Recycling Free Essays

Recycling: The Best Savings Plan for a Better Tomorrow. Recycled Orchestra is the orchestra which consists of kids and teenagers who play music with the help of recycled instruments in Cateura, Paraguay which a slum made on a landfill. The people in the slums cannot afford to buy musical instruments for their children. We will write a custom essay sample on Recycling or any similar topic only for you Order Now So, they collect the instruments and waste items from the garbage and by repairing the instruments and using the other required things to make the instruments for their children. Thus, recycling of the broken instruments had led to an orchestra with an increasing number of participants in the group and which now competing in many of the tournaments in and out Paraguay. Recycled Orchestra is one of the best examples of recycling things with great output. This also shows that recycling the waste and trash into useful goods not only keeps the environment clean and saves money and raw materials but also help completing peoples dreams. Recycled Orchestra and Recycled business of games and other articles are some of the most popular concept of the biggest slums in the world. Recycling is the process of converting waste and materials into useful products to avoid the wastage of potentially useful resources, conserve the fresh raw resources for the future, reducing the pollution caused during the disposal of waste like the combustion of useless products and the activities like landfills which causes the contamination of soil and minerals and groundwater beneath it and basically to protect our planet from contamination. Recycling is one of the components of â€Å"Waste Hierarchy† –Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Recycling is a huge topic to take into the picture the steps for recycling like collecting, sorting, processing and finally using the recycled waste into useful products, then comes in the things to be recycled which give the maximum output like paper, metals, water, glass and plastic these are some of the most important ones and finally the global issues like global warming, greenhouse gases and pollution which recycling provides a solution. Firstly, the steps for recycling consist of some of the basic steps like collecting, sorting and processing it into useful products. These steps induces the â€Å"Waste Hierarchy† by itself by collecting the waste and the recyclable material from the garbage it reduces the amount of the usage new and fresh material and also reduces the waste going for direct incineration or dumping. Reuse is the final step after recycle, which is acceptance from the consumers or the usage of recycled products. The collection process is taken care by the government by assigning central collection facility for various localities and areas which collect the waste and trash from different places such as drop-off centers, buyback centers and the curbside centers. The drop-off centers consists of the various utilities which help in the collection of the junk like the rubbish bin, the other public usage trash bin and this rash consists of unknown stuff as these drop-off centers are located in public places where so people throw a lot of unwanted and unknown stuff. The buyback centers are the profit making organizations which charge customers for collecting their trash from their community and their houses and collect the trash and sorting it and selling the same trash to the recycling facilities and waste management centers. The other facility for trash collection is the curbside centers wherein the client separates their trash according to their knowledge prior to the curbside center’s trash collection vehicles come and pick up the trash. These vehicles then dump the trash directly to the central sorting facility. Sorting is one of the most important parts of the recycling process, because if the all the things in the trash are not properly sorted the important recyclable things or even simply repaired could go in vain as in the case of recycled orchestra wherein the processes of sorting they find the broken instruments which by repairing save a lot of money and cleaning up the waste. The sorting process helps in proper recycling and decomposition as well. The recycling process goes through a lot of chemical and physical changes in the actual matter which is being processed. Thus, the mixture of two different matters might change in the final result and the whole process of recycling from the collecting till the end goes in vain and creating toxic waste. Sorting of easily recyclable materials such as metals, glass, paper and plastic are the most common ones. The sorting process is taken carry by the material recovery facility wherein his paper and metal waste is separated using the vibration method which brings the light items up like first paper, then plastic and finally metals and glass which are the heaviest. The steel items such as cans and bottles are sorted by the magnetic separation method. Then the aluminium and other metallic waste are sorted by the electric current and the plastics by the sensors and finally the glass is taken out and using the scanner for glass is checked for any other materials except the glass and then passed for recycling. Thus this thing is finally given out for finally processes. The www. recyclingguide. k org website approved by the waste management organization gives information regarding recycling and some facts such as that Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled and this unused energy from the dustbin could light up a television for more than 5000 hours. After the sorting processes the sorted garbage or trash is taken to their particular recycling centers for recycling. Recycling processes in general consists of breaking the used things in to its basic structure and then again using it for as a new product. The recycling of paper consists of breaking down the paper by mixing it with water and other chemicals and once the solution of the liquidized form of paper is formed it then heat treated and finally converted into new paper. The Bureau of International Recycling suggests that the recycling of the paper can be done for at least 7 times with a small amount of degradation in the quality of paper. Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials. It’s always better to use a 1 ton of recycled paper than using 24 trees for making 1 on of newspaper. The other most important substance which is recycled is metals which if sorted properly would save a lot of fresh natural resources. The recycling of metal is done by melting the used and thrown out metals at high temperature which breaks the rigid grain structure of these metals and then these metals are heat treated and and formed into desired shapes but these recycled metals are not used for heavy duty purposes due to low factor of safety and durability in it. The vehicle waste which mainly consists of metals, around 80% 0f the vehicles can be recycled. The other metals and substance like lead, glass and plastic go through the same process of melting and breaking down the grain structure and heat treated and finally molded into substances of daily usage but not used at the same level. With an increase of usage of plastic at the rate of 4-8% per year throughout the world, recycling them is the best option and anyway decomposition of plastic takes around 500 years. The other form of waste and the most dangerous one is the toxic waste and the waste after recycling all the waste is usually dumped into the modern landfills and modern incinerators. The landfills are big pits wherein the toxic waste and the non degradable waste is stored for decomposition. The decomposition takes place with the help of the chemicals and bacterias added in the landfills which increase the rate of the disintegration and lead to the formation of one of the most toxic gas which is methane more harmful to the environment than carbon monoxide. This gas is collected from the top of the the landfill through a suction pipe and then supplying methane to the thermal power plants near by to produce electricity. Some of the examples of landfills like the Cateura, Paraguay in the illustrations and another famous example is the Olympic Grounds in Australia wherein a lot of toxic waste like tanks and old warships is dumped Olympic grounds. The other types of landfills are for the human waste such as Biogas plant, Digestor which are usually implemented in the rural areas for the production of biogas to cook food and heat the house. These are big vessel or container of human and agricultural waste which is mixed with water and this solid-liquid mixture known as slurry is dumped into the digestor or the vessel and an electronically operated stirrer is provided to mix the slurry from time to time. The slurry is then kept in the digestor for a couple of weeks and due to which there is an increased in the temperature up to 70 °C – 80 °C in the vessel due to the decomposition and this induces the production of butane gas which useful in cooking and heating the house. The left out in the bioreactor known as the sludge is used as fertilizer for agriculture. Generally, biogas plant was popular in the rural areas only but nowadays there are being taken into account due to urge of renewable energy. One of the world largest biogas plant is the Penkun biogas park which has 40 modules of 500 kW electrical power each, digesting mainly energy crops. The thermal energy produced is used in a fertilizer factory next to the biogas park which is situated in Germany. Finally, if the recycling doesn’t work, incineration is the only way by which this non- recyclable byproduct cannot be used but vanished. The biomass from this landfills and biogas plant is usually used as fertilizer but the toxic ones are usually incinerated in the modern high temperature incinerator which incinerate both the liquid and the solid waste at really high temperatures. This high temperature incineration is the â€Å"Best Technology Available† as quoted by the Mitchell Young, the editor of the book Garbage and Recycling as determined by the EPA. Most of the big factories have their modern hazardous waste incinerator on –site in their factory. But the small business depends on the off-site incineration managing all the hazardous wastes. These incinerators operate at high temperature around 1800 °F. The incinerator consists of a primary combustion chamber, an afterburner or the secondary combustion chamber which is connected to the pollution control system for controlling a monitoring the process. The afterburner increases the temperature form 1800 °F to 2200 °F which completely converts the hazardous solid and liquid waste into ashes or gases. The big banner companies such as Dove, Reliance and many more production hubs like it. But it always better to recycle than to incinerate which at some point pollute the environment. This all will help in solving the global issues like global warming, pollution, greenhouse effects and many more and reduce his usage of fresh and raw resources for future. To conclude this, Recycling waste is a long term project. But its key lies in segregation and putting in some efforts to clean up the neighborhood. The main motto of recycling is creating