Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

It is most often just melted down.

Pittsburg’s steel industry is pretty much running off of recycling scrap, it is cheaper to get new iron overseas so they only iron that is practical to make I the US is that from recycled materials.

Normally, a recycling center, a junk yard, a construction recycling yard, and other industries including police yards supplying handguns, end up with a lot of steel at the end of the recycling process and they send it off to old steel furnaces to be recycled into new steel products.

The History Channel has a new series they have been running for several months called Boneyards where they discuss the growing recycling industry.

Various police departments have had long standing programs where they take guns that were seized from criminals and after the cases are finished they are sent to a steel mill for melting down and recycling.

The Papst Brewer is the scene of a huge demolition and recycling project. Everything from the bricks to the steel is being recycled. One construction company has the contract to redesign the center for a local college and the town. It is a challenging job because the company went out of business in midstream and just stopped producing beer. Unsigned checks were found in files that were still in the offices, everything was left in place and the brewery was over 50 years old. All of the steel from it is being recycled.

US Steel was the cheapest and the best made in the world; but that was back in WW2. Since then Japan and other Asian countries have stolen more and more of the market. Even after extra taxes were added to foreign steel it was still cheaper to go abroad. China is one of our largest sources of steel, but then they are trying to become the world’s factory. Currently those infamous shipping containers that we receive in the tons by huge ships are becoming a problem. The cost to send those containers back to China for reuse is excessive so they stay in the US. The make excellent long term storage containers and have even entered the housing industry being used as a shell to create low cost homes. When this is done wall board is added, the steel is cut with passages and wiring and it is almost impossible to tell the house was not built with normal stick built construction methods. As we get more of those shipping containers we are going to have to get more creative in how we recycle them.

It is cheaper to recycle steel than create new steel, because most iron ore is oxidized and it is harder to remove the rust. Steel is iron with 6% carbon and it doesn’t rust as easily. Since steel melts at a high temperature it is possible to burn off all other materials during the melting process. Since the steel doesn’t have to be smelted and only melted it takes less energy to use recycled steel. The same is true for aluminum, only the energy savings is even higher.

Iron itself is rarely used as a construction material, except in wrought iron gates and display metal work. Instead steel is preferred and next to concrete it is the most common used construction material. Every high rise or concrete structure uses reinforced steel and that takes up a lot of the metal.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel#Recycling
“Steel is the most widely recycled material in North America. The steel industry has been actively recycling for more than 150 years, in large part because it is economically advantageous to do so. It is cheaper to recycle steel than to mine iron ore and manipulate it through the production process to form ‘new’ steel. Steel does not lose any of its inherent physical properties during the recycling process, and has drastically reduced energy and material requirements than refinement from iron ore. The energy saved by recycling reduces the annual energy consumption of the industry by about 75%, which is enough to power eighteen million homes for one year. Recycling one ton of steel saves 1,100 kilograms of iron ore, 630 kilograms of coal, and 55 kilograms of limestone. 76 million tons of steel were recycled in 2005.

In recent years, about three quarters of the steel produced annually has been recycled. However, the numbers are much higher for certain types of products. For example, in both 2004 and 2005, 97.5% of structural steel beams and plates were recycled. Other steel construction elements such as reinforcement bars are recycled at a rate of about 65%. Indeed, structural steel typically contains around 95% recycled steel content, whereas lighter gauge, flat rolled steel contains about 30% reused material.

Because steel beams are manufactured to standardized dimensions, there is often very little waste produced during construction, and any waste that is produced may be recycled. For a typical 2,000-square-foot (200 m²) two-story house, a steel frame is equivalent to about six recycled cars, while a comparable wooden frame house may require as many as 40–50 trees.
Global demand for steel continues to grow, and though there are large amounts of steel existing, much of it is actively in use. As such, recycled steel must be augmented by some first-use metal, derived from raw materials. Commonly recycled steel products include cans, automobiles, appliances, and debris from demolished buildings. A typical appliance is about 65% steel by weight and automobiles are about 66% steel and iron.

