Recycling - How paper, metal, wood, and glass are recycled (2024)

by Chris Woodford. Last updated: June 22, 2023.

During your lifetime, you'll produceover 600 times your own weight intrash—enough to fill a good few trucks. [1]That staggering statistic might not besuch a problem if we didn't have to live on a relatively small,overcrowded planet. Pretty much all the resources we have onEarth—all the raw materials and an awful lot of the energy—arelimited: once we've used them up, we won't get any more. So it makessense to use things as wisely as we can.

The best way to use Earth's resources more sensibly is to reduce the amount of things that we use(for example, less packaging on food in shops) and to reuse thingsinstead of throwing them away (reusing carrier bags at the grocerystore makes a lot of sense). If we can't reduce or reuse, and we haveto throw things away, recycling them is far better than simplytossing them out in the trash. Let's take a closer look at recyclingand how it works!

Photo: Separating waste is the key to recycling.In this park in Bath, England, there are separate dumpstersfor bottles, cans and plastic, paper/card (shown here), and general waste.

Why is recycling important?

Photo: Jefferson County landfill. Photo by David Parsons courtesy of US Department of Energy/National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

When you throw stuff away, you might be very glad to get rid of it:intothe trash it goes, never to be seen again! Unfortunately, that's notthe end of the story. The things we throw away have to gosomewhere—usually they go off to bebulldozedunderground ina landfill or burnt in an incinerator. Landfills can be horriblypolluting. They look awful, they stink, they take up space that couldbe used for better things, and they sometimes create toxic soil andwater pollutionthat can kill fish in our rivers and seas.

Oneof the worst things about landfills is that they're wasting a hugeamount of potentially useful material. It takes a lot of energy anda lot of resources to make things and when we throw those things in alandfill, at the end of their lives, we're also saying goodbye to alltheenergy and resources they contain. Some authorities like to burntheir trash in giant incinerators instead of burying it in landfills.That certainly has advantages: it reduces the amount of waste thathas to be buried and it can generate useful energy. But it can alsoproduce toxic airpollution and burning almost anything (except plants that have grown very recently)adds to the problem of global warming and climatechange.

The trouble is, we're all in the habit of throwing stuff away. "Recycling" might sound like a modern fad that flies in the face ofour tendency to waste, but only the name is a recentthing: since ancient times, people have generally used things sensibly and frugally, oftenthrough necessity. [7]In the early part of the 20th century, for example, people used materials muchmore wisely—especially in World War II (1939–1945), when manyraw materials were in short supply. [2] But in recent decades we've become avery disposable society. We tend to buy new things instead of gettingold ones repaired. A lot of men use disposable razors, for example,instead of buying reusable ones, while a lot of women wear disposablenylon stockings. Partly this is to do with the sheer convenience ofthrowaway items. It's also because they're cheap: artificialplastics, made from petroleum-basedmaterials, becameextremely inexpensive and widely available after the end of World WarII. But that wasteful period in our history is coming to an end.

We're finally starting to realize that our live-now, pay-laterlifestyle isstoring up problems for future generations. Earth is soon going to berunning on empty if we carry on as we are. Americans live in muchgreater affluence than virtually anyone else on Earth. What happenswhen people in developing countries such as India and China decidethey want to live the same way as us? According to theenvironmentalistsPaul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter Lovins, we'd need two Earths tosatisfy all their needs. If everyone on Earth doubles their standardof living in the next 40 years, we'll need 12 Earths to satisfy them![3]

Why should you recycle?

If everyone reduced, reused, and recycled, we could make Earth'sresources go anawful lot further. Recycling saves materials, reduces the need tolandfill and incinerate, cuts down pollution, and helps to make theenvironment more attractive. It also creates jobs, because recyclingthings takes a bit more effort than making newthings. Recycling doesn't just save materials: it saves energy too.Manufacturing things uses a lot of energy from power plants—andhungry power plants generally make global warming worse. We can savea surprising amount of energy by recycling. If you recycle a singlealuminum can you save about 95 percent of the energy it would take tomake a brand new one. [4] That's enough energy saved to power your television forabout 3 hours! [5] You'll often hear people say that over half the trash we throw away can be recycled.Looking at the chart below, you can see that we currently recycle somewhere between 30–100 percent of the various different materials we use.Just imagine if everyone were recycling most of their garbage: together, we'd be makinga tremendous reduction in theamount of raw materials and energy we use—and doing a lot ofgood for the planet.

