It doesn't take long for things to add up.

At the end what did you leave behind?

As a middle class America, I want to tell you, you don’t have to keep a highly detailed account of my life, but in just in one week, I can make the trash. Trying to recycle is my first step. Let us look at what makes up most trash.

Aluminium

I must say it was a pain to manage the bins at first, but it is getting better. All aluminum is a no brainier they give you a little for it.

Just think on the Washington Monument the the tip of the capstone,  set on December 6, 1884, is a small pyramid of refined aluminum, weighing 100 ounces, The metal was so hard to purify, that it was sold by the ounce and was as high as silver at $1.00 per ounce. It was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time to function as the tip of the lightening rod of the structure. The price of aluminum dropped because of the invention of the Hall-Héroult process in 1886 so we can make it into every conceivable thing today from foil to wrap our food in to engine parts.

Aluminium is 100% recyclable  you just melt the scrap, here is the amazing news it only requires five percent of the energy used, to produce it from ore. That it a huge savings in electricity and natural resources.

Plastics

Plastics are made of oil them must be recycled. You just need to wash them to get the food out of them. Some where around 24% of all plastics were recycled in 2005 far behind newspaper running at about 80% and cardboard at about 70%.

You used oil and didn’t even worry about the MPG’s. Chucking it away into the land fill, basicly putting it back in the ground for some fool in the future to turn back to oil. Such a waste.

The recycle code numbers on the products help to put them with there same kinds. Different plastics don’t mix when in the remelting process. It is easy to make tons of it for every thing we use it for, but not easy to remake. Technology is helping but the problems are complex.

Thermal depolymerization

Big word, what is it? In short, Plastic back to light crude oil. Learn more by clicking the link

Snip-it from article:

“The first full-scale commercial plant was constructed in Carthage, Missouri, about 100 yards (91m) from ConAgra Foods’ massive Butterball turkey plant, where it is expected to process about 200 tons of turkey waste into 500 barrels (21,000 US gallons or 80 m³) of oil per day.”

Paper / Cardboard

I can’t seam to get over, after collecting for a while, how much cardboard was food packaging. Every thing is in a box, just to advertise on the outside of the product. It is not that this stuff will not quickly rot in the landfill, but it help start the process. It is cheaper to make the next batch of paper from old paper.

The extreme recyclers takes food scrapes and paper, puts it in a bin ( Now don’t gross out on me. ) and lets earth worms eat it. What is there waste product? Beautiful potting soil and fish bait, Thank you very much. Just remember to help them a little and rip the edges so they have a place to chew.

Forget all of this I will just go out and eat.

Good luck with that, if you think that most restaurant are more earth concise than you. They may have given you a bag with your hamburger in it made from recycled paper, but most are not going to wash out your plastics to recycle them. Every item is in packaging with they logo on it.

Some let their grease be pick up to make easy and free diesel fuel alternatives. Just filter and put in the additive and your diesel engine runs just fine.

Closing…

The most important thing to me is that. – Do not be unaware of the chooses that we make in the living of our life.

Something did not come from nothing. If it required heat to make it, something was burnt. And if something was burnt it got converted in to waste gases, and normally tons of it, to make a pound of what we used and through away.

Posted by: Ron G.