Your Questions About Recycling
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Filed under Recycling Q & A
Jenny asks…
Why do people just focus on global warming? Do they think this is the only environmental problem?
What about other issues like: the polluted drinking water, water shortages, manufactuing polluting the lakes and rivers, how every thing is disposable now, one use items filling up landfills, lack of good recycling companies, toxic chemicals in plastic, what to do with household hazardous waste, clothing treated with pesticides, and many many other issues. Are you worried about these, or just global warming?
The Expert answers:
Most of those are also problems, of course. However, global warming is quite possibly the greatest threat humans have ever faced. It’s not like we’re ignoring water quality and recycling in the process – it’s not an either-or proposition. It’s just that global warming gets more focus because it’s the bigger concern.
Laura asks…
I want to know the uses of waste tires,how they can be shredded and recycled?
Any companies willing to share technologies for using waste tires – names and addresses and contact details will help.
The Expert answers:
I’m not affiliated with any tire recyclers but I’m all for recycling. I’ve heard of old tires being used for garden mulch, playground surfaces and unconventional housing.
Http://www.rubberecycle.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship
Lizzie asks…
Is the UK government being ethical with its recycling?
In the UK Once your household waste is taken away for recycling what happens to say for example the aluminum scrap obviously they must sell it on to company’s to melt down for reuse but what do the government use that profit for ? surely it should only go to funding green projects.
The Expert answers:
They do not make a profit from the recycling because it costs more to collect and process the materials than the scrap value pays (aluminum MIGHT be a possible exception). But, it is definitely worth recycling because the energy saved from using recycled materials vs virgin is substantial (even counting the energy to collect and process and ship the recyclable materials)! So, just do your part and put whatever materials you are allowed into your recycling bin!
Helen asks…
Is recycling really achieving the purpose we’re striving for?
I’ve read good articles assuring that recycling is making a difference. Other articles beg to differ since they claim that most of they recyclables cannot be used again due to damage or a company’s unwillingess to risk using recyclables again. Could someone please tell us if our reclying is ‘going to waste‘?
The Expert answers:
Yes and no.
Yes most of what we separate is recycled. We are very successful at recycling metals. For a long time we had to ship paper to China to get recycled, now we have a few plants that have converted and we can recycle some of it here, which makes it more cost effective. Plastics are improving, but they can only be down cycled. Basically you can’t take a #1 plastic and turn it back into a #1 plastic, it can be used to create less recyclable plastics and then eventually they have to go to the landfill.
Part of the purpose of recycling is to extend the life of the landfill and reduce the toxins going into the landfill. That is effective in many areas. My landfill diverts about 65% of the waste to recycling. San Francisco is working toward a zero waste environment.
Where we are going wrong is we aren’t completing the cycle. Not enough of the materials are being used, so they have little value. We, as consumers need to look for recycled content, so we can increase demand and make it profitable for more cities to increase their recycling. The other area where we fail is Reduce. We are creating more disposable items which increase the amount of waste going to the landfill. We are also creating a lot of packaging that can’t be recycled, hybrids which combine, paper, plastic and metals.
Susan asks…
How can we the consumers put pressure on companies to stop producing so much packaging?
Practically everything you buy now from fresh meat to small household electrical goods is vacuum packed, boxed, shrink wrapped and enveloped in polystyrene. This packaging depletes the earths natural resouces and causes us major problems with it’s disposal. Plastics in particular take years to degrade and not all are suitable for recycling. I understand goods in transit need to be protected but the problem of waste disposal seems to be spiraling out of control. What can we as consumers to curb this growth?
Yes pressure on supermarkets is maybe the way forward as they can force their suppliers to reduce packaging by not renewing contacts. You are misinformed Grizzbr1, No one wants all this packaging, we simply do not have a choice!
The Expert answers:
Besides boycotting the products and getting others to boycott overly-packaged products and letting the companies know that you are doing that, there is not much else you can do.
We live in a consumer society and people want instant gratification. Many goods are now available in “single packs,” thus adding to the problem. Start your own lobbying group, non-profit or website. If you are able to create enough noise and gather enough support, then you might notice a difference.
Donald asks…
Why should I give any care to lowering my carbon footprint or recycling or any of that when oil companies…?
completely offset this all the time? What good is it to lower my measly carbon footprint when some company that doesn’t care will cause more pollution in five seconds than I could in my entire lifetime.
What’s the point? I’m just wasting any effort I put towards recycling.
(Don’t get me wrong, I do recycle and such, but I don’t really know why I bother anymore)
Shell dumps an entire exxon valdez into the water every single year:
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/nigerian-spills-make-valdez-look-like-drop-in-bucket/19483921
The Expert answers:
Here’s the difference for those who don’t know…
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_White_People
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naacp
Charles asks…
Is the waste from extracting further copper /molybdenum from mine tailings environmentally safer than inputs?
I am an investor in Amerigo Resources, a company that has a plant in Chile to extract more copper and also molybdenum from old and fresh mine tailings (from Coldeco’s El Teniente mine). They have a consultant studying laundering the waste product by a pipeline from the extraction (which involves crushing) process back into a swampy area (the Colihues) where the old tailings are stored. Apparently, the redeposited material would have the quartz removed and be more granular (crushed).