Chart: Percentage recycling rates in the United States for various materials. Drawn in 2023 by explainthatstuff.com using the latest available data, taken from the following sources: Steel: US Geological Survey (MCS 2023);Aluminum: US Geological Survey (MCS 2023);Aluminum cans: Aluminum Association;Paper: US EPA;Glass: Glass Packaging Institute;Rubber: US Tire Manufacturers Association;Plastic: Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC);Car batteries: Battery Council International (BCI).

What are the different ways of recycling?

Throwing things away is a bad habit; recycling them is a good habit.Recycling isn't all that difficult: it's simply a matter of changing your habit.Practically speaking, recycling happens in one of two ways. Eitheryour local government authority arranges a door-to-door collection(this is sometimes called curbside recycling) or you take yourrecycled items along to a local recycling center and place them inseparate containers.

Photo: A curbside recycling service in England. Householders fill a large plastic box with mixed material for recycling, without sorting it out, and leave it outside their home. Items are sorted out at the curb into separate bins inside the truck, which has completely open sides for ease of loading and unloading.

The essential difference between a bag of trash and a bag ofvaluable,recyclable waste is that the trash is all mixed up together and therecyclable waste is sorted out and separated. If you have a curbsiderecycling scheme, you may be given a recycling box into which you canplace certain types of waste (perhaps metal cans, glass bottles,plastics, and newspapers) but not others. When the box is collected,it might be sorted out at the curb. People on the truck will taketime to sort through your box and put different items into differentlarge boxes inside the truck. So, when the truck arrives at therecycling station, the waste will already be sorted.

Alternatively, you may see your whole box being tipped into the truck without anykind of sorting. The truck then takes your waste to a different kindof recycling station called a MURF,which stands for Materials Recycling Facility (MRF),where it is sorted partly by hand and partly by machine(this type of recycling is also called single-stream or comingled). If you don'thave curbside recycling, it helps to sort out your waste and store itin separate bags or boxes before you take it to the recycling center.(For example, you could wash out food tins and glass bottles and keepthem in separate plastic bags.)

Photo: A man sorts aluminum cans onto a conveyor at a MURF. Photo by Quay Drawdy courtesy of US Air Force and DVIDS.

Which materials can be recycled?

Most things that you throw away can be recycledand turned into new products—although some are easier torecycle than others.

Kitchen and garden waste

Photo: Nature is a great recycler: find and use your local compost heap—or make one yourself.

You can recycle up to half your kitchen and garden waste by makingyour own compost—a rich, crumbly,earthlike material that forms whenorganic (carbon-based) materials biodegrade (are brokendown byworms and bacteria). Compost is great for using on your garden: itreturns nutrients to the soil that help your plants to grow. Makingyour own is much cheaper than buying compost at a garden center; it'salso better for the environment than using peat, which is athreatened habitat. To make compost, you will need a compost heap ora large container of some kind in your garden or yard. Composting isobviously much easier if you have a garden than if you have anapartment on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper! But even incities, some authorities arrange collections of biodegradable wasteand make compost at a central location. It can take anything from afew months to a year or more for waste to rot down and turn intocompost. Generally, you need to add an equal mixture of"greens" (vegetable scraps, dead flowers, grass cuttings, and so on)and"browns" (torn up cardboard, small twigs, shreddedpaper, and that kind of thing).

Paper and cardboard

Photo: A truck delivers paper collected for recycling.Photo by Quay Drawdy courtesy of US Air Force and DVIDS.

In the early 1970s, photocopiermanufacturers got scared that we would stopusing paper and turn into a "paperless society." Notmuch chance of that! Over four decades later, the bad news is that we're producingmore paper than ever before. But the good news is that we'rerecycling more as well. Unlike some materials,paper can be recycled only so many times. That's because it's madefrom plant fibers that become shorter during paper-making. Whenthey're too short, they no longer make decent paper. Inpractice, this means some new paper always has to be added during thepapermaking process.

