Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Glass
People have been using and reusing glass for thousands of years. As long as
3,000 years ago, Egyptians used glass to make jewelry, cups and other items.
Glass is made of sand, soda ash and limestone and is one of the easiest
materials to recycle. Here’s how it works.
The cullet is brought to a manufacturing plant and mixed with more sand,
soda ash and limestone.
The liquid is then poured into molds and shaped into new products.
Plastic
The liquid is fed through a screen for even more cleaning. It comes out in
long strands.
The pellets then make their way to manufacturers who use them to make
new products.
Aluminum
Aluminum can be recycled quickly and easily. In fact, a soda can you recycle
today could be back on a store shelf in about two months! Making an
aluminum can from recycled aluminum uses 96% less energy than it does
making one for the first time. Here’s how it is recycled.
The melted aluminum is cooled and formed into block called an ingot.
The ingot is made into sheets and used to make new products.
Paper
Paper is made of tiny fibers. Because these fibers eventually become weak,
paper cannot be recycled forever. Most types of paper can be recycled, but
some types—those with a glossy or waxy coating—are too expensive to
recycle. When you recycle paper, you should try to separate newsprint,
white paper and cardboard. Here’s a look at the recycling process for paper.
The paper is soaked and heated in huge vats, becoming pulp. Chemicals
in the liquid separate the ink from the paper.
The pulp is screened and cleaned to remove glue, other debris and any
remaining ink.
The pulp is refined and beaten to make it ready to become paper again.
The pulp is fed into a machine that spits out the pulp onto a flat moving
screen where it forms sheets.
The sheets are rolled and dried and ready for their new life.