The consequences of recycling

Decisions: What would YOU recycle?

Some A4 paper, in your ICT suite

A shampoo bottle, in your bathroom

A drinks can, in the park

A tin, in the kitchen

A glass drinks bottle, on the way to school

Recycle Bin

Landfill

Covered with soil or clay

Thrown in the bin

Collected and taken to landfill

Emptied into a cell

Compacted into the ground

What happens in a landfill?

Waste arrives each day by lorry

Waste is compacted into cells and covered in soil or clay

Liner and drainage system stops chemicals leaking into soil

Methane is piped away

Steel

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Example country: Australia

Aluminium

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Example country: Brazil

Glass

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Example country: UK

Plastics

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Example country: Saudi Arabia

Paper

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Example country: Sweden

Recycling

Recycled

Collected, sorted and taken to a

recycling facility

MeltedMade into plastic flakes

Moulded into new items

Landfill or RecyclingWhich is which and which is better?

Adds greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere

Uses space and land

Requires more raw materials for new goods and products

Reduces the space and land required

Reduces greenhouse gas emissions

Reduces raw material use

Landfill Recycling

End of presentation

Steel

Steel is made from iron ore which is found in some naturally occurring rocks. These rocks are mined and transported to factories to be melted in large furnaces to extract the metal.

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Aluminium

Aluminium occurs in the earth’s crust as bauxite. Bauxite is a clay like rock which is mined and then refined; first into aluminium oxide and then into aluminium by electrolysis.

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GlassCLOSE

Glass is made from the minerals sand, soda ash and limestone. These materials are extracted and transported to factories and melted together at very high temperatures.

Plastics

Example country: Saudi Arabia

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Plastics are made from crude oil which is formed by decaying plants and animals in seas that existed millions of years ago and is found under the ground. This crude oil is drilled out of the ground, transported to oil refineries for processing and taken on to factories to made into plastics.

PaperCLOSE

Paper is made from cellulose fibres found in trees.  These cellulose fibres are usually sourced from recovered waste paper, forest thinnings and sawmill residues that result from the furniture and construction industries. Papermakers then transport this material to their factories to be pulped into new paper based products.