Secondary Materials

As any good scavenger will know discarded building materials can provide rich pickings, provided it is taken with the consent of the builder. Wood of all types and sizes, doors, window frames, and ...

In 2005/6 an estimated 5 billion aluminium cans were used in the UK alone. Most of the soft drinks we consume come in easy to use/easy to dispose of cans, and increasingly so does a lot of the ...

Some form of electrical battery seems to be essential for our modern lives. Our increasing reliance on mobile phones, laptops, watches, hand-held calculators – all powered by some form of battery, ...

CDs have taken over the consumer music marketplace. These small circular plastic and metal disks along with their brothers from the film industry, DVDs (digital video discs), have been common in our ...

It can be hard to part with a favourite but rarely worn jumper or pair of jeans but the huge array of charity shops in every town and city means that any item of clothing you are willing to part ...

We are all involved in the revolution in consumer electronics, whether we have recently bought a new microwave, flat-screen television, or simply look with longing at the latest Apple Macintosh ...

Scrap metal falls into two types – ferrous and non-ferrous. Ferrous metals which are iron and steel are the most recycled material worldwide. In 2006, an estimated 69 million tons of ferrous metal ...

Cars buses, planes – most of our transport systems rely on tyres. Most of our food and consumer goods is delivered by truck, hence our reliance on tyres to smooth the way is immense. We all know ...

This is the name given to a category of large domestic appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers. Due to media attention given to the term 'CFC's' (chlorofluorocarbons) in ...