zero waste which a worthwhile goal. If the process of recycling starts from the waste producer then it becomes much easier to recycle the process like sorting the waste and avoiding the non-recyclable material out of the landfills and dumps. Thus,recycling said to be a process not a step. These awarenesses in the people would help in achieving the goal of zero waste. Recycling is equal to a better, healthier savings plan for tomorrow. How to cite Recycling, Papers Recycling Free Essays Don’t litter, it makes the world bitter! Recycle your bottles, cans, plastic and paper. Do not litter them; they can be used in some other way. Environmental sciences ERSC 1020H Marta Wolniewicz Recycling 2 Introduction: Recycling is very important for the natural environment and for humans as well. We will write a custom essay sample on Recycling or any similar topic only for you Order Now Littering has a huge negative effect on our environment and human health. Such as plastic, this is made up of non-biodegradable material and will always stay in some form. It is hazardous for all the lives living under water as it could be eaten as food by many birds and sea creatures. Also plastic resins are flammable and have caused many accidents worldwide and release many deadly toxins upon burning. Though cans are completely recyclable but it requires a huge amount of electricity which is provided by hydroelectric plants thus affecting our natural river and lake ecosystem and forests. Papers are made by cutting millions of trees which destructs the natural environment and forest. So don’t waste the paper and put them into the recycle bin. Recent progress has been seen in plastic recycling (Al-Salem, Lettieri and Baeyens, 2009). Technological sciences are working on recycling on food packaging materials (Arvanitoyannis and Bosnea, 2001). Environmental Sciences are working on all kind of recycling to make our earth a better living place. The purpose of my study is to find out the recycling habits of people and to aware them about its effects and damages on our environment and human health. To find out people’s habit of recycling we will conduct surveys at Trent University. After getting the result we will have a look and see how much people are aware of recycling, its ways and programs. We have predicted that most of people know about plastic and paper recycling but we plan to discuss more about plastic recycles as Toronto has recently started recycling clamshell plastic containers which many people are not aware of (The star, 2013). Recycling 3 Research question: How does paper and plastic use affect our environment? How can paper and plastic recycling have a positive impact on our environment? Method: The study method we have chosen is survey. Getting information from people is an important way to make decision about the interested topic. They help viewing the current situation and help decide what needs to be changed and where and how money should be spent to improve it. We will be conducting surveys to know about the recycling habits of people, like if they are recycling properly or not and if not then what can we do to improve their habits in order to save our environment. We haven’t done the survey yet but we will be doing it in Trent University, Oshawa at Thornton hill. They will be distributed in Environmental Science class of about 30 students and each participant is over 18. The questionnaire will be based on closed ended multiple choice questions. Depending on the survey result, we might decide to aware students more about recycling, its ways and other plastic items/containers that can be recycled. We will also be showing video or distributing some articles on the effects of plastic and paper use, its effect on our environment and the ways to prevent it. Please see the appendix for questionnaire. Recycling 4 Result and discussion: As mentioned before, we haven’t conducted the survey. But we are expecting to see a positive result as all students are young and they are connected to community somehow so they know about recycling. Plastic and paper recycling is more common than any other type of recycling and people do actually recycle as university has placed recycling bins in classes. And community has placed recycle bins on sidewalks and bus stops etc. Various technologies and studies conducted of plastic solid waste have greatly contributed to the waste management, its recycling, treatment and recovery (Al-Salem et al. , 2009). Study limitations: The class of about 30 students is not good enough to come to a decision and will not give enough data to know about the recycling system of a particular community. Also some students at Trent University are from other city (as 4 members of my group come from a different region), which will effect the results too because other city might have better recycling programs and facilities than the city survey conducted at. Questionnaire is subjective so people may not respond truthfully so it is hard to know if the survey is accurate. All participants are students, who are probably working part time so they are mostly out for university or work and might not know much and what items their family has been recycling. Recycling 5 References: Aghbali, Arman. (2012, September 13th). Toronto now accepting ‘clamshell’ plastic containers in recycling blue boxes. The Star. Retrieved from www. thestar. com Arvanitoyannis and Bosnea. (2001). Recycling of polymeric materials used for food packaging: current status and perspectives. Food reviews international, 17(3), 291-346. Al-Salem, Lettieri and Baeyens. 