Category:Recycling

From Eurêka

Contents 1 Traditional recycling 2 Modern Recycling 3 Recyclability 4 Biodegradable Issue 5 Scrap Tires 6 Post-plastic-bag Era 7 Incineration

Traditional recycling

Traditional recycling Recycling of materials because they had some economic value.

1. Rag and bone man (Totter) (BrE) Itinerant scrap merchant.
   1. Caffler (EnE, archaic) Rag and bone man.
   2. Upholder (BrE, obs) Dealer in second-hand clothes and furniture.
   3. Pearl diver (AmE, slang) Garbageman and trashman scavenger in San Francisco, 1920s.
   4. Peddler (AmE) Itinerant scrap gathers, going from house to house.
2. Rag-picking Recycling of rags (cloth) mainly for paper making.
   1. Bunter (Tatgatherers) (EnE) Rag gatherer.
3. Dumpster diving (AmE, slang) Rummaging through apartment, motel and business garbage bins.

Salvage Saving and utilization of scrap material.

1. Obsolete scrap Manufactured items used then discarded.
2. Prompt scrap Coils, grindings, stampings, borings, and turnings that fall to factory floors in the process of manufacturing.

Scrap metal dealer (Scrap-metal firm) Firm that recycles scrap metal.

1. Junkyard Place where metals and other scrap are sorted and bundled for reuse.

Vehicle disposal Scrap vehicle disposal.

Modern Recycling

Modern recycling

1. Power shear Giant guillotine to cut up cars.
2. Prolerizer First machine to chew whole cars into fist-sized chunks, invented by the Proler scrap firm in Houston, 1959.
3. Shredder Powerful machine that chop up scrap vehicles with whirling blades, 1970s.
4. Crusher Machine that crush scrap metal, often a car, into a small bale.
5. Fluff (trade parlance) Unusable mixture of plastic, glass, rubber, that goes to the landfill.
6. Dismantlers Place where cars are stripped for reusable parts, and only selling off the hulks for scrap.
7. Carbecue Device that uses pressure and heat to destroy an old car.

Refuse reclamation Conversion of solid waste into useful products, e.g. composting organic wastes to make a soil conditioner.

Resource recovery Treatment of wastes, usually by burning, with recovery of energy or useful materials.

1. Recycling plant Place where refuse is placed on a conveyor for mechanical or hand sorting.
   1. Materials recovery facility (MRF) (AmE) Euphemism for recycling plant.
   2. Trash pickers (AmE) Unskilled workers who cull recyclables from conveyor lines.
   3. Material recovery facility (MRF) (AmE) Facility for processing recyclable trash.
2. Recyclables Waste materials like metal, glass, paper or plastic that can be recovered.
3. Recovered Materials Waste materials and by-products which have been recovered or diverted from solid waste but which do not include those materials and by-products generated from, and commonly reused within, an original manufacturing process.

Source reduction Reduction of waste by prevention of its creation in the first place, eliminating unnecessary packaging, buying returnables, buying in bulk, making repairable products instead of throwaway items.

1. Waste prevention Any change in the design, manufacturing, purchase, or use of materials or products (including packaging) to reduce their amount or toxicity before they become municipal solid waste.
2. Affirmative procurement Purchasing only products and quantities that are necessary; of those necessary, purchasing products with recycled material content and products that are less toxic/hazardous.
3. Light weighting (AmE, jargon) Making the same item with less material.

Examples of light weighting

Item	1977	1991
2-liter soda bottle	68 grams	57 grams
Gallon milk jug (US)	98 grams	60 grams

Recyclability

Recyclability Ability of a product or material to be recovered from, or otherwise diverted from, the solid waste stream for the purpose of recycling.

Recycling ratio Proportion of the original material or resource which is re-used: this varies considerably among materials and countries.