One problem with recycling paper is that not all paper is the same.White office printer paper is made of much higher quality raw material than thepaper towels you'll find in a factory washroom. The higher thequality of paper waste, the better the quality of recycled productsit can be used to make. So high-grade white paper collected fromoffices can be used to make more high-grade white recycled paper. Buta mixture of old newspapers, office paper, junk mail, and cardboardcan generally be used only to make lower-grade paper products such as"newsprint" (the low-grade paper on which newspapersare printed). Corrugated cardboard (which is held together with glue) isharder to recycle than the thin cardboard used to package groceries.

Waste documents are usually covered in ink, which has to be removedbefore paper can be recycled. Using bleach to de-ink papers can be anenvironmentally harmful process and it produces toxic ink wastes thathave to be disposed of somehow. So, although recycling paper has manybenefits, it comes with environmental costs aswell.

Metal

Photo: Collecting aluminum cans for recycling.The next stage is squashing them into bales so that they take up lessroom. Photo by Denise Emsley courtesy of US Army and Internet Archive.

Most of the metal we throw away at home comes from food and drinkcans and aerosols. Typically food cans are made from steel, which can bemelted down and turned into new food cans. Drinks cans are generallythinner and lighter and made from aluminum, which can also berecycled very easily. Mining aluminum is a very energy-intensive andenvironmentally harmful process. That's why waste aluminum cans havea relatively high value and why recycling them is such a good thingto do.

Wood

Photo: Wooden palettes and crates can easily be turned into useful new objects or fed through a chipper to make landscaping pellets or mulch. Photo by Ashley Bradford courtesy of US Army Reserve Command and DVIDS.

People have been reusing this traditional, sustainable material foras long ashuman history. Waste wood is often turned into new woodenproducts—such as recycled wooden flooring or garden decking.Old wooden railroad sleepers (now widely replaced by concrete) aresometimes used as building timbers in homes and gardens. Waste wood can also beshredded and stuck together with adhesives to make composite woodssuch as laminates. It can also be composted or burned as a fuel.

Glass

Photo: Glass is loaded into a crusher tocompact it ready for recycling. Photo by A. Sanchez, courtesy of US Navy and US National Archives.

Glass is very easy to recycle; wastebottles and jars can be melted downand used again and again. You simply toss old glass into the furnacewith the ingredients you're using to make brand-new glass. Bottlebanks (large containers where waste glass is collected) were theoriginal examples of community recycling in many countries.

Oil

Waste oil from truck and car enginescauses huge environmental problems if youtip it down the drain. It pollutes our rivers and seas, the wildlifethat depend on them, and even the water we drink. If you take yourwaste oil along to a recycling center, it not only keeps our waterwaysclean—it can also be reprocessed into new products such asheatingoil. Waste vegetable oils (made by frying food, for example) can beturned into a useful kind of vehicle fuel called biodiesel.

Plastics

Photo: Disposable bottles and other containers are typically collected together,but they have to be carefully sorted into different kinds of plastic before they can be recycled.Photo by John Gordinier courtesy of US Air Force.

Of all the different materials we toss in the trash, plastics cause by far thebiggest problem. They last a long time in the environment withoutbreaking down—sometimes as much as 500 years. They're verylight and they float, so plastic litter drifts across the oceans andwashesup on our beaches, killing wildlife and scarring the shoreline. Theonly trouble is, plastics are relatively hard to recycle. There aremany different kinds of plastic and they all have to be recycled in adifferent way. There's so much plastic about that waste plasticmaterial doesn't have much value, so it's not always economic tocollect. Plastic containers also tend to be large and, unless peoplesquash them, quickly fill up recycling bins.

All told, plastics are a bit of an environmental nightmare—butthat's allthe more reason we should make an effort to recycle them! Differentplastics can be recycled in different ways. Plastic drinks bottlesare usually made from a type of clear plastic called PET (polyethyleneterephthalate) and can be turned into such things as textileinsulation (for thermal jackets and sleeping bags). Milk bottles tendto be made from a thicker, opaque plastic called HDPE (high-densitypolyethylene) and can be recycled into more durable products likeflower pots and plastic pipes.

Another solution to the problem could be to use bioplastics, which claim to be more environmentally friendly.