2009). Recycling and recovery routes of plastic solid waste. Waste management, 29, 2625-2643. Merrild, Damgaard and H. Christensen. (2008). Life cycle assessment of waste paper management: the importance of technology data and system boundaries in assessing recycling and incineration. Resources, conversation and recycling, 52(12), 1391-1398. Yusuf and L. Ify. (2011). The effect of waste paper on the kinetics of biogas yield from the co digestion of cow dung and water hyacinth. Biomass and bioenergy, 35(3), 1345-1351. Astrup, Fruergaard and Christensen. (2009). Recycling of plastic: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contributions. Waste management and research, 27(8), 763-772. Jagdish Kuniyal. (2005). Solid waste management techniques for the waste generated and brought down from campsites in the hill spots, trails and expedition tops. Waste management and research, 23(3), 182-198. Appendix: Survey questionnaire Recycling Don’t litter, it makes the world bitter! Please select the best option for the following question 1)Do you recycle? i. Yes ii. No iii. Sometimes iv. Never )If yes, what do you recycle? i. Paper ii. Aluminum and metal cans iii. Plastic food and beverage containers iv. Glass bottles and jars v. Cardboards / tires 3)If you recycle, what is your primary motivation? i. Environmental benefits ii. Provincial regulations iii. Fiscal responsibility iv. None 4)Do you sort your recyclables at home? i. Yes ii. No iii. Sometimes iv. Not really 5)If you don’t recycle on regular basis, indicate which one of following is your contributing reason i. Needs more information on how to recycle ii. Don’t know what to do with recyclables iii. Takes too much time v. Don’t believe in it 6)What is your difficulty level on deciding what items can be recycled or not? i. Easy ii. Difficult iii. Moderate iv. Neither 7)If recycling containers were more readily available, would you make an effort to recycle more? i. Yes ii. No iii. May be iv. You don’t know 8)Overall, are you satisfied with your community recycling program and pick-ups? i. Very satisfied ii. Somewhat satisfied iii. Very dissatisfied iv. Somewhat dissatisfied 9)How do you get information on recycling ways and programs? i. Radio ii. Cable / TV iii. Community newspaper iv. internet How to cite Recycling, Essay examples Recycling Free Essays Recycling Free Essays One way the US Government could develop an incentive plan that when you take your items to the recycling enter, that you get a receipt showing what you brought and receive points that can be used toward your utility bill. The point system would convert to dollars for this purpose. Many communities have recycling bins that the sanitation department picks up. We will write a custom essay sample on Recycling or any similar topic only for you Order Now The point system can be used with these as well. The workers could leave the slip in the bin for the customer. They could also make sure that all communities’ sanitation departments issue these bins. Consumers have several choices in how to recycle. You can take it to drop-off centers, curbside collection, and refund or deposit programs. There are three steps in recycling. First step: after collection is done, the recyclables go too recovery facility to be sorted and cleaned. They are then processed into materials that are used in manufacturing. The materials are then bought and sold like any raw materials for production. Second step: You will find that most of today’s products are manufactured with recycled materials. The most common are paper towels, newspapers, plastic, aluminum, glass soft drink containers, plastic laundry detergent bottles, steel products, car bumpers, cereal boxes, comic books, aluminum cans, egg orators, nails, motor oil, and trash bags. Other ways that the materials are used are using recycled glass in asphalt for paving roads and using recycled plastic in park benches and carpeting. Step three: Most products you buy are now made with recycled material. When shopping you can look on the labels to see if they are. By buying these products, you will help close the loop on recycling. Other things that you can recycle are the wooden pallets that are used in shipping. You can be used in your gardens, people make furniture Tires are used in asphalt and used for shoring up areas of erosion. The overall benefits of recycling is that it will help to reduce the amount of trash and discarded items go to the landfills and incinerators. It will help to prevent pollution and help to not use new raw materials. Our natural resources like timer, water, and minerals will be able to be revalidated. When it comes to saving energy, it will help to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are apart of the climate change. The main goal is also to help us to sustain the environment for generations to come. The Job market also depends on recycling centers for paying Jobs in that community. There is one question we can ask ourselves. â€Å"Are we throwing away an energy solution? † If we were to burn all the waste in the landfills of the US, it would provide an extra 33 gateways-which is the equivalent of 33 large power plants. Philipp Schmidt-Pitchman) We are missing out on a viable energy source to help us to not to depend on other countries for our natural resources. Many Americans still believe that burning trash gives off toxic fumes but, with how modern waste-to-energy factories process it, there is very little air pollution. How it works is that the high temperatures burn off the bonds of toxic chemicals. I use many plastic container for storing craft materials as a way to recycle. We take any egg cartons to the farms that sale eggs. How to cite Recycling, Papers