4 R’s Principle

INDEX

Sr. No Name of topic Page no.

1 Introduction

2 Block diagram

3 Construction & working

4 Advantages

5 Disadvantages

6 Application

7 Conclusion

8 Reference

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 4 R’s Principle

1) Indroduction
The 4Rs are a set of principles that can help people live more sustainably and responsibly:
 Reduce: Use fewer non-biodegradable compounds that are harmful to humans.
 Reuse: Find ways to use things again that would normally be thrown away.
 Recycle: Recycle non-biodegradable materials.
 Recover: Recover as much harmful waste as possible through reuse or recycling.

 The 4Rs help people reduce the amount of waste they create, which can save money and
conserve natural resources and energy.
 The 4Rs can also help with waste management. For example, people can compost food
scraps or use them as fertilizer for a nearby farm. They can also recycle all materials,
even damaged clothing and electronics.

Reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover garbage are all part of the 4-R approach for proper plastic
use. The 4-R rule is a garbage and waste stream management strategy that is environmentally
sustainable. It divides a waste stream into incremental fractions for reduction, reuse,
recycling, and recovery.

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 4 R’s Principle

1) Reduce

a) If we if we avoid making garbage we need not worry about disposing of waste or

cycling it later.
b) Changing the habits of shopping, working and playing can reduce our waste. there's a ton
of waste, to reduce waste saving some time and money and being good to the earth at the
same time.
c) By reducing and reusing, consumer and industry can save natural resources and reduce
the waste management costs. Waste preventation or source reduction, is the strategy
behind reducing and reusing waste.
d) By designing, manufacturing, purchasing, or using materials in ways that generate less
waste, fewer natural resources are used.

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 4 R’s Principle

I. Advantages
1) Save natural resources: Throughout the life cycle of a product from extraction of
raw materials to transportation, processing, manufacturing and then end use, waste
generated. Reusing items or making them with less material decreases waste
dramatically ultimately, fewer materials will need to be recycled, combusted for
energy, or land filled .
2) Reduces toxicity of waste: Sharing products that contain hazardous chemicals
instead of throwing our leftovers, using the smallest amount necessary we can reduce
waste toxicity.
3) Reduce cost: Preventing waste also can economic savings for communities,
businesses, organizations, and individual consumers.

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 4 R’s Principle

2) Reuse
a) Reuse is the best policy for resource conservation. To reuse is to an item again after its
being used. This includes conventional reuse where the item is used again for the same
function and new- life reuse where it is used for a different function.
b) Example of convectional reuse is refillable milk bottles, retreading of tries and the use of
reusable plastic boxes, shipping containers etc.
c) Scientific research has shown that re-using a product can reuse CO₂ emissions and carbon
footprint by more than 50% relative to the complete product life cycle.
d) Rising wages and consequent consumer demand for disposal product has made the reuse
of low value items uneconomic.
e) But current environmental awareness is gradually changing attitudes and regulations,
such as the new packaging regulations, are gradually beginning to reverse the situation.

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 4 R’s Principle

I. Advantages
1) Reuse help save time, money, energy and resources.
2) Reuse reduced disposal needs and costs.
3) Refurbishment can bring sophisticated, sustainable well-paid job to
underdeveloped economics.
4) Reusable products are often cheaper than the many single use
product it replaces.
II. Disadvantages
1) sorting and preparing Items for reuse takes time , which may be
inconvenient for consumer and costs money for business
2) reuse often required cleaning or transport which have
environmental cost.
3) in general reusable product need to be more durable than single
use product, and hence require more material per item .

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 4 R’s Principle

Res Reuse techniques

a) Reuse centres and virtual exchange

b) Deposit programs

c) refilling programs

d) Regiving (regifted)

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 4 R’s Principle

a) Reuse centers and virtual exchange

- Reuse centers facilitate the redistribution of unwanted, yet perfectly usable, materials
and equipment from one entity to another. They take possession of the donated
materials and make them available for redistribution or sale.
- Virtual exchanges allow users to post listings of materials available and wanted on an
online materials exchange website without taking physical possession of material.

b) Deposit program
- It offers customers a financial incentive to return packaging for reuse. Statistics show
that, on average, a milk bottle is returned 12 times.
- Sainsbury Ltd. have operated a plastic carrier bag cash refund scheme that saved 970
tonnes of plastic per annum.
- In India and Pakistan, manufacturers collect and refill old glass bottles for selling cola
and other drinks. "Kabadiwalas" buy old newspapers from the readers for scrap value and
reuse them as packaging or recycle them.

c) Refilling program
- It encourages packaging reuse by customers. For example, refills of liquid soaps and
cleaning materials, insect killers, cooking oils etc.

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 4 R’s Principle

- This saving in packing being passed onto the customer by lower shelf prices. This
avoids the transport cost and emissions of returning the reusable package to the factory.

d) Regiving
Items, such as clothes and children's toys, often become unwanted before they wear out
due to changes in their owner's needs or preferences; these can be reused by selling or
giving them to new owners.

3) Recycling

Recycling is breaking down of an item into raw materials which are then used to make new
potentially useful materials. Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, metal,
plastic, textiles, and electronics. Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste
into valuable resources.

Collecting used bottles, cans, and newspapers and taking them to the curb or to a collection
facility is just the first in a series of steps that generates a host of financial, environmental, and
social returns.

Recycling of a material may produce a fresh supply of the same material-for example used office
paper would be converted into new office paper, or used foamed polystyrene into new
polystyrene.

Sometimes recycling is difficult or too expensive so "recycling" of many products or materials

may involve their reuse in producing different materials (e.g. paperboard) instead.

Another form of recycling is the salvage of certain materials from complex products, either due
to their intrinsic value e.g., lead from car batteries, or gold from computer components, or due to
their hazardous nature

Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the
"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy.
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 4 R’s Principle

I. Advantages\
It reduces energy usage.
It reduces air pollution (from incineration).
It reduces water pollution by reducing the need for conventional waste disposal.
It lowers greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.

II. Disadvantages
Critics dispute the net economic and environmental benefits of recycling over its
costs. According to critics we must consider the following points:-
(1) The costs and energy used in collection and transportation detract from (and
outweigh) the costs and energy saved in the production process.
(2) The jobs produced by the recycling industry can be a poor trade for the jobs
lost in logging, mining, and other industries associated with virgin production.
(3) Materials such as paper pulp can only be recycled a few times before material
degradation prevents further recycling

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 4 R’s Principle

4) Recover
The 4 R's "Recover" provides an ecologically sound and environmentally
friendly approach to minimizing and managing waste and waste streams.
RECOVER is to convert waste into resources (such as electricity, heat,
compost and fuel) through thermal and biological means. Resource
Recovery occurs after reduce, reuse and recycle have been attempted.

Recovery is when most of the material thrown as garbage is used and

processed in ways other than being destroyed.

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 4 R’s Principle

When it is not possible to reuse or recycle objects such as mobile phones,

computers, televisions and other electronic gadgets, all of which may
contain toxic elements, recovery is the last option.
This means turning waste into a fuel for manufacturing processes after
removing all the individual components that may be used again.
e.g. The waste is sent to scrap dealers, can be a source to recover gold and
silver from the contacts, copper from the PCBs, all the metal from the
casings, the plugs and sockets etc. which can all be re-used.

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