What is the meaning of recycling ?
Re-cycling means to put materials back through the “cycle”. The “cycle” is the manufacturing process that takes natural materials (such as iron ore from a mine), crush the ore, melt it, separate the molten metals, and use those metals to forge into a product. Instead of using natural materials (like iron ore) and always “starting from scratch”, we take a metal product like a soda can, and “re-cycle” that instead. So the cans are crushed, melted, and any residues are separated from the metals, and then use the molten metal to forge a new product. By recycling, we use less of the natural materials, and we begin the cycle with a purer material, so the manufacturing process is simpler and uses less energy. The only problem is, that usually the cost to collect and transport the metal cans might be higher than mining tons of iron ore and shipping by train. Recycling doesn’t always pay off. It’s all about the economics.
