Smart Recycling

(Proposal)

What is recycling?

Recycling is finding new uses for materials that would normally be considered waste. Such as aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic containers, paper, cardboard etc.

This web site will provide information on how to live a more sustainable life at Colorado College through recycling.

Aluminum

The process of making aluminum from scratch involves mining. The aluminum or, called bauxite, is commonly found in tropical and semi tropical climates. The mined bauxite is then taken to a refinery where the alumina is extracted from the bauxite through the Bayer process. The end result is red mud that contains all of the other substances in bauxite, like iron, silicon and titanium, and a white powder: the alumina. This alumina is then converted into molten aluminum through the smelting process. This involves reducing the alumina in an electrolytic cell, using coke and pitch anodes and graphite cathodes. Finally, the molten aluminum is stored in a holding furnace and it is then processed into consumer and industrial products.

This picture from http://www.world-aluminum.org/ illustrates the process of making aluminum from scratch.

Recycling aluminum only involves the processes of being heated in the furnace then processed into materials that can be reused.

Glass

The process for making glass from scratch involves collecting sand and, after refining the sand, placing the sand in a furnace where the sand is fussed, producing molten glass. From there the glass is boiled down, skimmed and cooled, at this stage the glass is called "metal." The metal is then ladled or poured into molds and pressed, or is blown (sometimes into molds), or is drawn.The shaped glass is annealed to relieve stresses caused by manipulation, then is slowly cooled. The glass, formerly annealed on shelves in a melting furnace, is now usually carried on rollers through annealing ovens (lehrs).

The process for recycling glass is the same as it is for making glass, the only difference is that the recycled glass does not involve sand. Instead the used glass is re-melted, and reformed.

Fun Brain Facts

Aluminum*

Recycling one aluminum can save the energy needed to light one 100 watt light bulb for 20 hrs or to run tv for 3 hrs
It takes 500 years for aluminum can to decompose.
Recycling one 12 oz aluminum beverage can saves the energy equivalent of 6 oz of gasoline.
A recycled aluminum can appears as a new canned beverage within 90 days.
To create 1 ton of aluminum it produces 81 lbs of air pollutants.

Glass**

It takes one million years for a glass jar to decompose
Every ton of new glass produced creates 278 pounds of air pollution; recycling glass reduces that pollution by 14-20%
Recycling a glass jar saves enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for 4 hours
Every ton of recycled glass saves 9 gallons of fuel oil

Benefits of recycling

Reprocessing used materials to make new products and packaging reduces the consumption of natural resources.
Recycling and Reuse Establishments - 3,247
Recycling and Reuse Employment - 81,322 jobs
Recycling avoids the costs of disposing of waste in landfills or solid waste incinerators.