Leer en español
Читать на русском
We hear a lot about recycling these days, but thе concept is not new, in fact, it is almost 1,000 years old. The first mention of the collection and processing of waste paper refers to Japan, 1031. It is our pleasure to introduce you some milestones in the history of recycling
1031 – during the decline of the Japanese Imperial court in the Heian Period, paper production moved away from the state’s control as workers gradually merged into common society. As a result, private estate owners built paper mills and hired those workers to continue making paper.
It wasn’t long until the process of reusing waste paper became common, in order to conserve materials and maximise output. A very early form of the curbside collection involved cart men going from house to house collecting refuse.
1690 – opening of The Rittenhouse Mill, Philadelphia. America’s first paper mill – built by German-born Wilhelm Rittenhausen – took old fabrics, cloths, cotton and linen to produce recycled paper that would be used for printing and publication. The mill operated until the mid 1800s, and was the Rittenhouse family industry for the better part of a century.
1890 – The British Paper Company was established to make paper and cardboard from recycled materials. The materials were collected by cart men and organizations like the Salvation Army.
1897 – New York City Material Recovery Centre opens. Following a recycling decree for New York City residents two years prior, NYC’s first materials recovery facility was created. This allowed discarded materials to be sorted and separated into various categories, so recyclable materials such as metals, paper, burlap, and even horsehair could be recovered and reused.
1914 to 1945 – during the first and second World Wars recycling was an essential part of maintaining the war effort. Both the US and Great Britain appealed to the public for help. Recycling propaganda pushes (Salvage for Victory in the US, 1942) asked people to think more about what they threw away. For example, people were instructed to take waste cooking fats to local meat dealers, so they could be recycled into fuel for explosives.
During the war times, reuse and recycling of tin, rubber, steel, paper etc. were also a means for many people to make a living by selling reclaimed items or materials.
1960’s – the first curbside program was established in the US to collect yard waste, metals, and paper. By 1992 the number of curbside programs in the country had jumped to nearly 5,000.
1970 – The Recycling Mobius Loop Logo. The Container Corporation of America held a competition to find a new symbol for recycled paper. 23 year-old engineering student Gary Anderson entered with a simple logo based on arrows arcing around each other. He won, earning $2,000, and the iconic logo has become ingrained into the public consciousness ever since.
1972 – a single national law on waste management was created in Western Germany.
1976 – in the US the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) governing the disposal of solid and hazardous waste was signed. The law addressed the increasing problems the nation faced from the growing waste issues.
1983 – The Blue Box Recycling System in Canada. In the city of Kitchener, Ontario, the system was introduced as a way of efficiently sorting and collecting household waste.
The blue box system made it simple for the public to recycle plastic, paper, glass, aluminium, steel and other materials. The system was adopted and modified across the globe, and it remains in use to this day.
1987 – New Jersey enacts the nation’s first universal mandatory recycling law, which requires all residents to separate recyclables from their trash.
2015 – the UN General Assembly sets up 17 interlinked sustainable development goals (169 targets) designed to be a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. The goals were adopted by 193 countries as part of the 2030 Development Agenda titled Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and intended to be achieved between 2020 and 2030.
The 12th SDG (Responsible consumption and production), ensuring the transition to sustainable consumption and production patterns, has formed the basis for many legislative changes aimed at the responsible use of the environment and natural resources all over the world.
gofro.expert
