Topic A: Recycling Plastic
Reduce, reuse, and recycle. We have all heard these words repeated to us dozens of times
yet it seems only the very last part has caught on. Reducing and reusing items are much more
effective than simply recycling but the problem with them is that they are more difficult to
integrate into our lives. It takes a more effort to wash a metal or plastic fork to reuse later when
there is a bag of 100 plastic forks easily at our disposal. Simply throwing away that fork is what
we are used to, only now the idea of throwing it into the recycling bin now makes us feel as if we
are doing our part. It takes a lot to create the plastic necessary to make those forks and their
packaging. It takes energy to later clean the recycled plastic and sort them for melting. The
amount of human and natural resources we have should be better allocated, because all resources
are finite and the idea of “throwing it away” is a fallacy because there is no such place as away.
Most plastic today begins as petroleum. Petroleum is a fossil fuel which can create a wide
range of potential products including Gasoline, Heating Oil, Diesel, Fuel/Jet Fuel and plastic
pellets. It takes a lot of work to transform that petroleum into moldable plastic to create
something as simple as a water bottle. First the Petroleum is drilled and transported to a refinery.
Then the crude oil and natural gas are refined into ethane, propane and other petrochemical
products. Ethane and propane are "cracked" into ethylene and propylene. In order to do so hightemperature furnaces, which use a lot of energy themselves, are necessary. A catalyst is
combined with ethylene or propylene in a reactor resulting in a polymer which looks like
powdered laundry detergent. This polymer is combined with additives in a continuous blender
and fed to an extruder where it is melted. We finally now have melted plastic which is cooled
then fed into a machine that cuts the product into small pellets. These pellets which are also
known as nurdles are shipped to customers who use them to make water bottles, bags, toys and
just about anything and everything today. As you can see, it takes a great deal of effort to make
plastic.
Most plastic items can be recycled but that doesn’t essentially mean that they are
recycled. Plastic can only be recycled so many times, with each time they are recycled they
degrade a little bit, they aren’t as strong and take colored dyes differently, reducing their
potential l for the products they can be used in. Have you ever seen numbers on the bottom of
your water bottles? These numbers are usually inside of a triangle and indicate how any times the
plastic has been recycled before. This helps recycling plants sort the products accordingly.
Recycling plants must sort all of the plastic they receive. Not all plants have the same
capabilities and are not always able to recycle all levels of plastic. Sometimes they plastic which
they are incapable of processing is passed on to another recycling plant but is often sent to
landfills. The sorted plastic which they do recycle is usually contaminated by bits of labels or
sugary remnants of soft drinks. So, the plastic is thoroughly washed and dried. The cleaning
process takes a lot of energy in the form of heat produced by electricity. Once the plastic is dry it
is melted into nurdles once more and ready to be molded into something else.
It is important to keep in mind that not all plastic is recyclable and that doing your part
does not mean remembering to toss something into the recycling bin. The first two points of
“reduce, reuses, recycle” have a much greater impact on our environment. If over a lifetime one
chooses to use and wash ceramic dishware over hundreds of packs of plastic dishes then one has
left a smaller carbon footprint on the world, even if those plastic dishes were recycled. It is
important that when one does use plastic one reuses it. Rather than buy packs of water bottles a
water filtering system coupled with a durable plastic water bottle cuts the amount of plastic
required to deliver the same amount of clean drinking water. There will always be a demand for
virgin plastic that recycled plastic cannot replace. Through a more meaningful acceptance of the
“reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra we can create a lasting high impact change of our utilization of
the resources we have left.
Topic B: Landfills
There are five types of waste that can makeup landfills; biodegradable waste, recyclable
waste, municipal waste, composite waste, and household hazardous waste. Anything from
potatoes peels to plastic bags to cleaning products can end up in these landfills. Dumps were
once commonly used. Dumps are open holes in the ground which waste is put. This practice has
been nearly abandoned in developed nations in favor of landfills which necessitate a barrier
between the waste and the earth in effort to reduce soil and water contamination.
Today landfills are the popular choice. They are either lined with clay or plastic; the
former is known as a sanitary landfill because very little can seep through while the latter is
known as a composite landfill. Waste is typically compacted and kept dry before covering so that
the waste does not break down too quickly. If exposed to the natural elements the way dumps are
we risk water contamination. Waste disposal and the costs associated with it varies from nation
to nation or within a country. The average cost of waste disposal via landfill is four times higher
in Hong Kong than the average cost for China as a whole. The amount of waste and original
location play a role in cost and effectiveness.
How long does it take for all that waste to finally decompose? A banana or paper bag
take about one month to decompose. Cotton takes about five months and wool a year. These
items decompose relatively quickly because they are biodegradable items. An aluminum can will
take up to five hundred years to decompose whereas large pieces of plastic can take up to a
million years. It is not definite how long it takes for Styrofoam or glass to decompose or if they
even do. These are recyclable items which we can prevent from entering our landfills especially
as virgin materials. While we wait for them to decompose the landfills leak methane gas which
contribute to climate change.
There are ways we can lessen the burden of landfills. The old mantra of reduce, reuse,
recycle come to mind but so do composting and the promotion of zero waste. Composting would
greatly cut the amount of waste going into landfills, meaning that there would be less needed
overall. Composting is most effectively done on a small scale. Households with yards, buildings
with a common compost site or large institutions such as schools with regularly maintained
compost bins. The practice of composting is a difficult adjustment but is practical when volume
of waste is considered. Zero waste is the idea of a fully functional waste disposal system in
which everything is recycled, composted, reused and reduced. It would entail creating products
in a way that allows for all parts to be disposed of in an ecofriendly way. The possibilities are
endless and must be explored by every nation because we all live on this crowded planet together
and landfills are taking up too much room.