Although often used synonymously, recycling and disposal are two completely different concepts, indicating a totally opposite approach to Solid waste management.
Both terms concern the treatment of waste, but the objective of the two different operations goes in opposite directions: the purpose of the recycling operations has the objective of enhancing the waste materials produced by human activity, and therefore introducing the rejection in a circular economy cycle . On the contrary, disposal is not intended to somehow recover the waste, but to cause the least possible damage to the environment.
In fact, recycling consists of a series of operations that serve to obtain material from waste that is useful for producing consumer goods or functional to industrial activity : for example, from the recycling of paper and cardboard, new paper can be obtained that can be used newspapers, for packaging, from plastic fibers it is possible to obtain yarns for the textile industry, such as fleece and even bicycle frames from aluminum, but the list goes on and on.
The recycling cycle allows to considerably reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills with an important benefit for the environment, but the advantages of this approach to waste are not limited to the protection of nature, but also affect the economic sphere. : obtaining material that can be used in industry, reducing the dependence on purchasing raw materials from abroad.
The essential prerequisite for recycling is the differentiation of waste , which makes it possible to obtain the material useful for the process.
On the opposite side of the range of possibilities for waste treatment we find disposal, which takes place for those waste that cannot produce any useful material and consists in the treatment of the material to ensure that it causes the least possible damage to the environment.
It is clear from the outset how disposal can be considered a "patch", since while recycling can obtain an advantage for the environment and the economy, no advantage is obtained from waste disposal, other than that of avoiding an even more serious damage to the environment than the production of waste itself already does.
In fact, all methods of disposal involve environmental damage that can vary according to the type of material to be disposed of and the technology used.
Industrial waste, leather goods by-products, eternity, nuclear waste or other products harmful to human health as well as cannot be recycled in any way, require even more meticulous and complex treatment in order to be degraded and "neutralized" , but the environmental damage cannot be totally eliminated, but only reduced to a minimum.
However, both systems cause side effects that can range from the occupation of space useful for the community, from the risk of pollution of groundwater for landfills to the production of CO2, dioxins and gases that are harmful to health in the case of incinerators.
It is for this reason that the separate collection and recycling of waste, which is the purpose of differentiation, represent the only way to avoid serious and permanent damage to the environment and even make what is considered waste material a resource for the community.
