable materials cannot be replaced again so it is better to recycle them and save whatever there is left of those materials in the earth.
Recycling also saves more money because it takes a lot of energy to separate material like Aluminium from their ores whilst to recycle it takes only 5% of that energy. Overall 95% percent is saved by recycling aluminum. This makes recycling the most efficient method to dispose of household waste.
Less pollution is made when recycling than making a new material because it uses less energy. If less energy is required then it means that less fuel is burnt and less harmful gases are released into the air.
Recycling saves space that would have otherwise been used for land filling. This makes it more acceptable by many people as many agree that land filling takes up too much space and also it makes the countryside look very dirty.
Recycling also has a number of disadvantages. Recycling some materials like paper makes it very weak. This is because the fibers in the paper get shorter and weaker each time, and after being recycled five or six times the paper becomes useless as it is too thin to write on. So virgin pulp has to be used to make sure that the quality stays good. Basically not all recycled materials are good quality which means they will not be accepted by people.
Not everyone accepts recycling because some people believe that recycling has no benefits and after all it is a hassle. Special staffs are allocated for sorting out the different recyclable materials in different sections. They have to make sure that even different types of metals and plastics are separated. All this makes recycling more disturbing and more of a hassle than other methods like incineration.
It still produces pollution by using machinery and trucks to transport the recyclets which burns fuel and release dangerous gases in the air. It may cost a lot of money as well because after all money has to be paid to the employees and for the machines as well.
More recycling area need to be built to make sure that all waste is recycled. More attention needs to be given to recycling as there are many people who are still aginst recycling.
There are some alternatives to recycling as well:
Landfill
Landfill is the oldest and the cheapest method used to dispose waste. Either a big hole is dug to bury the rubbish or a mining pit, natural occurring valley canyons are filled with rubbish. The rubbish is put in layers. When ones rubbish is disposed it is crushed by a bulldozer before the next layer is disposed and layed over it. At the end the rubbish is covered by earth to make sure less pollution is made and also so that the countryside does not look dirty.
The good thing about landfill is that it is cheap and easy to do; the rubbish does not have to be sorted out. The disadvantage is that it produces a lot of gases including poisonous gases from fridges which can harm the environment.
Incineration
Incineration is a method used to handle rubbish. Waste is burnt in high temperatures and the waste heat from the burning can be used to generate electricity. The temperature inside the incineration can reach up to 850 degrees Celsius. This high temperature is needed to ensure that the organic waste is broken down properly.
The advantage is that it can be used to produce electricity and by burning the rubbish it means that 95% less space is taken to bury the rubbish. The disadvantage is that the ash might be very toxic and so it has to be handled with care e.g. taking to a special landfill site that handles with toxic materials. It still produces a lot of pollution even if the gases given out by the factory are filtered.
