Recycling: theory and reality

Humans have dumped, burned, and reused refuse in primary and modern societies. Today, with increasing environmental consciousness, resource recovery options like incineration, pyrolisis and recycling are coming up as new methods of waste disposal . Recycling is increasingly being regarded as the preferable option of disposing waste for the promise it brings of saving resources and energy and reducing pollution. Though many of the factors associated with recycling are of social or environmental factors, attention is normally focussed on the more tangible, economic aspects of the method. This thesis establishes a broad framework which lays the criteria for assessing the method on the basis of economic, socio-political and environmental factors. However, being relatively new, there are no proven theories about recycling and various services need to be evaluated to establish any conclusions about the method. The Wollongong City Council Domestic Waste Recycling Service is evaluated to determine the factors that affect recycling and to provide more information about the method.