Short answers, pulled from the story.
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects, and it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by lowering the need for energy-intensive virgin material production. The US EPA calculated that American recycling efforts reduced carbon emissions by a net 49 million metric tonnes in 2005. Recycling aluminum alone saves 95 percent of the energy required to produce the same amount from bauxite.
Paper recycling was first recorded in 1031, when Japanese shops sold repulped paper. In Britain, recycling of ash from wood and coal fires as brick-making material and the use of scrap metals were practiced long before industrialization.
China's National Sword policy, announced on the 31st of December 2017, set new standards for imports of recyclable material and banned materials deemed too dirty or hazardous. The policy caused drastic disruptions in the global recycling market, collapsed prices for scrap plastic and low-grade paper, and forced G7 countries to redirect recyclable exports to Southeast Asian nations that could not handle the volume.
Recyclable materials include glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, tires, textiles, batteries, and electronics. Metal cans can be remanufactured repeatedly without losing purity, while some plastic types can only be recycled about 2-3 times before quality drops too far. An estimated two-thirds of all new steel already comes from recycled steel.
E-waste refers to discarded electrical and electronic devices and accounts for 20-50 million metric tons of global waste per year according to the EPA. When treated using inferior methods, e-waste can release as many as 1,000 different chemical substances, including neurotoxicants such as lead. Recycling of certain critical materials including indium, gallium, germanium, selenium, and tantalum remains very difficult, with very low recovery rates.
Sweden established an official recycling system with refundable deposits for bottles in 1884, then extended the program to aluminum beverage cans in 1982. These deposit programs have produced recycling rates of 84-99 percent depending on the material type, with glass bottles capable of being refilled around 20 times.