Materials, Trash & Recycling
Joe Rioux
1/27/20
Smith 6th
The chemical composition of a material determines its readiness to break down when applied with different materials. The chemical bond formed in a pure element such as Iron are very uniform and easy to break down, hence why iron is easily melted back into its pure form, on the contrary polymer plastics are made up of many intertwining and strong bonds keeping the plastic together, this is the reason plastic cannot be melted into its pure form through normal methods.
With the steadily increasing rates of plastic usage into the 2020s rises the question of how plastic is affecting our environment arises. The term plastic is a catch all term for many different types of polymers, These polymers are made up of many strong chemical bonds that keep the plastics from decomposing naturally for many years. This can cause large amounts of plastic waste to end up in our environment, the prerogative of recycling plastics keeps heavy amounts of hard to decompose polymers in the circle of use and out of the massive waste dumps polluting the earth.
During this project my main takeaway was that, even with the environments current critical condition, the economics of the world will keep these dumps full of trash. Another bit of knowledge I learned was that there technically was a way to melt plastics back to their oil base through the use of extremely hot temperatures in a vacuum space. I developed several new skills during this project, one I made great strides in was patience as I was met with frustration at the work ethic of my partner, although this obstacle lead me to develop my own work ethic.
Joe Rioux
1/21/19
Smith 6
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Landfill Mining
Landfills are becoming a rising problem to our environment, these are major producers of methane gas as well as leaking toxins to the nearby land. A proposed solution for these issues is the concept of Landfill Mining, this proposition describes an operation in which landfills will be mined for all of the precious materials that end up in the massive lots. This process would require much of the waste to be sorted and stored, and this requires capital. Profits and asset management are the main force against landfill mining, the number of materials recovered often pales in comparison to the cost of mining the landfill.
Landfill mining is a tedious process hence why it doesn’t happen as often as some folk would like it to. It is a multi-step operation that requires crews equipped with heavy machinery to clear thousands of tons of waste material from the landfill and move it to the storage, the storage is a cost in itself as waste containing toxins and contaminants requires special storage. The amounts of materials recoverable from landfills are vast, but the amount of waste needed to be removed to access those materials is much greater.
Another deterrent for landfill mining is the cost of recycling the steel and aluminum, it would be up to the landfill and its owners to pay for the extraction of the waste but they would likely reap only a small amount of the profit the recycled steel and aluminum. This is a large reason as to why the amount of landfill mining operations is at the low number it is. Although it would cost less to recycle the steel from landfills than processing raw ore from the earth, the cost to the landfill and its benefactors is a solid wall in the way of this concept and its application.
Though through landfill mining the US could reap and recycle many useful materials as well as cleaning up the massive waste dumps that litter the US, the harshly adverse cost along with the minimal capital benefit is the largest hindrance to the idea of landfill mining.