Recycle FAQ
Recycling :
Reducing landfill and trash/rubbish/waste- the stuff that is poisoning our earth and oceans.
Recycled goods are kinder to the environment.
Recycled Plastic Bottles (PET)
Fleece, nylon, polyester - all are made from an oil by-product. Plastic drink bottles (like the ubiquitous water bottle) are made from an oil by-product. Recycle your plastic bottles and they will be crunched (scientific term) and spun into recycled yarn that is then made into fleece and nylon.
The bottles are chopped up into small pieces, washed and sterilized and then melted and mixed with ‘virgin’ (plastic coming directly from an oil byproduct) plastic. This liquid plastic is spun and forced through holes into long threads which harden when exposed to air. This thread is then sent off to fabric mills to be turned into fleece.
Plastic bottles are made from the liquid plastic before it is spun. Plastic is a polymer or polyester made from two petroleum byproducts: terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol - more information and facts about plastic manufacture.
Recycled Plastic Yoghurt Containers (HDPE)
Hard plastics are upcycled into plastic lumber - durable decking, picnic tables and benches. ‘Durable’ - just think about all that plastic in landfill that will not break down for years. This ‘lumber’ never needs painting, does not develop splinters and does not rot.
This colourful ‘games’ picnic bench uses 2000 plastic bottles - and it will last ‘forever’ - the same time as it lasts in landfill.
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EcoWorld explains the science without the jargon.
Landfill vs Zero Waste
Landfill poisons, zero waste reduces, reuses and recycles…which sounds like the better deal for our earth.
Landfill poisons the land and air with ‘leachate’ and methane. Leachate is the liquid that literally leaches out of our garbage sitting in landfills. Methane is produced from the organic materials(that which used to be alive - bones/meat/ green stuff/ excrement-all the waste we don’t want to deal with). Methane is a major player in the Greenhouse Gas team, contributing its bit to global warming.
Composting All Kitchen Waste
We can reduce landfill and methane released into the atmosphere by collecting household kitchen waste (including meat, wheat and dairy) and sending it to an enclosed, anaerobic digestion facility where our waste is turned into ’soup’ and in that decomposition, methane is released, collected and turned into electricity. The leftover product is dried and used as fertilizer pellets. This is a prime example of Zero Waste creating jobs and profit.
Zero Waste was first coined by Robin Murray & Greenpeace in their 2002 publication of ‘Zero Waste’ Robin argues that the new way to regard waste is as “an embodiment of accumulated energy and materials…” In other words waste can be useful and profitable.
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