Photo: My recycled rubber mouse mat made from an old car tire.

Rubber

Huge amounts of waste rubber are produced each year, much of it from old vehicle tires(quite a lot of shredded rubber also ends up on roads and reappears in the form of air and water pollution).Given how big and bulky tires are and how many of them we get through, it's perhaps surprising that only 3.4 percentof all municipal waste in the United States is classed as rubber and leather. That might not sound a lot, but it'sabout 9 million tons a year (the same weight as 2 million elephants). [6] Old tires can often be turned into new ones ("retreads") or shredded to make soft, bouncy landscaping materialsfor cushioning children's playgrounds.

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Is recycling effective?

Some people hate recycling; the very mentionof it sets their blood boiling! They claim it's a waste of time, money,effort, and energy—with supposedly recycled material often simplythrown away or shipped around the world to developing countries.According to this point of view, recycling is an example of "feel-good"environmentalism:something people do mainly to make themselves feel better, and which mayhave a dubious or even negative effect on the planet.In 1996, journalist >John Tierney summed up many people's doubts—and ruffled an awful lot of eco feathers— when he wrote,in the New York Times, that "Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America: a waste of timeand money, a waste of human and natural resources."[1]Just as you'd expect, environmentalists and recycling champions vigorously refute this.

It's very easy to find statistics from different countries about the benefits ofrecycling. For example, the US EPA has summarized the positive side of recycling in a single sentence: "In 2006, Americans recycled 32.5 percent of municipal solid waste, which prevented the release of 52 million metric tons of carbon equivalent—the same as taking 41.2 million cars off the road."[2] But it's often uncertain whether statistics like this take account of the energyconsumed (and carbon emissions produced) during recycling collection and processing. What if the recyclingprocess produces more carbon emissions than it saves? What if it costs more to collect materialsthan you get back from recycling them? It's obviously vitally important to consider these things.

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Studies of recycling

A few studies of the effectiveness of recycling have been done. In 2010, the UK government'swaste and packaging advisory agency, Wrap, carried out a detailed analysisof the effectiveness of recycling. It compared seven types of disposal (recycling,landfill, incineration, and so on) for seven different types of materialcommonly recycled (paper, glass, plastics, and so on). In almost every case,reusing or recycling was the best option, although it's a much more effective solutionfor some materials than others; in a small number of cases, for example, low-grade waste paper, the report suggestedthat incineration with energy recovery might be a better option.[3]

But doesn't recycling consume energy? What about allthe fuel needed to drive those recycling trucks around carrying old newspapers fromplace to place? Even taking this into account, there is a net benefit from recyclingcompared to landfill or incineration. According to the UK government's 2007 WasteStrategy: "Current UK recycling of paper, glass, plastics, aluminum and steel is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year through avoided primary material production."[4]

Economics—commodity market conditions—also plays a vital part in evaluating recycling. When markets are buoyant and peopleare willing to pay more for scrap metal or waste glass, recycling is obviously more cost-effectivethan when prices are low. And if you think recycling is just a cost to society, don't forgetthe benefits. According to the US EPA, the recycling industry provides 757,000 jobs, $36.6 billion in wages, and$6.7 billion in tax revenues.[5]

Ultimately, the bottom line is that it's rarely better to throw something away than to reuse it or recycle it.

Further reading

• How Useful Is Recycling, Really? by E. A. Crunden. The Atlantic, January 2021. Recycling is well worth doing, but don't expect it to make much difference to problems like climate change.
• Is Recycling Worth It? PM Investigates its Economic and Environmental Impact by Alex Hutchinson. Popular Mechanics, November 13, 2008. An excellent article about the economic costs and benefits of recycling.

References

1. ↑Recycling is Garbage by John Tierney. The New York Times, June 30, 1996. Almost 20 years on, Tierney updated his figures but essentially made the same argument again in The Reign of Recycling, The New York Times, October 3, 2015. Readers responded the following week inWhere Our Trash Goes, The New York Times, October 10, 2015.
2. ↑US EPA: Recycling: Basic information: The main EPA website about how to recycle things, including what happens to recycled materials and other ways of reusing things (such as donating used electronic equipment to good causes).The specific quote comes fromUS EPA Archive: Wastes: Basic Information, February 21, 2016.
3. ↑Recycling still the most effective waste disposal method, report finds by Juliette Jowit, The Guardian, 16 March 2010.
4. ↑Does recycling reduce carbon emissions? by Local Government Improvement and Development, 20 July 2010.In England, just under half of household waste (45 percent) was being recycled in 2020, witha target of 65 percent for 2035, according to UK GovernmentProgress report on recycling and recovery targets for England 2020.
5. ↑Recycling Economic Information: US EPA, 2016. The economic value of recycling explored and explained. No more recent figures were available the last time I checked the EPA's page in June 2023.

