Recycling is the recovery and reprocessing of waste materials into new products. It involves collecting waste, processing it into new items, and purchasing these recycled products. Common recyclable materials include paper, wood, glass bottles, aluminum cans, steel scrap, and plastics. Recycling reduces air, water, and land pollution from waste disposal, as well as the amount of solid waste in landfills. By using recycled materials, we can decrease our dependence on increasingly scarce natural resources. There are two main types of recycling: internal and external. Internal recycling involves reusing waste materials within the same manufacturing process, while external recycling reclaims materials from worn-out or obsolete products.

Why do people recycle materials?

People recycle materials to recover and reprocess waste materials for use in new products. Recycling helps reduce the amount of solid waste in landfills, which have become increasingly expensive. Recycling also reduces air, water, and land pollution resulting from waste disposal. The materials that are reused serve as substitutes for raw materials obtained from increasingly scarce natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, coal, mineral ores, and trees. Recycling becomes economically attractive when the cost of reprocessing waste or recycled material is less than the cost of treating and disposing of the materials or of processing new raw materials.

What are some common items that can be recycled?

Recycling involves collecting waste materials, processing them into new products, and purchasing those products. Common recyclable items include: Paper Paper products like newspaper, cardboard, and office paper can be recycled into new paper products. Glass Glass bottles and containers are easily salvageable, though separating them from other refuse and sorting by color can be difficult. Aluminum Aluminum cans, especially beverage containers, are commonly recycled. Recycling aluminum requires significantly less energy than producing it from raw materials. Plastics Plastic containers, such as bottles and food trays, can be recycled. However, the process can be complex due to the different types of plastics and potential contamination.

How does the recycling process work?

Recycling involves collecting waste materials and processing them into new products, which may then be recycled again. Common recyclable materials include steel, aluminum, glass, paper, wood, and plastics. The process includes: * Collection Buy-back centers purchase sorted waste, drop-off centers allow consumers to deposit materials, and curbside collection involves homes and businesses sorting waste for pickup. * Separation & Sorting Separation can occur at the source or at a central processing facility. A material recycling facility (MRF) processes recyclables using methods such as electromagnetic separators, vibrating screens, and air classifiers. * Processing Plastics are chopped into chips, washed, and then extruded into molding pellets or fibers.

What challenges or problems can happen with recycling?

Recycling faces challenges such as economic viability and finding suitable applications and markets for recycled materials. For plastics, problems include difficulties in identification, sorting, and the economics of recovering value. Contamination by non-plastics or different polymers, variations in molecular weight, mixing of colors, and quality control further complicate plastic recycling. Recycling electronic waste can also harm the environment through emissions and pollution from burning and dismantling processes. Toxic chemicals dumped during recycling can affect groundwater quality, and dust particles loaded with heavy metals can pollute the atmosphere, soil, and water systems. These practices pose risks to human health, especially in developing countries, due to exposure to toxic substances and primitive recycling methods.

recycling

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Images & Videos

Five labeled recycling bins in a row for picnic rubbish, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and glass, set on a concrete pad with greenery in the background.

Two women wearing green shirts and yellow gloves sort plastic bottles and containers into a garbage bag outdoors, participating in a recycling or cleanup activity.

How plastic is recycled into insulation.

How are old bottles recycled into new ones?

An open butter container sits on a wooden surface.

How enzymes in wax moth larvae could lead to new recycling biotechnologies

Turning cities into raw material depots for recycling

Aerial view of wastewater treatment basins with circular clarifiers; overlaid toilet graphic and arrow with text reading: “Where does it go?”

At a Glance

recycling summary

Quick Facts

Related Topics:: water purification; thermal-heat recovery; secondary refining; internal recycling; external recycling

On the Web:: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Review on recycling energy resources and sustainability (Sep. 18, 2026)

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recycling

waste management

Also known as: materials salvage, reprocessing

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Britannica Editors

Last updated

Sep. 18, 2026 •History

Top Questions

What is recycling?
Recycling is the recovery and reprocessing of waste materials into new products. It involves collecting waste, processing it into new items, and purchasing these recycled products. Common recyclable materials include paper, wood, glass bottles, aluminum cans, steel scrap, and plastics. Recycling reduces air, water, and land pollution from waste disposal, as well as the amount of solid waste in landfills. By using recycled materials, we can decrease our dependence on increasingly scarce natural resources.