While some recycling takes place through the integrated steel mills and the basic oxygen process, most of the recycled steel is melted electrically, either using an electric arc furnace (for production of low-carbon steel) or an induction furnace (for production of some highly-alloyed ferrous products).”

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling#Ferrous_metals
“Iron and steel are the world’s most recycled materials, and among the easiest materials to recycle, as they can be separated magnetically from the waste stream. Recycling is via a steelworks: scrap is either remelted in an Electric Arc Furnace (90-100% scrap), or used as part of the charge in a Basic Oxygen Furnace (around 25% scrap). Any grade of steel can be recycled to top quality new metal, with no ‘downgrading’ from prime to lower quality materials as steel is recycled repeatedly. 42% of crude steel produced is recycled material.

— Non-ferrous metals
Main article: Aluminium recycling
Aluminium is shredded and ground into small pieces or crushed into bales. These pieces or bales are melted in an aluminium smelter to produce molten aluminium. By this stage the recycled aluminium is indistinguishable from virgin aluminium and further processing is identical for both.
Due to the high melting point of aluminium ore, large amounts of energy are required to extract aluminium from ore, making the environmental benefits of recycling aluminium enormous. Recycling aluminium only results in approximately 5% of the CO2 that would be released during the production of raw aluminium. The percentage is even smaller when considering the complete cycle of mining and transporting the aluminium. Also, as open-cut mining is most often used for obtaining aluminium ore, mining destroys large sections of natural land.

An aluminium can is 100% recyclable. Every time a can is recycled, enough energy is saved to power a television for about three hours (compared to mining and producing a new can).”

The Expert answers:

This might help you understand recycling more…

We recycle because of these reasons: 1. Saves Natural Resources – By making products from recycled materials instead of virgin materials, we conserve land and reduce the need to drill for oil and dig for minerals. 2. Saves Energy – It usually takes less energy to make recycled products; recycled aluminum, for example, takes 95% less energy than new aluminum from bauxite ore. 3. Saves Clean Air and Water – In most cases, making products from recycled materials creates less air pollution and water pollution than making products from virgin materials. 4. Saves Landfill Space – When the materials that you recycle go into new products, they don’t go into landfills or incinerators, so landfill space is conserved. 5. Saves Money and Creates Jobs – The recycling process creates far more jobs than landfills or incinerators, and recycling can frequently be the least expensive waste management method for cities and towns. These are just a few reasons out of the many why we recycle.
Ways to recycle are by: 1. Plant lots of trees. Trees not only preserve the earth, but also help ‘pollute’ the air. We should also stop deforestation and start planting at least two trees for each tree that we cut. 2. Use renewable energy. Resources like coal and oil are non-renewable and the more we use them, the less we will have. We should, in fact, concentrate on other forms of energy like solar energy and natural gas for our use. 3. Recycle waste products. The more paper we use, the more we’ll need and so more trees will be cut. Instead, try to cut wastage of paper and use recycled paper. 4. Use less plastic. In our world, it’s hard to live without plastic – almost everything we use from carry bags to containers are made of plastic and it’s true that they are convenient. What we forget is that they are not convenient to destroy – so, they just cling to the earth’s surface and suffocate it. Even if it’s not possible to stop using plastic fully, we can start using less of it.
Here are some facts about recycling:
Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
Every minute of every day, an average of 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled.
Through recycling each year, the steel industry saves enough energy to power 18 million homes – one-fifth of the households in the US.
The average American uses 650 pounds of paper each year – 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was recycled.
A typical family consumes 182 gallons of soda, 29 gallons of juice, 104 gallons of milk, and 26 gallons of bottled water a year. That’s a lot of containers that can all be recycled!
About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours.

The Expert answers:

Recycling saves energy and resources

For every ton of paper made from recycled materials saves 17 trees, 6.953 gallons of water, 463 gallons of oil, 587 pounds of air pollution, 3.06 cubic yards of landfill space, and 4,077 kilowatt hours of energy.

