recycling

/riˈsaɪklɪŋ/

/rɪˈsaɪklɪŋ/

The process of taking trash and turning it into new materials is recycling. It's thanks to recycling that a new playground slide can be partly made of used plastic milk jugs.

Only some materials are eligible for recycling — aluminum, steel, glass, paper, and some kinds of plastic. These are typically the things you toss in your recycling bin (like empty soda cans and pickle jars). Recycling, or "reusing materials," was first used in an industrial context, from re-, "again," and cycle, "move through a repeating event." The process of making something, melting it down, and then making it again captures the idea of recycling.

Definitions of recycling

1. noun

   the act of processing used or abandoned materials for use in creating new products
   types:

   bottle collection

   collecting bottles for reuse

   type of:

   employment, exercise, usage, use, utilisation, utilization

   the act of using