Recycling is the process of making use of a product more than once in its life cycle before final disposal. This means that a product is used and then after the use, it is treated in one way or another to enable its reuse. Recycling is very important since it allows for reduced initial product which would have resulted in increased resource use and exploitation. From this perspective, it helps in economizing on resources and ensuring proper exploitation. Closely related to this is environmental conservation associated with recycling. From statistics, recycling helps in ensuring that the environment is conserved and less polluted by the disposal of waste products. Also, the process of recycling helps reduce the rate of environmental degradation by excessive exploitation of the resources. To have a better analysis and understanding of this issue, let us have a literature review on recycling and item reuse in UK and Saudi Arabia.
According to a research carried out by James B in 2011, the rates of recycle in the UK are still low compared to some of their neighbors in the European Union. For example, in the year 2004, the rate of recycle was about 17% of the total waste while in other countries like France the rates were above 45%. However, these rates have improved with time and currently stands at a rate of approximately 20% which is still far way much acute compared to the rising levels of waste production (James, 2012).
It is revealed by another research conducted by Alice M around the same time of study that waste production currently in London alone stands at about 17 tons every year and this value is postulated to rise to about 26.5 million tons by the year 2020. In the research, this was attributed to some factors which include: lifestyle, increased rates of wrapped product use and industrialization (Alice, 2012).
- Paper and card recycling introduced in 2003 since a lot of paper was collected.
- Plastic product recycling which was introduced in 2005 due to increased disposal of plastic products.
- Garden waste recycling which was also introduced in 2005.
All these frameworks work on fortnight schedules and try to keep UK a green place which is free from resource over-exploitation and environmental pollution. In general, the overall task of recycling is managed and implemented by Birmingham city council (Alice, 2012).
In a parallel research conducted on the Saudi Arabia at about the same time, the spirit of recycling has been found in more than 64% of Saudi respondents in one of the online interviews on recycling. In fact, the Saudi citizens believe that the first step into attain a green environment is recycling. This is also very true when we consider what makes the world not to be green. Narrowing down to the specifics of recycling, Saudi Arabia has a major company whose mission and vision are geared towards recycling (Arab news, 2012). This is NERESMA which is also one of the leading companies in Saudi kingdom in supply and recycle of metals (Sharma, 2012).
Comparing the UK and Saudi Kingdom, they both have a positive notion on recycling since both agree on the idea of recycling to go green. This means both regions are doing their best to have better waste management strategies (Arab news, 2012).
However, the main differences lie in the percentages of recycling. Saudi is far much ahead of UK in recycle rates. This means the total units of waste in Saudi cumulatively are much lower compared to those in UK. Also, UK does not have any specific concrete means of recycling the waste and the type of waste being recycled. Looking at Saudi for a similar aspect, it is evident that Saudi has specialized in recycling of metallic wastes. The levels of recycling of household wastes in UK also appear to be much higher compared to Saudi (Riyadh, 2009).
In conclusion, both regions have very effective recycle strategies put in place. This can be attributed to the enlightment of the citizens on the need to preserve the environment, re-use products to avoid pollution and the need to exploit the resources effectively.
References
James B. 2012. Removing food remains to reduce waste. Recycling-guide.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-09-25
Alice M. 2012. Recycling facts and figures, retrieved from http://recycling-guide.org.uk/facts.html
Albarwardi Group. 2010. Saudi Materials recycling company limited, retrieved from http://www.albawardi.com/smrc.html
Sharma A. 2012. Beyond recycling: Going green in Saudi Arabia, retrieved from wamda.com/2012/05/beyond-recycling-going-green-in-Saudi-Arabia
Riyadh Exhibition Company, 2009. Recycling and waste management Saudi: retrieved from
Arab news, Lack of recycling costs Kingdom SR 40 billion a year, retrieved from < www.arabnews.com/lack-recycling-costs-kingdom-sr-40-bn-year>
