Difference between revisions of "Recycling"

Revision as of 11:39, 5 April 2019

Recycling is taking materials that have been used and making them into new products.

Recycling allows us to use less materials from the Earth.

Recycling makes sure limited materials do not run out.

Recycling often uses less energy to make products than extracting materials from the Earth.

To recycle is to process waste materials so they can be used again.

Recycling involves several stages:

Collecting and transporting the used products with recyclable materials.
Separating a product into its separate materials.
Cleaning the material to remove contaminants.
Reforming the material, usually by melting and molding into a block of the material.
Transporting the material to factories where it can be used to manufacture a new product.

Each stage of recycling carries an energy cost. Different materials require different amounts of energy to recycle.

The decision to recycle a material is based on several considerations:

Can it be collected and transported easily?
Can the product be easily separated into its materials?
Can the material be recycled without significant impurities?
Will the properties of the recycled material be good enough for use in another product?
Is it cheaper to extract the raw material than to recycle old materials?
Will it take more energy to recycle than to extract new raw materials?

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 #Cleaning the [[material]] to remove contaminants.
 #Reforming the [[material]], usually by [[melting]] and molding into a block of the [[material]].
-#Transporting the [[material]] to [[Factory|factories]] where it can be used to [[manufacture]] a new [[Product (Business)|product]].
+#Transporting the [[material]] to factories where it can be used to [[manufacture]] a new [[Product (Business)|product]].
 : Each stage of '''recycling''' carries an [[energy]] cost. Different [[material]]s require different amounts of [[energy]] to '''recycle'''.