Recycling Waste – The reprocessing of items into new raw materials
To remember the meaning of the term Recycling Waste, use the following mnemonic:
He kept repeating the cycle (recycle) ride until he felt like a new man. His bum was a bit raw so he replaced the seat with new material (new raw material).
Recycling involves a process in which items no longer required are made into new materials. This processing requires energy and, possibly, the addition of some new material. This means that while recycling is better than making something entirely from new material, it still produces CO2 and can contribute towards depletion of resources.
Compare this with reusing, which maintains the "embodied energy" initially used to produce an object and requires no processing or new materials.