In one year, recycling allows aluminum companies to save the equivalent of more than 19 million barrels of oil – enough energy to supply electricity to about 18 million households for a year.

Recycling one glass bottle or jar saves enough electricity to light a 100-watt bulb for four hours.

Recycling one pound of steel can power a 60-watt light bulb for more than a day.

Recycling one ton of plastic saves the equivalent of 1,000 – 2,000 gallons of gasoline.

Recycling decreases pollution
Making cars from recycling aluminum decreases related air pollution by 95 percent.
Making recycled paper generates 74 percent less air pollution and 35 percent less water pollution, and uses 64 percent less energy than making paper from virgin timber.
Recycling decreases tree cutting
If all morning newspapers in the US were recycled for one day, the equivalent of 41,000 trees would be saved and 6 million tons of waste would never end up in landfills.
Every person in the US receives junk mail that represents the equivalent of 1-1/2 trees a year. If only 100,000 people stopped their junk mail, as many as 150,000 trees annually would not be cut down for paper productions. (One tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year).

Recycling reduces reliance on imported oil

Motor oil never wears out, it just gets dirty. Oil can be recycled, re-refined, and used again, reducing our reliance on imported oil.

Recycling reduces our reliance on landfills
Recycling creates jobs and economic development.

The Expert answers:

Grocery stores

also, “recycled” is not the same as “post-consumer”

There is a lot of wasted plastic in the manufacture of plastic objects from plastic resin. All those things that are trimmed off of molded items add up.

The Expert answers:

Babysitting, collecting & recycling aluminum cans & cashing them in for money. Cleaning houses? Sorry, that’s all I can think of for a 14-yr. Old.

The Expert answers:

There are a few, gardiners probably have a pretty good job. Some others also get a job for picking up things like plastic bags, bottles, cans and paper and recycling them, especially around lakes and rivers. You could also work for things like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or Greenpeace or something like that.
Here, this might help you:
http://www.enviroeducation.com/careers-jobs/
you could probably find some interesting jobs there

and if not that, try this:
http://www.webdirectory.com/employment/

Hope this helped!

The Expert answers:

You can recycle the broken hair drier in plastic industries doing recycling job.

The Expert answers:

Good SAE project for you no matter where you live would be Vermiculture or earthworm compost processing. I think it would fit under the SAE guidelines as Compost Processing and/or Specialty Animal Production.
Recycling the organic waste of a household into compost allows us to return badly needed organic matter to the soil. In this way, we participate in nature’s cycle, and cut down on garbage going into burgeoning landfills.
Why Compost With Worms? Worm composting is a method for recycling food waste into a rich, dark, earth-smelling soil conditioner. The great advantage of worm composting is that this can be done indoors and outdoors, thus allowing year around composting. It also provides apartment dwellers with a means of composting. In a nutshell, worm compost is made in a container filled with moistened bedding and red worms. Add your food waste for a period of time, and the worms and micro-organisms will eventually convert the entire contents into rich compost.
You can make your project as small as composting your household garbage or as large as you want with animal manure, lawn clippings, and any organic waste you may need to dispose of. Combine your composting project with making extra money mowing lawns, raking leaves, cleaning out barns, etc and keeping clippings, leaves and manure and bedding for your project. You could make money selling great organic worm castings and by selling earthworms as fishing bait or to others wanting to start composting.
Http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html
http://www.vermiculturenorthwest.com/

The Expert answers:

Mow yards; weed; babysitting; dog walking (small to medium dogs); odd jobs; collect and recycle cans; help the trainer with non horse things within the law – clean tack, clean stalls, learn to fix things around the barn (all which will be needed in your own barn anyway!); help clean pens on a farm; grow some herbs and sell things from it. Catnip is easy to grow and you can make and sell cat toys from it. Make birdhouses, birdfeeders and bat houses and sell them. Grow sunflowers and other things for birds and make/sell ‘natural’ things to feed the birds.

If you’re willing to work and be creative there’s lots of things a 13 year old can learn to do and make money.