Importance of recycling Flashcards
What are the steps of reusing a glass bottle?
Collect –> Clean —> Glass bottle
What are the steps of recycling a glass bottle?
Collect –> Clean —> grind up –> melt –> Mold
What step in recylcing requires energy from fossil fuels?
Melting the material
What is the importance in recyling metals?
- Reduces need to mine ore, lowers pollution
- Reduces environmental impacts of extraction
- Reduces waste from extraction
- Conserves finite resource
What are disadvantages of mining?
- Habitats destroyed
- Noise and sight pollution
- Dust pollution
Why is recycling aluminium important?
- Aluminium is extracted from molten aluminium oxide by electrolysis.
- Recyling aluminium will save energy = save money
Why is recycling iron/ steel important?
- Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon (or another element.)
- Lots of energy is needed to produce steel from iron ore.
- Reduces energy needed for extraction
Why is recyling copper important?
- Copper is found as an alloy
- Difficult to get pure, requires a lot of energy
- Can be difficult to recycle as most copper is mixed with another element.
- Copper used in wiring must be pure
- It is a finite resource, conserves the resource
Give 4 pollutants released from burning fossil fuels
- Carbon dioxide
- Carbon monoxide
- Carbon soot
- Sulphur dioxide
What are some disadvantages to recycling?
What is an advantage?
- Involves energy to melt and mold.
- Involves people and machinery for separating.
- A: Conserves finite resource
What are some disadvantages of using alternative materials?
What is an advantage?
- Could have higher cost
- Properties could be changed
- A: Conserves finite resource
What are some disadvantages of making plastic bottles thinner?
What is an advantage?
- Bottle may not be as strong
- Lots of energy used in manafacturing
- A: Smaller quantity of plastic used
Where does most of the energy from manafacturing come from?
- The burning of fossil fuels
