Recycling Of Plastic And Other Common Materials example essay topic

The world would be a better place if everyone would recycle. Recycling is one of the most misunderstood yet extremely important issues in our world today. Recycling is simply returning materials to their raw material components and then using these again to supplement or replace new materials in the manufacture of a new product. It is important for every person to take responsibility for his or her own contribution to the recycling effort. Recycling is known as reusing and restoring our garbage, most people don't understand it can also include donating old clothes to charitable organizations, reusing plastic containers to store food in the refrigerator, and many other activities we already participate in. Although recycling is everywhere in our lives, I will focus on our everyday waste products, why recycle them, how to recycle them, and if it is a worthwhile cause.

There are a myriad of curbside recycling services operating nationwide, therefore, people can no longer make excuses for their lack of recycling. It is important that everyone becomes educated about recycling. This would lead to people making informed decisions about buying products which are recyclable and minimize the amount of garbage that cannot be recycled. Recycling 'healing' the Earth in many ways, such as helping to slow global warming, diminishing acid rain, reducing water pollution, conserving landfill space, and lowering pollutants in the air '. For four consecutive weeks, I collected my personal garbage and counted and / or weighed the respective products.

I learned that many of the products I use can be recycled, however, I also realized that I need to make a more conscious effort to buy recyclable products. I noted everything in my journal, which gave a description of the garbage I collected and how it is divided into several categories which are: aluminum, other metals, glass, plastics, newspaper, white paper, other paper, and food products. I will discuss each group and how, or if, the products listed in the group can be recycled. Using aluminum can cut down on a lot of pollution. Virgin ore is a substitute for aluminum, but it is not healthy to the environment. By using recycled aluminum instead of virgin ore, we can eliminate 95 percent of air pollution and 97 percent of water pollution.

More than 95 percent of all canned beverages are sold in aluminum containers. Aluminum is one of the easiest products to recycle. During my month of recording all the garbage, I noticed that I threw away a lot more than just aluminum cans. I also recycled pie plates, foil, frozen food and dinner trays, and some take-out containers. Other types of heavy aluminum include lawn furniture tubing, house siding, gutters, storm door and window frames, and even pots and pans. I counted 134 aluminum cans and 23 pieces of aluminum foil during my four weeks of collection.

Recycling these cans is not only environmentally healthy, but are also economically 'healthy'. The aluminum cans I collected can be remelted and back on the shelves in supermarkets in as little as six weeks. Recycling aluminum saves energy. Aluminum can recycling saves 95% of the energy needed to make aluminum from bauxite ore. The aluminum can industry makes up to 20 times more cans for the same amount of energy when they use U BCs. Recycling has been an effective fundraiser for charities and civic organizations for more than 30 years.

The aluminum industry annually pays out about $1 billion for empty aluminum beverage cans. Helping is as simple as taking your recyclable cans to your local recycling centers and designating the proceeds to a Habitat affiliate in your town. In the category labeled other metals, there were two main types of products, food cans and metal hangers. Metal hangers are very easily recycled, even without the has tle of curbside assistance.

They are just given back to the dry cleaning shop the next time you go to one, and this process by definition is called recycling. This act of kindness and intelligence not only shows how good of a person you are, but it also helps the store save money. These products contain steel, which is the most recycled item in the United States. Other common steel recyclables are automobiles, household appliances, railroad cars, and some industrial equipment.

'More steel is recycled each year than all other materials combined and doubled'. Food cans are also steel; they are also magnetic which makes them easy to sort at recycling centers. Most food cans are 1% tin plated, and 99% steel. Steel is recycled by separating it by grade and then torching and shredding the scrap into fist-size pieces.

'The steel is then sold to a plant who will rework the steel and melt it into new steel products'. Glass products were the next items on my list. The glass items I collected were beer bottles, wine bottles, and glass juice bottles. There are two main ways glass bottles can be recycled efficiently. They can be cleaned and reused, or they can be broken up and melted down to make new glass.

As more people join the recycling movement, more bottles are collected, but this raises another problem - vast amounts of glass must often be separated by color, and metal pieces have to be removed. The expense of this extra handling sometimes leads to bottles being thrown away in a landfill site, after they were carefully collected. Over 5 billion glass bottles and jars are recycled every year. Needless to say, glass is 100 percent recyclable.

This means that for every glass bottle returned to a recycling plant, one glass bottle can be produced. Another good thing about glass is that it never deteriorates. It can be recycled time after time and never disintegrate. 'Glass containers generally cost less than containers made from plastic, paper, or metal'. I collected more plastic items than any other item on the list. Some plastic containers are labeled as to what type of plastic the product contains.

These codes are written on a triangle shape on the bottom of many plastic containers. The following is a list of the most common types of plastics: Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a lightweight, transparent plastic that is resistant to chemicals and moisture. High density polyethylene (HDPE) is used in milk jugs, two-liter soda bottles, and plastic grocery bags. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a type of plastic used in flooring, records, vinyl siding, shower curtains, and garden hoses. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in cellophane wrap, diaper liners, and some squeeze bottles. Polypropylene (PP) is a light, highly resistant, thermoplastic resin used in packaging, coating, pipes, and tubes.

Polystyrene (PS), commonly called styrofoam, is used in coffee cups, egg cartons, and almost all packing pellets. The two most common types of plastics from this group are PET and HDPE plastics. I collected mostly HDPE products for the project. Plastics appeal to packagers because they can be lightweight, unbreakable, flexible, and strong. 'Since there are so many different types of plastics, it makes for more difficult recycling compared to paper, aluminum, and glass products'. The next three products are all different types of paper.

The first one, newspaper, is a common recycled material. It is estimated, though, that we throw away the equivalent of 500,000 trees each week in newsprint. Newspapers constitute the largest single component of landfills. Newsprint does not only include newspapers, but can also include the pages of telephone books. Most local phone companies have recycling campaigns each year when new directories come out.

Farmers are starting to use recycled newsprint as bedding material for livestock. They say it proves to be more absorbent, cleaner, and less expensive than other bedding materials. It produces fewer odors and decomposes more quickly in the field. Toxic elements have been removed, for the majority, from newspaper inks, so that is no longer a concern. ' Successful recycling of newsprint will only happen if we continue to find uses for it such as'. The next type of paper, white paper, is the second most common on my list of collected items.

It is said that over 4 million tons of office paper are thrown away each year. Office paper recycling is now up to 36 percent of total use and newspaper recycling is up to 46 percent. The demand for recycling has led to rapid increases in recovered pulp paper production, from 574,000 tons in 1994 to a forecast ed 2.3 million tons in 1997. Many businesses have programs set up to recycle used, white paper. White paper is generally recycled in a pul per... The paper moves by conveyor to a big vat called a pul per, which contains water and chemicals.

The pul per chops the recovered paper into small pieces. Heating the mixture breaks the paper down more quickly into tiny strands of cellulose (organic plant material) called fibers. Eventually, the old paper turns into a mushy mixture called pulp. The pulp is forced through screens containing holes and slots of various shapes and sizes.

The screens remove small contaminants such as bits of plastic and globs of glue. This process is called screening. This process is basically the same for all paper except for a few variations for different grades of paper. 'Most paper can be recycled up to seven or eight times'.

In the other paper category, I collected lots of cardboard items. The recycling industry refers to these items as corrugated materials. Grocery stores, department stores, and other businesses have more corrugated paper waste than all other waste items combined. 'For this corrugated materials are the most recycled type of paper'. The final category I collected was food products and leftovers. Since there are not too many uneaten items in my house, I feel that I had a minimal amount of this particular waste.

If a person has a lot of organic material to dispose of, he or she may consider composting. Composting is a natural process in which plant and other organic wastes are broken down biologically to produce nutrient-rich material. Composting at home is a means of recycling yard and kitchen waste such as leaves, grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, and other materials into a nutrient-rich soil supplement for gardens and outdoor plants. Items to avoid adding to the compost pile are meat, bones, cheese, grease, and pesticides. 'There are several methods to composting depending on how large or small the area is, what a person will be composting, how much time will be devoted to composting, and how quickly a person wants their compost'. In collecting items for this project, I learned that our trash is not really so complicated.

By that, I mean that once it is divided by the type of material it is, it is just as quick and easy to recycle the waste as to throw it away. I learned several shocking facts as I was doing research for this project and I listed a couple. Enough energy is saved by recycling one can to power a television for three hours. 'Americans throw away enough plastic soda bottles in one year to circle the planet four times'. Not recycling can result in a number of unwanted affects. Air pollution, the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, hazardous wastes, acid rain, vanishing wildlife, groundwater pollution, and overfilling of landfills.

There are hundreds of simple things we can do to support the recycling effort. Most of them do not even require any extra energy on our part, and many of them save us time and energy. Following, I have listed just five easy things we can do to help save our Earth. First, if Americans stopped receiving junk mail, each household could save the equivalent of 1 and ^A 1/2 trees.

Americans receive almost 2 million tons of junk mail every year and about 44 percent of that is never read or even opened. If each person were to write the Direct Marketing Association and asked to be removed from large mailing lists, he or she could reduce their junk mail up to 75 percent. If junk mail is still delivered it can be recycled along with the other paper items in the house. Second, we should all use cleaner detergents. High phosphate detergents are terrible for the environment. As phosphates empty into streams and lakes, they cause algae to grow out of control.

The bacteria that causes the algae to decay uses up valuable oxygen needed for other plants and marine life to survive. We could all use a little less detergent or consider switching to a detergent lower in phosphates. Third, we can keep our tires inflated to the proper tire pressure. This is a super easy way to save wear and tear on cars, achieve better gas mileage, and avoid buying new tires before they are needed. There are 240 to 260 million tires discarded in the United States each year alone.

By maintaining our tires properly we can help conserve energy and resources that go into making new tires, prevent pollution generated by tire production, and reduce the problems we create when we throw them away. Fourth, reusing plastic shopping bags is an easy way to help the recycling effort. If we must use plastic bags, we can use the same ones two or three or more times before throwing them away. Keeping them in the trunk of the car is a good idea, so they are readily accessible. Fifth, turn the faucet off while brushing your teeth. 'This is a simple habit to get used to and it will save up to 5 gallons of water just while brushing your teeth'.

Since I bought a trash sorter for this project, I plan to keep using it and take advantage of my neighborhood curbside recycling service. There is a schedule set up to put out plastics one day, glass one day, and paper another day. It must be sorted and in the blue recyclable bags that my trash company provides. I do think that every little bit helps in the recycling effort. If everyone had the same attitude as me, we would not have the mess we have now. I feel good about doing something worthwhile for the environment, and I am sure if others put in a little effort they would receive the same satisfaction.