What A Load Of Rubbish'

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What A Load Of Rubbish.
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Where Does It All Go?

• Every day people throw things in the bin. It
  could be plastic wrapping, drinks bottles, paper,
  left-over food, cardboard anything. We usually do
  it without thinking twice.
• Somebody else will take it away and we will never
  see it again.
• But have you ever stopped to think about where
  all that
• rubbish goes?
• Does it vanish into space?

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All The PsA Big Problem.

• How we get rid of our rubbish is becoming a
  bigger problem
• Populations are growing so the amount of rubbish
  that exists is also growing.
• Packaging on products is growing.
• People have more money so are replacing items
  more often and choosing to purchase expensively
  packaged goods.
• Pressure is greater to upgrade to a better model.
  (Be it mobile phone, music player or games
  console.

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So Where Does it go?

• All rubbish ends up in one of three places
• Incineration. (Burn It)
• Landfill. (Bury it)
• Recycle. (Turn it into something new/Use it
  again)
• Which option is the best for the
• Environment?-Discuss.

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1a. Incineration.

• This is the burning of rubbish in huge furnaces
  heated to extremely high temperatures (over 850
  degrees Celsius).
• Ireland does not have regional incineration
  facilities for the treatment of either hazardous
  or non-hazardous waste. There are, however, 11
  small scale industrial incinerators in Ireland,
  which are mainly operated by the pharmaceutical
  and chemical sector.

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1b. Incineration.

• There has been a lot of debate in recent years as
  to whether incineration should take part on a
  large scale in Ireland. www.indaver.ie/downloads/i
  ncineration.pdf
• There are benefits to incineration but also
  negatives.
• The problem with incineration is that not all
  waste burns easily (e.g. metal) and the
• fumes and smoke given off by burning are often
  poisonous and contain several greenhouse gases
  which also damage the
• environment.
• There are also believed to be health risks linked
  to incineration.

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2a. Landfill.

• This used to be considered the best option as
  there was plenty of space, and once the rubbish
  was coveredwith soil, it was out of sight and
  apparently gone forever. But landfill isnt
  actually such a good thing after all.

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2b.Landfill.

• Our reliance on landfill id decreasing.
• The Central Statistics Office reported in 2007
  that almost 90 of Irish households recycled some
  of their household waste, compared to just 48 in
  1999.

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Lasting Landfills.

• Like incineration, sending rubbish to landfill
  has its problems.
• We are running out of space for landfill.
• Landfills give off a gas called Methane which
  contributes to climate change.
• If we keep burying old items and replacing them
  with new, we are using up more and more natural
  resources like trees and oil.
• Liquids coming out of rotting rubbish can effect
  local water supplies.
• Most of the rubbish we put into landfill is not
  biodegradable. This means it wont rot easily.

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Lasting Landfills.

• Rubbish doesnt just disappear once you bury it,
  look at the length of time it takes the following
  to decompose
• Aluminium can 300 years
• Plastic bottle 450 years
• Disposable nappy 500 years
• Polystyrene cup Never
• Glass bottle Never
• Wool jumper 1 year
• Paper bag 1 month

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The Solution.

• We need to find a solution to our problem.
• 1. We need to produce less waste.
• 2. We need to preserve our natural resources.
• 3.We need to do something that is environmentally
  friendly
• So Whats the solution

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The Solution

• You will be well familiar at this point with the
  Three Rs.
• Reduce.
• Reuse.
• Recycle.
• Recycling uses less energy than making something
  new from scratch and it uses less of the Earths
  natural resources.
• Lets examine Recycling in more detail

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Recycling.

• Lets examine the recycling of 4 common household
  items
• Glass.
• Plastics.
• Metals.
• Paper.

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How is Glass Made?

If we recycled more glass, less of these
precious resources would have to be used up.
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Recycling Glass.

• Glass accounts for 7.5 of household waste.

• When glass jars and bottles are recycled, they
  are first sorted by colour.
• The glass is then loaded up and transported to
  the nearest processing facility
• The glass is then crushed into uniform size and
  called cullet.
• The cullet is then mixed with other raw materials
  to create a batch mixture and ready to be made
  into new bottles.
• The glass is then ready to be shipped to bottling
  companies for filling and distributing.

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Recycling Glass.

• In Ireland almost 80 of all glass packaging is
  recycled.
• Remember
• Not all glass can be recycled, mirrors, light
  bulbs, ceramic, Pyrex and window panes can not be
  recycled with regular glass.

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Recycling Plastic.
Plastic accounts for 12.4 of the household bin.

• Plastic is made from crude oil a valuable and
  limited non-renewable resource. There are many
  different types of plastic. When you look at a
  plastic item, you will see a different number at
  the base.
• Recycling plastic saves 2/3 of the energy
  required when producing plastic from raw
  materials.

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The Process of Recycling Plastics.

• 1.First, they examine the containers to make sure
  there is no foreign material present, such as
  labels and rocks, and that the group numbers
  match.
• 2.A special machine then chops the containers
  into small pieces or flakes, after which they are
  washed and dried, before being melted in a
  special extruder.
• 3. After filtering and cleaning, the flakes are
  then compressed into pellets, which is what the
  recycling plant sells to companies who make
  products of recycled plastic.

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Recycling Plastic.

• Lots of plastic rubbish ends up in landfill or
  being dumped in or near the sea so the worlds
  beaches and oceans are littered with floating
  rubbish that takes hundreds of years to
  decompose.
• It is estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of
  plastic litter floating in every square mile of
  ocean on Earth.
• Approximately 100,000 sea birds, whales, seals
  and turtles die each year as a result of eating
  or becoming tangled up in plastic rubbish.
• Remember It is just as easy to recycle your
  plastic containers as it is to throw it away.

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Recycling metal.

• Drinks cans, food tins (beans, soup etc) and foil
  packaging are made of metal. So are cars,
  fridges, cookers, bikes.. Most metals can be
  recycled.
• Aluminium and other metals are recycled
  separately
• Aluminium cans are not magnetic therefore they
  will not stick to the magnet. Steel cans will
  stick to the magnet.

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Recycling Aluminium.

• Aluminium is made from Bauxite Ore which is a
  non-renewable resource.
• Bauxite is only found in areas of Tropical
  Forests and mining
• It is difficult, requiring a lot of energy. It
  produces a lot of waste, causes pollution and
  often destroys rainforests.
• Bauxite may also run out one day.
• Aluminium can be recycled over and over without
  loosing any of its properties. So it makes sense
  to recycle it.
• Did you know A recycled aluminium can saves
  enough energy to run a television for three hours

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Recycling Other Metals.

• Steel is also mined from an ore.
• All steel cans are 100 recyclable.
• Its not just food and drink cans made from steel!
  - Most of your deodorants, hairsprays, polishes,
  paint cans and other household and DIY products
  are made out of steel too!
• Other metals, gold, iron, copper, silver, lead
  and brass can also be recycled.
• Did You Know Jack and Jill also recycle old
  goldwww.goldrush.ie

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Recycling Paper.

• Paper is made from pulp (mushed up wood!),
  chemicals and water. It uses lots of energy to
  produce.
• Paper is recycled by shredding it and soaking it
  to a pulp before drying it out to make more
  paper.
• 40 of all trees that are felled are used to make
  paper, so to save our forests, it is important to
  recycle it.

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Recycling Target.

• Finally, as a nation, Ireland is getting better
  at recycling. We have a target that by 2013, 35
  of all household waste will be recycled
• But for recycling to work properly, people need
  to buy recycled products or all that recycling is
  a waste of time.
• Keep waste from landfills-We can all do our bit.