Recycling Re-use of materials after their useful life is over that involves a series of activities, including collection, separation, and processing, by which products or other materials are recovered from the solid waste stream for use in the form of raw materials in the manufacture of new products other than fuel for producing heat or power by combustion. There are three ways of recycling:

1. Primary recycling Product is simply reused e.g., returnable beer bottles that are washed and refilled.
2. Secondary recycling Certain types of waste are used as raw materials to make new products. Aluminum cans, for example, are melted down to make new aluminum; waste paper is reduced to pulp to make new paper; waste glass is reused to make new glass, etc., in theory for many times.
3. Dead-end recycling Form of secondary recycling but the new product produced by the recycled waste can only be used once. For example, most plastics recycling is dead-end, with plastic bottles, etc., being turned into nonrecyclable carpeting, lawn furniture and other products.

Mandatory recycling laws Legislation forcing people to recycle; in the US at least ten states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, have mandatory recycling laws.

1. Bottle laws Laws requiring a minimum refundable deposit on certain types of beverage container.
   1. One-trip bottle Non-refundable bottle.

• See also Forced Deposits

1. Litter laws Laws to discourage littering and encourage recycling.
2. Pull-tab bans (Flip-top bans) Laws banning this form of opening in cans. Similar laws forbid all-plastic beverage containers; plastic loop retainer (holds 6-packs together); non-refillable glass containers.

Glass recovery systems

1. Reusable bottles
2. Cash deposits
   1. Redeemer (AmE) Person who collects bottle and cans to retrieve the deposit.
3. Bottle banks Containers to receive used glass containers, located in convenient places around town, e.g. supermarket parking lots.
   1. Cullet Ground waste glass from which new glass can be produced of the same color.
4. Can rank Road side container for empty can for recycling.

Streetside collection (Curbside collection) Collection of recyclable materials from peoples’ homes. More than 500 cities in the US have regular curbside collection.

Motor oil recycling Collection of motor oil, mainly from do-it-yourself car oil change, and its subsequent recycling.

Post-consumer conservation product (AmE) Product made from previously recycled materials.

Plastic Any of numerous organic synthetic or processed materials that can be molded into various forms.

1. Indestructible plastic Increasing volume of trash is made up of indestructible plastic; coffee cups and burger boxes, trash and grocery bags, diapers and margarine tubs, containers for everything from milk to antifreeze. Plastic’s chemical structure makes them, under most conditions, impervious to disintegration except through oxidation over hundreds of years or through burning.
2. Polymers Chains of hydrocarbon molecules that provide strength to plastics. They break down only over centuries. Other substances must be added so a polymer product, like the soft-drink yoke, break down more easily.

Recycling symbols Triangular marks on the bottom of a bottle with number to indicate plastic.

1. Polyethylene tetraphthalate (PET; PETE) Plastic used for most soft drink bottles, but also used to package products like peanut butter, salad dressing and household cleaners.
   1. Polyethylene (AmE) Plastic polymer of ethylene used chiefly for containers, electrical insulation and packaging.
   2. Polythene (BrE) Polyethylene by shortening.
2. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) Used for laundry detergent bottles, grocer bags.
3. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) Plastic typically used for household cleaners and personal care products like shampoos, c. 2% of market. When PVC is not recycled, it is placed in landfills or is incinerated which leads to the formation of dioxin, an environmental hazard.
4. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) Used in bread bags.
5. Polypropylene (PP) Used for margarine tubs, ketchup bottles.
6. Polystyrene (PS) Meat trays, egg cartons.

Automated recycling equipment Systems to detect and separate different plastic polymers using X-ray, infrared, near-infrared and visible light-sensors. Which allow recyclers to process thousands of bottles an hour and to produced very precise separations of the different kinds of resins used in bottle manufacture.

1. VinylCycle system Bottles X-rayed on conveyor belt to detect chlorine atoms that indicate PVC bottles, developed by National Recovery Technologies, Nashville, TN.
2. FlakeSort system Plastic flakes carried on conveyor belt to infrared-based detection system that looks for the light absorption characteristics of different plastic polymers, discarding all that are not PET, developed by National Recovery Technologies, Nashville, TN.

Yoke Plastic binding on beverage six-packs. Not only unsightly litter, the conventional yokes entangle, injure and kill wildlife. Sixteen US states require that they be degradable.

Biodegradable Capability of any substance of being broken down by natural biological processes.

