Anyway, besides these challenges, we have already seen that recycling engineering materials present some benefits such as:
- Economic: The reduction in energy consumption as a result of the reduced need for virgin materials leads to lower production costs, making recycling economically viable, which then provides more job opportunities and stimulates local economies, promoting sustainable development.
- Environmental: Recycling and reusing engineering materials reduces waste,conserves resources and minimises greenhouse gas emissions. The production of recycled materials generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than producing new materials, reducing the carbon footprint and mitigating climate change.
- Social: The recycling of these materials promotes environmental awareness and encourages responsible consumption patterns, promoting sustainable development. Moreover, recycling and reusing engineering materials provide affordable materials for low-income communities and reduce the need for expensive waste management infrastructure, benefiting the entire community
With this, we realise that recycling and reusing engineering materials are critical components of sustainable development for all the impact it has. However, the successful implementation of recycling and reuse practices requires increased awareness and adoption of these practices, being necessary to promote the recycling and the reuse of engineering materials.
In this sense, it is also relevant to understand how engineering material recycling takes place. To start, some basic guidelines should be followed to enable an effective recycling process, being one of the most important ones sorting the materials correctly. Thus, it is important to separate the materials by type and follow any sorting guidelines provided by the local recycling program or facility. Also, one should clean the materials, preparing them for the recycling process, and finally, it is also important to check with the manufacturers if they offer any recycling programs or guidelines.