Is there a net environmental problem or benefit from this kind of recycling from and back into the Colihues tailings dam? What are the consequences of replacing the old (and some new) tailings in the Colihues with the original tailings pulled out of there with the processed tailings in more granular form after pulling out more copper and also moly?
The Chilean government is very vigilant these days about anything from mining that might pollute the environment.
I’m not sure if the main mining company, Coldeco, is using the leach-solvent extraction-electrowinning process or, SX/EW Process for their primary extraction. Amerigo Resources does a second pass on old mine tailings, which were perhaps created in the Colihues tailings dam over 20 years ago. I know that they grind those old tailings in a low-tech kind of operation.
They want to pull the old tailings out of the Colihues tailings dam, process them to extract further copper (and molybdenum), and then put what is left from their operation back into the same Colihues tailings dam. But, Coldeco (owned by the Chilean government) won’t allow this kind of recycling yet, until they are sure that a pollution problem is not created.
Do you know why laundering the waste product from Amerigo’s operations would result in pollution, meaning, I think, pollution of the Colihues tailings dam, to which most of the materials would be returned after processing?
The Expert answers:
Conventional Copper Extraction
Conventionally, copper is recovered by a pyrometallurgical process known as smelting. In this process copper ore is mined, crushed, ground, concentrated, smelted and refined. The mining, crushing and grinding portions of the processing are extremely energy intensive since the rock must be reduced essentially to talcum powder fineness in order to separate the copper-bearing minerals from it. To be applicable to this process, the ores must contain copper minerals in sulfide form; as mineral such as Chalcocite (Cu2S), Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) and Covellite (CuS) . In the concentrating operations these minerals are separated from the gangue material of the ore, that might contain as little as 0.5% copper to form a concentrate containing 27 to 36% copper. In the smelting operation, the concentrate is fed to a smelter together with oxygen and the copper and iron sulfides are oxidized at high temperature resulting in impure molten metallic copper (97 to 99%), molten iron oxide and gaseous sulfur dioxide. The impure copper is then purified by electrolytic purification to 99.99% pure copper while the iron oxide is disposed of as slag.
Typically, in this process there is more sulfur dioxide produced by weight than there is copper. Rather than discharge the sulfur dioxide into the air, as was once the practice, the sulfur dioxide is captured and converted into sulfuric acid. In the United States, smelter-produced sulfuric acid amounts to approximately 10% of total acid production from all sources. Prior to the mid-1980s, this by-product sulfuric acid had to be sold to other industries, often at a loss due to the long shipping distances.
Beginning in the mid 1980s a new technology, commonly known as the leach-solvent extraction-electrowinning process or, SX/EW Process, was widely adopted. This new copper technology utilizes smelter acid to produce copper from oxidized ores and mine wastes. Today, worldwide, approximately 20% of all copper produced is produced by this is process. In Latin America, the total is closer to 40% whereas in the United States the total is approaching 30%.
Mandy asks…
How can I recycle CD cases instead of just throwing them away?
I have a large box full of CD cases just sitting in my garage. Obviously I don’t use them and I keep the CDs that I have in a CD book. I don’t want to just throw them away in the trash, since I think that’s more of a waste than anything. Is there a specific place that you can take CD cases to be recycled? I was wondering if anyone knows of a special place somewhere that will take them. Would it be just the state recycling company to take them to?
The Expert answers:
PLEASE LOG ONTO FREECYCLE.ORG THIS IS A GROUP ANYONE CAN JOIN THAT IS DEDICATED TO KEEPING GOOD USABLE STUFF FROM OVERFILLING LANDFILLS. PEOPLE WILL PICK WHATEVER UP STRAIGHT FROM YOUR HOUSE. YOU CAN ALSO RECIEVE STUFF THAT YOU MAY NEED.
Ruth asks…
Scrap recycling centres ?
Does anyone know of any places that pay cash for plastics,glass and bricks im on about recycling centres like the kind that take metals ? I have heard skip companies get money for recycling the various waste and often see heaps of rubbish that could earn me cash hopefully lol i live in the glasgow area
The Expert answers:
I own a plastic recycling business, so here’s what you need to do.
Collect all the waste plastics you can.
Separate into different polymers, there are 7 main types. Pp,pet,ldpe,hdpe,pvc,ps, and everything else, so it may pay you to concentrate on the most available group, probably bottles which will be PET and have a number 1inside the recycling triangle, or PET written underneath.
Wash everything to remove residue, labels etc.
When you have at least 1000kgs of each polymer, take them to a recycling centre and maybe they’ll pay you between £40-75 per metric tonne.
Believe me, you need a hell of a lot of bottles to make a tonne, so be prepared for hard work for little return, oh, and you’ll need to bale them because of the amount you’ll need.
Glass isn’t worth much at all, even the councils only get a few quid a tonne for it. Bricks are worth even less, sorry.
Got to admire your thinking though.
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