1. Biodegradable plastics Some plastics incorporate starches or cellulose that can be eaten by microbes. The concern remains that toxic ingredients in plastic, like heavy metals used as pigments and stabilizers, would be released by degradation.

Biodegeneration Slow natural decay.

1. Bioremediation Use of nutrients and organisms to accelerate the slow natural biodegeneration.

Photodegradable Mixing of light-sensitive chemicals into plastic resin during production or by incorporating carbonyls into the polymer chains chemically. When exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays, these chemicals cause the polymers to weaken and break down into shorter units. The plastic becomes brittle and falls apart.

1. Carbonyls Light-sensitive molecules.

Biodegradable Issue

Biodegradable issue Issue in that biodegradability is not compatible with recycling for biodegradability makes plastic unfit for recycling.

Solid waste management system Organization of waste collection and disposal in society which can range from municipal organization, to simple private collection and self-dumping. It includes recycling and other disposal methods. Transport of waste, often hundreds of miles from its origin, can be by truck, rail or water.

Integrated solid-waste management system

1. Baling Compacting solid waste into blocks to reduce volume.
2. Compaction Reduction of the bulk of solid waste by rolling and tamping.
3. Pulverization Crushing or grinding of materials into small pieces.
   1. Hammermill High-speed machine that uses hammers and cutters to crush, grind, chip, or shred solid wastes.
4. Comminution Mechanical shredding or pulverizing of waste, used in solid waste management and waste water treatment.
   1. Comminutor Machine that grinds solids to make treatment easier.
   2. Ballistic separator Machine that sorts organic from inorganic matter for composting.
   3. Biostabilizer Machine that converts solid waste into compost by grinding and aeration.
   4. Rasp Machine that grinds waste into a manageable material and helps prevent odor.
   5. Inertial separator Device that uses centrifugal force to separate waste particles.
   6. Centrifugation Use of centrifugal force to separate materials into different substances.

Scrap Tires

Scrap tire Motor vehicle’s tires after they have been worn out. Up to WWII tires were made of natural rubber which could be melted down and reused, but today’s tires are not recyclable.

Scrap-tire management program (AmE) State programs which are financed under state law by the purchaser paying extra on a new tire.

Tire chips Bits of shredded tires, in 2-by-2 inch chips, that go to electricity producers, paper mills and cement kilns for fuel. Tire chips burn hotter than coal, with about the same level of emissions. Tires are also ground up and used in asphalt or as a substitute for rock or sand in construction.

1. Fresh kills (trade parlance) Used tires that have come directly off cars.
2. Shredder Machine that shreds used tires.

Post-plastic-bag Era

Plastic bag use Almost 42 billion plastic bags were used worldwide, January 2008, a the figure that increases by more than half a million bags every minute. A vast majority are not reused, ending up as waste, in landfills or as litter.

Plastic bag tax Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them had to pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94%. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable, 2002.

Note : Ireland still ended up raising the bag tax 50%, after officials noted that consumption was rising slightly.

Whole Foods Market Stores would no longer offer disposable plastic bags, using recycled paper or cloth instead, January 2008.

Chewing gum tax Proposed by Ireland but has been avoided for the time being because the chewing gum giant Wrigley agreed to create a public cleanup fund as an alternative.

Conventional light bulb tax Irish government plans to ban conventional light bulbs, making only low-energy, long-life fluorescent bulbs available, 2008.

Incineration

Incineration Burning in the presence of oxygen (with or without special energy recovery).

1. Controlled high temperature incineration Method of destroying or changing some toxic substances into less harmful ones.
2. Open burning

Combustors (AmE) Modern incineration plants that minimize pollution.

Rotary kiln incinerator Type of incinerator (originally designed to prepare cement) which can be modified to use some hazardous waste as fuel, with high temperatures destroying the toxicity.

Wet air oxidation Method of combustion using air at high pressure to oxidize organic materials dissolved or suspended in water. The end products of burning wastes with water present are the same as for incineration of dried residues: steam, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and ash. Advantages are chemical or energy recovery from cheap fuel sources, and absence of odors. The equipment is more complex, however, and its operation more expensive than routine incineration.

Bottom ash Residue left on the incinerator grate after burning.