Recycling bins are an essential element of any urban recycling program. They can be small and individual for personal or family use or they can be large and industrial for commercial and business needs. A recycling bin can be any container that is used to hold and store recyclables while they are waiting to be picked up and taken to recycling centers. They can be of any particular size to meet any need.

This includes recycling bins for homes, offices, public and private facilities. There is often a separation of recycling bins and containers to hold and tore paper, plastic, glass or metal materials.

These recycling bins can actually be any colour, but the most common are blue, green or black. In different jurisdictions, this can mean that they are the appropriate container, bin or box for glass, plastic or paper products. They are almost always marked with environmental slogans or the universal recycling symbol, but that is not a requirement. The recycling container that most of us see in every location is the familiar blue box, or multi-container with slots to place various materials for recycling in public spaces.

1. The basics of recycling

Recycling materials by using recycling bins allows us to reclaim and reuse scrap materials from our homes or businesses. Recycling containers or bins allow us to store up these items while waiting for them to be brought to the recycle centres. Recycling bins and containers are made from long-lasting plastic or stainless steel that is easy to keep clean and maintain.

There are often separate containers available for the most common recycled materials including paper, glass, plastic and metal. Recycling our used goods and products gives them new life as they are transformed into many other useful products that we can then use in our everyday lives.

2. The benefits of recycling

There are many benefits of recycling materials that would otherwise end up in the dumps or landfill. It gives individuals and businesses, large and small, an opportunity by collecting all this recycled material to make a positive contribution to the community in which we live.

There are positive effects on all aspects of the community including a greener environment, job creation and even economic savings and direct benefits. Recycling is a great way to give something back and everyone benefits when we recycle our waste paper and plastic and glass containers.

3. Environmental protection

Recycling helps reduce the blight that paper products and plastic and glass bottles of all shapes and sizes have made of our natural landscape and beauty. We have monster landfills all over the countryside and this mess can be drastically diminished through the implementation of a good recycling program. Every year we create millions of kilograms of waste that could be diverted to recycling programs.

By recycling and reusing some of them, we could also save more of our existing natural resources like trees and water and minerals, coal, oil, gas and timber.

4. Employment creation

Recycling is also a great job creator and every year thousands of people are hired to work in the collection, sorting and transporting of recycled products. These are local jobs that can directly benefit the town or city in which the recycled product is produced and then recycled.

These are also new jobs that can sustain themselves through the sale of the recycled products to other industries. This is money itself that is being recycled and re-spent in the community in which the product was first consumed. That is a real and valuable economic benefit to the community and to our country.

5. Reducing our carbon footprint

The most important benefit of recycling programs is that it does help improve our damaged environment and reduces our overall carbon footprint. This allows everyone from business to the community to individuals to help reduce the size of landfills and garbage dumps and start to create better and greener spaces around us.

That will soak up some of the carbon pollution we are currently producing and put us on a path to cleaning our air, water and countryside. Recycling programs are one big step that starts to move us back in the right direction when it comes to our climate and our planet.