Recyling Materials

Question 1

Why is recycling important?

Answer 1

• it is waste if the product ends in landfill sites
• disposal at landfills not efficient use of resources
• conserved limited raw material and energy resources
• reducing the release of harmful substances into the environment
• reducing waste

Question 2

How do you decide whether a product should be recycled ?

Answer 2

Think about

• how easily the waste can be collected and sorted
• the amount and type of any by products released by recycling
• the cost of recycling compared to disposal in landfill or by incineration
• the amount of energy involved at each stage.

Question 3

How are materials recycled?

Answer 3

The waste material and products are collected and transported to a recycling plant and then the sorted material is shredded into small pieces ready for processing.

Question 4

What must you make sure you do before giving away waste?

Answer 4

That the glass is not contaminated by metal bottle tops.

Question 5

What happens during the process of recycling?

Answer 5

• metals are melted by heating and the molten metal poured into moulds to produce new blocks called ingots.
• paper is mixed with water, cleaned, then rolled and heated to make new paper.
• glass is melted by heating and moulded into new glass objects
• polymer like poly(ethane), PET , and poly(propene) are melted and folded into new objects.

Question 6

How are metal recycled?

Answer 6

The metal is sorted out at the recycling plant and put in piles, then they are crushed into smaller pieces ready to be melted and poured into moulds to produce new blocks called ingots

Question 7

PET drink bottles can be recycled to produce clothing such as fleeces. The PET is melted and then squeezed through narrow tubes to make long fibres. Suggest why it is important to separate PET from other materials before recycling.

Answer 7

As other materials will contaminate the PET, and get stuck in the narrow tubes and harm the properties of the fibre.