There are two main types of recycling: internal and external. Internal recycling involves reusing waste materials within the same manufacturing process, while external recycling reclaims materials from worn-out or obsolete products.
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Why do people recycle materials?
People recycle materials to recover and reprocess waste materials for use in new products. Recycling helps reduce the amount of solid waste in landfills, which have become increasingly expensive. Recycling also reduces air, water, and land pollution resulting from waste disposal. The materials that are reused serve as substitutes for raw materials obtained from increasingly scarce natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, coal, mineral ores, and trees. Recycling becomes economically attractive when the cost of reprocessing waste or recycled material is less than the cost of treating and disposing of the materials or of processing new raw materials.
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What are some common items that can be recycled?
Recycling involves collecting waste materials, processing them into new products, and purchasing those products. Common recyclable items include:
- Paper Paper products like newspaper, cardboard, and office paper can be recycled into new paper products.
- Glass Glass bottles and containers are easily salvageable, though separating them from other refuse and sorting by color can be difficult.
- Aluminum Aluminum cans, especially beverage containers, are commonly recycled. Recycling aluminum requires significantly less energy than producing it from raw materials.
- Plastics Plastic containers, such as bottles and food trays, can be recycled. However, the process can be complex due to the different types of plastics and potential contamination.
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This answer is created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How does the recycling process work?
Recycling involves collecting waste materials and processing them into new products, which may then be recycled again. Common recyclable materials include steel, aluminum, glass, paper, wood, and plastics.

The process includes:
* Collection Buy-back centers purchase sorted waste, drop-off centers allow consumers to deposit materials, and curbside collection involves homes and businesses sorting waste for pickup.
* Separation & Sorting Separation can occur at the source or at a central processing facility. A material recycling facility (MRF) processes recyclables using methods such as electromagnetic separators, vibrating screens, and air classifiers.
* Processing Plastics are chopped into chips, washed, and then extruded into molding pellets or fibers.
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What are the benefits of recycling for the environment?
Recycling offers key environmental benefits by reintroducing waste materials into new products. Recycling helps conserve increasingly scarce natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, coal, mineral ores, and trees.

Recycling also helps to reduce air, water, and land pollution that results from waste disposal. Recycling can also cut down on the amount of solid waste in landfills, which are becoming more expensive.
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1. recycling
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What challenges or problems can happen with recycling?
Recycling faces challenges such as economic viability and finding suitable applications and markets for recycled materials. For plastics, problems include difficulties in identification, sorting, and the economics of recovering value. Contamination by non-plastics or different polymers, variations in molecular weight, mixing of colors, and quality control further complicate plastic recycling.

Recycling electronic waste can also harm the environment through emissions and pollution from burning and dismantling processes. Toxic chemicals dumped during recycling can affect groundwater quality, and dust particles loaded with heavy metals can pollute the atmosphere, soil, and water systems. These practices pose risks to human health, especially in developing countries, due to exposure to toxic substances and primitive recycling methods.
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This answer is created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

recycling, recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products. The basic phases in recycling are the collection of waste materials, their processing or manufacture into new products, and the purchase of those products, which may then themselves be recycled. Typical materials that are recycled include iron and steel scrap, aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper, wood, and plastics. The materials reused in recycling serve as substitutes for raw materials obtained from such increasingly scarce natural resources as petroleum, natural gas, coal, mineral ores, and trees. Recycling can help reduce the quantities of solid waste deposited in landfills, which have become increasingly expensive. Recycling also reduces the pollution of air, water, and land resulting from waste disposal.

There are two broad types of recycling operations: internal and external. Internal recycling is the reuse in a manufacturing process of materials that are a waste product of that process. Internal recycling is common in the metals industry, for example. The manufacture of copper tubing results in a certain amount of waste in the form of tube ends and trimmings; this material is remelted and recast. Another form of internal recycling is seen in the distilling industry, in which, after the distillation, spent grain mash is dried and processed into an edible foodstuff for cattle.

External recycling is the reclaiming of materials from a product that has been worn out or rendered obsolete. An example of external recycling is the collection of old newspapers and magazines for repulping and their manufacture into new paper products. Aluminum cans and glass bottles are other examples of everyday objects that are externally recycled on a wide scale. These materials can be collected by any of three main methods: buy-back centres, which purchase waste materials that have been sorted and brought in by consumers; drop-off centres, where consumers can deposit waste materials but are not paid for them; and curbside collection, in which homes and businesses sort their waste materials and deposit them by the curb for collection by a central agency.

Society’s choice of whether and how much to recycle depends basically on economic factors. Conditions of affluence and the presence of cheap raw materials encourage human beings’ tendency to simply discard used materials. Recycling becomes economically attractive when the cost of reprocessing waste or recycled material is less than the cost of treating and disposing of the materials or of processing new raw materials.