How can we get people to recycle more?

Generally, it's better to recycle things than to trash them—butthat's notalways true. What we really need to do is think harder about how weproduce waste and how we dispose of it. It will always be better notto produce waste in the first place than to recycle it, so reducingthe need for things is always the best option. That meanspressurizing manufacturers to use less packaging, for example.Reusing things is also generally better than recycling them, becauserecycling takes energy. (It takes energy to power the truck thatcollects your recycled material and energy is also used at the plantwhere things are recycled.) So it's better to keep a plasticice-cream container and reuse it as a storage box than to send it offto be recycled. You're saving the material you'd use if you bought anew box, but you're also saving the energy that would be needed torecycle the old one.

Photo: 100% recycled: look out for this symbol. By buying recycled products, you'rehelping to create a market that encourages even more recycling.

Buying recycled products is another important part of recycling. Ifno-one's prepared to buy recycled, it doesn't pay people to recycle things inthe first place. Why do recycled things cost more if they're made of old trash?Recycled things are often more expensive than non-recycled ones, because they're made in smaller quantities and itoften takes more effort to make them and get them to the shops. Butremember this: although they have a higher cost, they usually have alower environmental cost: they are doingless damage to the planet.

That's not always true. Some cynical manufacturers haveseized on the public's enthusiasm for recycled goods. They producecostly, pointless recycled gimmicks that make little if anydifference to the planet. Sometimes recycled products are made inenergy-hungry factories and shipped or (worse still) air-freightedhalfway round the world. Then it's possible they are actually doing more damage to the planet than the cheap, disposable productsthey're pretending to replace. If you're not sure whether a recycledproduct is all it seems, contact the manufacturer and ask them toexplain exactly how and where it is made. Ask them to explain exactlyhow it's helping the environment. A genuine manufacturer, truly motivatedby environmental concern, will always be pleased and proud to do this.

In short...

Think carefully about what you use, where it comesfrom, and where it goes. Try to reduce, reuse, and recycle if you possibly can—and in that order!Be a thoughtful consumer, not a reckless one, and you'll be doing your bit to save theenvironment.

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On this website

• Air pollution
• Bioplastics and biodegradable plastics
• Climate change and global warming
• Environmentalism
• Land pollution
• Plasma arc recycling
• Plastics
• Water pollution

Browse our full list of our environment articles.

Articles

• Recycled plastic bottle research outlines significant environmental benefits by Jonathan Wilson, IET, February 21, 2022. New additives could help increase the recycled content of plastic bottles.
• Maine Will Make Companies Pay for Recycling. Here's How It Works by Winston Choi-Schagrin. The New York Times, July 21, 2021. The US state of Maine is putting the burden of recycling on the companies who manufacture goods in the first place.
• The Indian men who make money selling trash by Aparna Alluri. BBC News, January 2, 2019. How Delhi's scrap merchants (kabadiwalas or raddiwalas)make good money by recycling other people's trash.
• Listen Up America: You Need to Learn How to Recycle. Again. by Nick Stockton. Wired, August 21, 2015. How and why recycling can be much more effective (and cost-effective).
• Our E-Waste Problem Is Ridiculous, and Gadget Makers Aren't Helping by Christina Bonnington. Wired, December 8, 2014. Up to 80 percent of obsolete electronic gadgets end up in landfills... but why?
• South Korea's enthusiasm for recycling by Lucy Williamson, BBC News, 9 June 2011. An English journalist is baffled but impressed by the diligent recycling in Seoul.
• The truth about recycling by Leo Hickman. The Guardian, February 26, 2009. Recycling (and using recycled materials) needs to be a much more fundamental part of everyday life.
• Recycling around the world: BBC News, 25 June 2005. How good are people at recycling in different European countries?

