Origins
Recycling began during the Second World War when iron railings were made into Spitfires. These were superior to their German counterparts as long as no-one opened the gate.

Bottle bank
Pile of broken glass beside a skip that the council haven’t emptied for weeks.

Can crusher
You quickly learn that it’s best to take the baked beans out first.

Shredder
Recycling that makes you feel like a secret agent.

Water butt
Your rainwater looks really big in this.

Biodegradable bin bag
When it splits open over your hall carpet you can at least feel good about the planet.

Recycled loo roll
Saving the planet can make you feel really green.

Chip fat
Cars can now run on this. You can tell which ones they are – they don’t go very fast and they have enormous rear ends.

Brownfield site
Where people used to walk their dogs.

Space station
Everything here has to be recycled. Astronauts breathe recirculated air, drink water they once passed, and refuse to eat some of the food.

Climate change
Dinner parties with thick, green wine glasses with lots of bubbles in them are no longer looked down on.

De-inking
If printed paper is to be reused, it must have all the text removed. This is particularly satisfying when it is a Jeffrey Archer novel.

Printer cartridges
These can be easily recycled into new printer cartridges that only differ in the sense that they now don’t print properly.

Conclusion
All the words in this column were used first in previous Beginners’ Guide, with exception of the word “Spitfires”, for which a 79p carbon offset has been purchased.