Recycling
By the word recycling, we mean the set of operations, strategies and methods that are used in order to recover the materials and to reduce the quantity of waste sent to the dumps and incinerators. As pointed out before, man has always been used to recover his goods or to recycle his waste up to the industrial revolution. Starting from that time, the massive production of consumer goods and the great availability of resources did not make modern man feel the need to give his waste a second life . Everything started changing from the Seventies when the costs of energy and the awareness of living on a finite planet with limited resources led to the application of measures to reduce human pressure. As noted before the European Directives and the Italian Legislation indicate prevention and reduction of waste upstream, as the first feasible choices in the area of waste management (waste hierarchy). In case this is not possible, measures for the preparation and reutilization of waste follow, and subsequent to these, measures to recycle waste.
Only some waste, of specific categories of materials, can be recycled. These categories of materials usually follow a separate course and are collected through a specific system of separate waste collection that we have started to experiment daily in our homes. The separate collection systems that are proving to be more efficient and economically sustainable are those related to raw materials that the packaging is made of (paper, glass, plastic, aluminium and wood). In order to simplify the management, collection and disposal procedures, specific consortiums have been created for each of these categories of materials. The efficiency in the recovery is often very high. This success can be explained in two ways: firstly, even after having carried out their function, these materials have a sufficiently high market value which justifies the investment effort; furthermore, as a result of the commitment of the consortiums, of the producers and distributors and also us consumers, very high levels of efficiency have been reached, over the years.
Special reports
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13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
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15 April 2014
How rich are we …. in blue gold?
Water footprint, water availability and use on a planetary scale...
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30 April 2022
Solar energy in Italy: where do we stand?
The Sun is the main source of energy on our planet, from which we derive almost all the forms of…
5 September 2021
Faraday, an electrifying biography
"The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly". Michael Faraday...
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14 July 2021
Italy’s renewable sources
Renewable energy sources in Italy The Energy Services Operator (GSE) periodically publishes data and statistics on the renewable energy sources…
18 February 2021
Is lithium the new petroleum?
Today petroleum vies for the title of “contemporary gold” with several competitors, one of those is certainly lithium...
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13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
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15 April 2014
How rich are we …. in blue gold?
Water footprint, water availability and use on a planetary scale...
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30 April 2022
Solar energy in Italy: where do we stand?
The Sun is the main source of energy on our planet, from which we derive almost all the forms of…
5 September 2021
Faraday, an electrifying biography
"The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly". Michael Faraday...
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13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
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15 April 2014
How rich are we …. in blue gold?
Water footprint, water availability and use on a planetary scale...
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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Solar energy is playing a vital role with reference to bioclimatic architecture...
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Every day the Earth receives enough solar energy to satisfy the global energy need. Unfortunately we cannot exploit all this…
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Bio-climatic architecture
Solar energy is playing a vital role with reference to bioclimatic architecture...
The photovoltaic train
In Italy the PVTRAIN project by Trenitalia (co-financed by the European Union) plans...
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The plant of Almeria
In the Tabernas desert, 30 km north-east of the Andalusia town of Almeria (Spain)...
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16 May 2011
A hydrogen house
In Settimo, a municipality close to Turin, the first Unité d’Abitation has been created...
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Bio-climatic architecture
Solar energy is playing a vital role with reference to bioclimatic architecture...
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The photovoltaic train
In Italy the PVTRAIN project by Trenitalia (co-financed by the European Union) plans...
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The plant of Almeria
In the Tabernas desert, 30 km north-east of the Andalusia town of Almeria (Spain)...