Useful briefings

• Plastic waste: UK House of Commons Library Briefing Paper, March 9, 2022.
• Recycling Tracker Report 2021: Behaviours, attitudes and awareness around recycling: UK WRAP, July 1, 2021.
• Recycling of municipal waste: European Environment Agency, November 29, 2018.
• Household recycling in the UK: UK House of Commons Library Briefing Paper, September 12, 2018.
• Recycling Economic Information: US EPA, 2016. The economic value of recycling explored and explained.

Videos

• Single-Stream Recycling: Leading the Way to Zero Waste: A 15-minute introduction to single-stream recycling, with a tour of the Boulder County Recycling Center. Simple and clear enough for younger students.
• Waste Management Single-Stream Recycling: How mixed (comingled) recycling works—why it's easier for residents and how the waste is sorted at the MRF recycling plant.

Books

For older readers

• Understanding Environmental Pollution by Marquita K. Hill. Cambridge University Press, 2020. A wide-ranging introduction that includes chapters on recycling and waste.
• Recycling Reconsidered: The Present Failure and Future Promise of Environmental Action in the United States by Samantha MacBride. MIT Press 2011. An honest evaluation of the successes and failures of the recycling "movement": has it simply diverted attention from the bigger problem of waste production?
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: An Easy Household Guide by Nicky Scott. Green Books, 2009. A practical guide designed to help determined recyclers find a home for things they're determined not to trash. However, recycling information varies widely from place to place and changes quite often so much of the guidance may not apply to you.
• Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff by Fred Pearce. Beacon, 2008. Where does recycled stuff really end up? Does it all get shipped out to Asia—and what happens to it then?

For younger readers

• What A Waste: Rubbish, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet by Jess French. DK, 2019. Includes experiments and activities. A wide-ranging look at the interlinked problems of waste, pollution, dwindling resources, and energy use. 72 pages for ages 6–9.
• Recycling by Charlotte Wilcox. Lerner Publishing, 2008. Lots of impressive facts and statistics mixed in with clear text. The photos are mostly of dull and dirty old recycling plants, but never mind! Good for ages 9–12.
• Recycling by Eleanor J. Hall. Kidhaven, 2004. An alternative for ages 9–12.

Organizations

• US EPA: Wastes: A huge collection of information from the US Environmental Protection Agency covering all the different types of waste disposal and recycling.
• WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme): Nonprofit UK agency helping to promote more sustainable forms of waste disposal, including recycling and composting.

References

1. ↑Americans produce about 2.2kg ofsolid waste per person per day, which works out at 800kg per year or roughly 9 times average body weight. Assuming a lifetime of about 70 years, that gives at least 600 times your body weight in trash.Waste statistics come from Municipal Solid Waste, US Environmental Protection Agency, July 14, 2021, and an earlier version,Municipal Solid Waste, US Environmental Protection Agency, March 29, 2016.
2. ↑There are some fascinating posters of World War II recycling at World War II recycling posters, Waste360.com.
3. ↑These figures are quoted in Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution by Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins. Earthscan, 2010, p.51, which bases its analysis onOur Ecological Footprintby Wackernagel and Rees. New Society, 1996.
4. ↑The figure of 95 percent energy saved by recycling a can has been quoted widely since the 1970s (see for example this search on Google Books). The earliest reference here appears to be a Newsweek article from 1976.
5. ↑Appropriately enough, the figure of three hours of TV power has, itself, been "recycled" widely. The first reference I found is a 1991 Forbes article (Volume 148, Issues 11–14, p195), though an earlier Illinois Information Service article (from 1988) quotes a figure of 24 hours. One problem with this statistic is that today's LCD TVs are much less energy-hungry than the old cathode-ray TVs that would have been commonplace in 1991.
6. ↑National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling: US EPA, retrieved May 15, 2020.
7. ↑The Oxford English Dictionary tracesthe first use of the term "recycling" to US Patent 1566796: Recovery of phenols from ammoniacal liquor by Heffner Le Roy Wilburand Tiddy William, filed on December 16, 1924, published on December 22, 1925, who refered to "recycling of ammonia vapor."