Question

Have you ever wondered what happens to your recycled plastics when they are picked up at the curb by the trash truck? It gives everybody a good feeling to recycle, but what if recycling means more trash fees?

Michael Dumper, CEO of Belmont Waste Hauling, recently told citizens of Belmont at a recent Town Council meeting that because of the closure of the closest recycling center, he will now need to haul recycled plastics almost 200 miles to be recycled. Recyclables make up almost 40% of the trash load from Belmont and as a result Belmont Waste Hauling will lose money on hauling recyclables.

The city of Belmont requires all municipal buildings and all newly constructed public buildings to provide recycling containers for use. Belmont Waste Hauling will continue to haul the city’s waste and recycling this year, but the company’s contract with the city expires next June. At that point the city will need to renegotiate a new contract, maybe with a new company.

Many of the larger trash hauling giants are not willing to deal with the many issues involved with recycling plastics and simply bury it in landfills. It takes a lot of money up front to recycle, and they are not willing to lose any amount of profit on any load of trash.

Michael Dumper maintains that he wants to keep the Belmont trash contract. He hopes that with a small increase in fees he can continue to serve the city of Belmont. Competition forces companies to stop recycling programs unless consumers are willing to pay for them, he says. And yes, finding recycling centers that are still sorting and recycling is a challenge, but Michael is not yet conceding defeat and will continue to face the challenge of finding the plants that are still operating.

1. Discuss the reasons some trash haulers dump recyclable plastics into landfills.
2. Explain why aluminum cans are recycled more often than most other recyclables.
3. Give three reasons why it is important to recycle as much as possible.
4. Identify three materials that can be recycled, other than plastic or aluminum, and explain how they are recycled.

Answer 1

The above question deals with the behind the scenes of a prodduct being recycled all the process involving the recycling of a product

a) The main reason trash haulers dump the plastics which can be recycled into land fills is because the haulage costs more than the profit made on the recyclable plastics

b) Aluminium is a strong and durable material which can be recycled in a very simple manner where as plastic and other materials involve complex process in recycling, more over aluminium is a bit more expensive than the other recyclable materials.

c) There are mor than 1001 reasons to recycle but some of them are in the prespective of the environment which include there is less degradation of the environment as there will be a decrease in mining for the materials again, and trecycling reduces trash and landfills,

and considering the economic perspective it reduces cost of production which finally saves the money of the consumers in the ling run, an the recycling industry creates employment which in turn helps the economy

and recycling preserves the future by cuttung down the use of non renewable resourses.

d) Many materials can be recycled some of them include

GLASS: it is one of the most easily recyclable material in nature all the glass ware can be recycled very easily by just melting the glass and re moulding it into the required forms.

PAPER: this includes all kinds of paper and cardboard material and can be easily recycled to form pacakging materials, by simpliy soaking and pressing them to form the required items.

ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS: the latest trend is in recycling the waste electronic components for high value metals like gold and platinum etc, which inturn reduces the damage done to the environment and reducing the costs of production of electronics etc... even thouddh the process involving the recycling is a bit complex but it is effective in the long run...