To celebrate World Environment Day, FixIts Founder and materials guru Chris Lefteri wrote a guide to recycling. We picked five of the most interesting facts to share with you on how to use recycled materials more efficiently, ensuring that recycling continues to improve in the future.
"In fact, it is estimated that only about 9% of plastics are recycled globally. One reason is that so-called mechanical recycling, the most common plastic recycling process available today, requires different types of plastic to be separated before recycling."
(Photo: The Concept Shoe is a project set up by Salomon to recycle TPU materials from running shoes for use in ski boots)
"The meaning of ‘recycled’ and ‘recyclable’ is crucial in the context of textiles. Currently, most recycled textiles are made with waste from other industries, such as plastic packaging or fishing nets, while actual textiles are hardly recycled at all."
(Photo: Recycled wollen textiles by Cardato in Prato Italy)
"Reusing metal products is always more efficient than recycling and few materials can compete with metals when it comes to potential for repairs. Metal surfaces that are slightly damaged through scratching or corrosion can often be touched up and polished so that they look as good as new, rather than throwing away the product."
"A global waste problem It is estimated that fully a third of global waste is made up of construction waste from demolished buildings and industrial waste from the construction material industries. A very large proportion of this waste is ceramic and glass."
(Photo: Various construction waste used by StoneCycling, a Dutch supplier of recycled bricks)
"Paper waste is a valuable resource that is also increasingly becoming a valuable raw material outside the traditional paper industry. You may be surprised to find the wide range of paper waste-based materials available."
(Photo: 42 Newspaper Wood composite material made with compressed newspaper waste)
