ESL Lesson 6

Recycling

Lesson Objective: To have students discuss what types of materials are commonly recycled.

Open Discussion Topic: Let's look at what is most commonly recycled in today’s modern world. There are other items (things) like car batteries, tires, refrigerators, air conditioners but these are a different kind of recycling than the items listed below.

Paper: Newspapers are commonly recycled into paperboard, new newspapers or insulation. Office paper can be recycled into other writing paper, tissue and towel products. Corrugated paper is used to make new paperboard and corrugated boxes. Newspapers can only be recycled 4-6 times maximum. Each time a newspaper is recycled the paper fiber gets a little shorter until it is unusable. In England 75% of the newspapers printed each day are printed on recycled paper. Black ink on used newspapers is removed with either hydrogen peroxide or chlorine bleach.

Plastic: PET (polyethylene terephthalate) the material used to make plastic soda bottles. HDPE (high density polyethylene) is used for plastic milk jugs and food packaging. The plastic used in one-gallon milk and water jugs is also recycled to make products such as trash cans, flower pots and plastic pipes. LDPE (low density polyethylene) for plastic grocery bags, produce sacks and dish racks and is a softer fluffier plastic. PP (polypropylene) is used to make fishing nets and many types of ropes used in saltwater.

Metals: Aluminium is the most valuable of household recyclables. Aluminium cans are recycled to produce new aluminium cans. Other sources of household aluminium such as clean aluminium foil, clean pie tins, aluminium siding, and the metal frames of aluminium lawn furniture. Steel cans are sought (wanted) by the steel industry because they are a good source of steel scrap and their tin coating also can be recovered and recycled.

Glass: Glass is completely (100%) recyclable, clear glass containers are recycled into new clear glass products, while colored glass containers are recycled into new colored glass products.

Motor Oil: Used motor oil can be recycled into heating fuel, industrial lubricants and even new motor oil.

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/
RECYCLE/Recywrks/recywrks2.htm

Unit 6 Focus:

Start asking your students what happens after they drink that bottle of soda? What happens to the bottle and how it gets back to the store shelf during the recycling process? Trace the chain of recycling from trash collector to consolidator to reprocessor, ending up at a factory to be manufactured into a new product. From there the bottle is filled and then put back on a store shelf.

Along streets you may see people digging in trash cans collecting bottles and other recyclables. After collecting bottles and recyclables all day long they go to a consolidator to sell them by the pound or kilogram. The consolidator is a person with a small warehouse that buys plastic from guys on the street, businesses, restaurants, and recycle locations. The consolidator then sells these metric tons of plastic bottles to a reprocessor. The reprocessor is a factory that grinds bottles into small pieces called Flake, or melt them into small pellets called Granules. The reprocessor sells flake or granules by the container load and will put 25 metric tons of plastic in each 40 foot long container. From here an end use factory will buy the flake or granules, melt it and make new bottles that are sold to companies. These companies then refill the empty bottles with soda or other beverages (drinks). The refilled bottles are then put back on a shelf in a store ready sell and begin the process all over. The chain of recycling is similar with all of the plastics, papers and metals mentioned above.

Extension Activity:
Talk about recycling programs in your local area or make a plan how you and your students can begin a program to save and sell materials that can be recycled.

Continue to: Oil shale

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ESL Lesson 6

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Recycling
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Oil shale
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Economics
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Environmental Considerations
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Shale Oil Extraction Imminent
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