Recycling Project

Definition of Concepts
* Recycling: Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production. Recycling is a keycomponent of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy. Collecting used bottles, cans, and newspapers and taking them to the curb or to a collection facility is just the first in a series of steps that generates a host of financial, environmental, and social returns. Some of these benefits accrue locally as well as globally.
* KyotoProtocol: The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming. The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving the "stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.
*Global Warming: is the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans since the late 19th century and its projected continuation. Since the early 20th century, Earth's average surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), with about two thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and scientists are more than 90% certain thatmost of it is caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all major industrialized nations.

List of Recycling Materials

* Glass
* Paper
* Plastic
* Aluminum
* Cardboard
* Clothing
* Batteries
* Fuel* Electronic devices
* Newspaper

List of Recycling Places

* “Plaza del Caribe” Mall
* Comunity Center in Ave. Baramaya
* “Septix Waste, Inc.” in Mercedita
* “Smurfit Fibras Internacionales”
* “WalMart”

Recycling Process

Paper: At the processing Mill, the paper is soaked in water. It is then shaken to release the fibers to return them to theirpulp state. It is important at this stage to remove the ink. If we don't do this, we will be left with a dull grey paper. There are three ways to do this:

* Chemicals are added to the water to separate the ink from the pulp and then huge quantities of water are added to flush out this ink. (This water is usually reused!)
* Air is shot through the pulp. This process createsfoam containing about half of the ink. The foam is then skimmed off leaving clearer water. This process breaks down into water and oxygen on disposal, so it is the most acceptable.
* The pulp is bleached using hydrogen peroxide or chlorine. This process is less acceptable since the chlorine combines with organic matter to produce toxic pollutants.
We then add finishing chemicals and either pressthe pulp into sheets to dry or mix it with virgin pulp. The paper recycling process involved in changing old paper into new paper requires a significant amount of energy. We can see here that the de-inking process uses water and chemicals, but these amounts are much less than they would be in the manufacture of virgin paper. Unfortunately, the same paper cannot be recycled indefinitely. Each timethe fibers are pulped, they get shorter and shorter and lose their papermaking qualities. A fiber can be recycled about four and six times before it disintegrates. The quality of paper produced will vary depending on the percentages of recycled and virgin paper used in its production.

Plastic: Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the...