Solutions What are we doing to help?

History of recycling Recycling has been a common practice for most of human history as far back as 400 B.C. Evidence of scrap bronze and other metals being collected and melted down in Europe in the pre-industrial age Recycling became big during the world wars

Campaigns were carried out urging citizens to donate metals and conserve fiber as a matter of patriotic importance Publicity photo for US aluminum salvage campaign, 1942

Recycling increased in the 1970’s due to increased energy costs 1973-Berkeley, California-began one of the first curbside collection programs with monthly pick ups of newspapers 1990’s – began the recycling hysteria

Paper Recycling Waste paper is mixed in a giant blender with water to produce a pulp slurry Then passes through a system of centrifugal cleaning equipment and screens. This removes things like glue, rocks and strings. Chemicals are added to brighten the paper.

The ink adheres to the soap and floats to the top to be skimmed. Then shipped to mills or formed into sheets of pulp known as “wet lap”

Battery Recycling Spent or "junk" batteries are broken apart and separated into components Old battery cases and covers are used to manufacture new battery cases and covers.

Sodium sulfate crystals are separated and sold for use in textile, glass and detergent manufacturing. New batteries are manufactured which are 99% recyclable and 87% comprised of previously recycled materials.

lead, mercury, and cadmium, that are found in some types of batteries mercury can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and developing fetus Drinking water with very high levels of cadmium severely irritates the stomach, leading to vomiting and diarrhea and possible kidney disease

Glass Recycling At the plant, a mechanical processing system breaks the glass into small pieces called cullet. Magnets, screens and vacuum systems separate out metals, labels, bits of plastic, metal rings and caps

The cullet then is blended and placed in a furnace which melts it into molten glass This molten glass is then molded into familiar shapes and sizes

Aluminum recycling Scrap metal reaches a producer, or smelter, where it may be shredded or ground into small chips, melted and cast into ingots rolled into sheets of aluminum

Sheets are then made into items such as cans Aluminum is the most desirable material to recycle

Plastic recycling Plastic scrap or waste comes in all manner of shapes and sizes so they have to be identified and separated. Different kinds of plastics are chemically created differently. Different polymers. spinning blades cut the plastic components into irregular shaped pieces known as "reground"

Many polymer types that make up the plastic are incompatible Incoming batches must not contaminated The compounding process is very similar to that employed in an injection molding machine

Recycling facts In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage Nationwide, 48% of all paper was recycled Every day, enough paper is recycled in the United States to fill a 15-mile long train of boxcars.

Recycling one ton of paper saves: -17 trees, -enough energy to power an average home for six months, -7,000 gallons of water, -and keeps 60 pounds of pollutants out of the air. Americans throw away enough office and writing paper each year to build a wall twelve-feet high stretching from New York City to Los Angeles.

Nationwide, 62% of all aluminum cans were recycled Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television, or operate a computer for three hours. Illinois recycled 2,879,000,000 aluminum cans in 2000 - 222 cans per person; BUT 135 cans per person were still land filled Nationwide, 38% of all glass bottles were recycled

Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for four hours Half of all the polyester carpet manufactured in the U.S. is made from recycled plastic bottles. Each year, Illinoisans use and dispose 1.1 billion foam cups, enough to encircle the Earth 19 times. Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour!