Recycling

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-023448",
  "term": "Recycling",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. The separation and collection of wastes, their subsequent transformation or remanufacture into usable or marketable products or materials, and the purchase of products made from recyclable materials.\n\n2. Reusing materials and objects in original or changed forms rather than discarding them as wastes.\n\n3. Refers to the series of activities by which discarded materials are collected, sorted, processed, and converted into raw materials and used in the production of new products. Excludes the use of these materials as a fuel substitute or for energy production. (National Recycling Coalition, 1995)\n\n4. Separating, collecting, processing, marketing, and ultimately using a material that would have been thrown away.\n\n5. The reuse of products or by-products or other materials that could become wastes if discarded instead of being used.\n\n6. Turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. Collecting used bottles, cans, and newspapers and taking them to the curb or to a collection facility is just the first in a series of steps that generates a host of financial, environmental, and social returns including reducing greenhouse gas emissions.\n\n7. Collecting and reprocessing a resource so it can be used again. An example is collecting aluminum cans, melting them down, and using the aluminum to make new cans or other aluminum products.\n\n8. The process of converting waste into a reusable material or return a material to a previous state in a cyclic process.\n\n9. Recovering and reprocessing usable products that might otherwise become waste.\n\n10. Collecting and reprocessing a resource so it can be used again. An example is collecting aluminum cans, melting them down, and using the aluminum to make new cans or other aluminum products. [Source: UNFCCC glossaries]\n\n11. Process by which recovered materials are transformed into new products.\n\n12. Process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products. Recycling often saves energy and natural resources.\n\n13. (1) The recovery for reuse of a toxic chemical from a gaseous, aerosol, aqueous, liquid, or solid stream; or (2) the reuse, or the recovery for reuse of a toxic chemical that is a RCRA hazardous waste or is a constituent of a RCRA hazardous waste as defined in 40 CFR 261.",
  "subject": "Land, waste and cleanup",
  "see_also": [
    "Destruction"
  ],
  "references": [
    "Web Taxonomy-Pollution Prevention Topics; RCRA Orientation Manual 2008 Glossary",
    "Environmental Issues Terms & Acronyms; Pesticides Glossary",
    "Measuring Recycling Guidance Glossary",
    "Consumer Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste: Reusable Vocabulary",
    "Superfund for Students and Teachers Glossary",
    "State and Local Climate and Energy Program Glossary of Terms; State and Local Climate and Energy Glossary",
    "Glossary of Climate Change Terms; Greenhouse Gas Emissions",
    "Glossary of Sustainable Manufacturing Terms",
    "Waste Reduction Model (WARM) Definitions and Acronyms",
    "Climate Change Terms",
    "40 CFR 246.101 (CFR 2013)",
    "Adapted from DOE Energy and the Environment at https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=environment_recycling",
    "Toxics Release Inventory Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/recycling/"
}