Such widespread practices as recycling waste not only reduce the extraction of raw materials, but also have a much lower impact on the environment than production from scratch.
Replacing conventional bulbs with LED lights, installing low-consumption appliances or avoiding leaving the mobile charger plugged in are small steps that translate into lower energy consumption. They are the best known, but not the only ones. Place an empty glass bottle or a cardboard box in its corresponding containers For its subsequent recycling it also contributes to energy savings.
Recycling not only allows waste to be given a new life, but also helps reduce the amount of energy consumed in the production process, by avoiding the expense associated with the extraction and transport phases of the materials.
“The creation of a product from virgin raw materials, from scratch, involves a considerable expenditure of water and electricity for the extraction, transformation and processing of the material in order to turn it into an article suitable for human use”, explains Nieves Rey, Director of Communication and Marketing at Ecoembes. “But nevertheless, If we make use of materials that are already produced, we save a large part of that processing and, therefore, of the necessary resources to do so. This is the great environmental benefit of recycling, “he adds.
According to the latest statistics provided by the country’s municipalities to this non-profit environmental organization, With the almost 1.5 million tons of household packaging that were recycled last year, the consumption of 6.37 million megawatt hours (MWh) was avoided. To this must be added the more than 900,000 tons of glass containers that were collected last year in Spain, according to data from Ecovidrio, responsible for managing their recycling in our country.
The majority, more than 843,000 tonnes, came from green containers. Its recycling, in addition to the manufacture of new packaging, saved more than 648,000 MWh of energy. Translated into common language, the equivalent of the electricity consumption of all homes in Seville for more than six months or the energy consumption of hospitals in Spain for almost two.
In addition to avoiding the energy expenditure associated with the extraction and transport phase of raw materials, “the process of transforming a used product to give it a new life also consumes less energy that the manufacture of the same from scratch “, indicates Beatriz Egido, director of Communication and CSR of Ecovidrio. For example, calcine, glass presented in the form of small pieces that appear in the final phase of the recycling process of this material, requires a melting temperature of 1,500 degrees Celsius. They are 200 less than the 1,700 needed to melt sand, soda and limestone, the virgin raw materials with which it is manufactured from scratch. Thus, the use of recycled glass (the circular material par excellence, because it is 100% recycled) for the manufacture of new packaging translates into 38% energy savings.
It is not the only material whose recycling process saves energy compared to producing from scratch. According to the Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE), The process of recycling an aluminum can consumes only 5% of the energy needed to make a new one. Also, by each sheet of paper that is deposited in the container corresponding energy is saved equivalent to running, for one hour, of two 20 watt energy saving light bulbs, which give the same light as two 100 watt incandescent bulbs.
Waste of water
There is also a close link between water and energy. “The efficient use of water is always linked to energy savings”, explains Eloy García Calvo, professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Alcalá and director of the Imdea Agua Research Institute. According to the calculations of this expert, electricity consumption related to water could be around 10% in Spain.
García Calvo, emphasizes that only between 10% and 15% of water consumption in the world is of the urban type, a very limited figure compared to 70% that goes to agricultural use. Therefore, the battle for water efficiency as a way to save energy is mainly fought in the fields. “Probably, the biggest source of waste is water leaks that are produced in the distribution networks ”, he points out. “Unfortunately, we have spent many years in which investments in modernization of networks are lower than what is considered necessary to prevent aging and increased leakage.”
In homes, “the use that most consumes is the shower”, says Francisco Javier Fernández Delgado, deputy director of Telecontrol for Canal de Isabel Il. “It should not be forgotten that we mostly shower with hot water,” he continues, which adds an additional energy expenditure to the cost of “capturing, treating, conducting water to homes, collecting residual water, conducting it again, and purifying it.” And something similar, he adds, happens when washing dishes..
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