No one realy likes to recycle. Sure, you might get that "I'm saving the world high" for a little while, but that will disappear as you have you first cocktail party. But some folks (like me) are lucky enough to live in a place where the recycling is sorted for me. So all I need to know is what can and can't be recycled, and I put it all in a bin.
In some places, workers separate recycling at the plant while, at others, gigantic advanced machines do the sorting. I just came across a couple of videos of these machines at GoodCleanTech.com and went out to find a few of my own. Frankly, they're amazing, and while they don't remove people from the system 100%, they can process huge amounts of recycleables extremely efficiently.
They do it through a combination of techniques. They sort with centrifuges, magnets, induced currents and with workers (to remove things that shouldn't be there, like shoes.)
It's a unique insight on the process, and makes it clear that somethings we don't do really need to be done (like take newspapers out of bags) or various other things that machines are still not able to do.
Of course, I'll never be happy until the whole process is entirely automated, but these facilities are marvels.
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written by Martha, January 16, 2009
I am in awe. Those reverse magnets are cool. And the one video that showed how the recycled material becomes fiber was very neat. (Did I just say neat? Geek alert.) Seeing all the plastic bags made me ill, but hopefully we'll reduce those in the future. Thanks for posting the videos....
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written by sciencegirl, January 16, 2009
why are we using fossil fuels to run these machines? i can't imagine that's better for the environment than good ol' fashioned people power
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written by F. Green, January 17, 2009
It will take several years to approve and fully implement comprehensive new alternative energy policies, however the Obama administration promises a new era of energy and environment policy for the United States. Obama expressed his intention to shift the U.S. away from petroleum as its primary energy source and towards alternative renewable energy sources, advanced biofuels and efficient, low greenhouse-gas-emitting technologies.
The key policy initiatives involve caps on emissions such as carbon dioxide and auctioning of greenhouse gas credits to motivate a fundamental shift from high emitting industries to low-carbon energy alternatives. Obama has stated that the policy would be broader than any other cap and trade system proposed or in place to date in the world.
In order to implement the policy, renewable energy, natural gas, plug-in hybrid vehicles and advanced electricity transmission are expected to receive substantial incentives. You can find a broad discussion about renewable energy at http://www.onebiosphere.com
Obama has proposed drawing upon $150 billion from the emissions auction to finance low-carbon alternatives over the next several years.
The key policy initiatives involve caps on emissions such as carbon dioxide and auctioning of greenhouse gas credits to motivate a fundamental shift from high emitting industries to low-carbon energy alternatives. Obama has stated that the policy would be broader than any other cap and trade system proposed or in place to date in the world.
In order to implement the policy, renewable energy, natural gas, plug-in hybrid vehicles and advanced electricity transmission are expected to receive substantial incentives. You can find a broad discussion about renewable energy at http://www.onebiosphere.com
Obama has proposed drawing upon $150 billion from the emissions auction to finance low-carbon alternatives over the next several years.
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written by Rob Chant, January 17, 2009
I wonder what the embodied energy and energy running costs are, compared with having the recycling human sorted (either by workers or by people in their homes)? In other words, is it really that energy efficient?
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written by and, January 19, 2009
contaminationn in the recycling materials using these machines are very high. The quality of the materials decreases and they are only used for a niche end market.
I have seen them in person, and although yes do the job, the human hand is unfortunately the only reliable tehcnique to obtain proper good quality that doesnt degenerate with time
I have seen them in person, and although yes do the job, the human hand is unfortunately the only reliable tehcnique to obtain proper good quality that doesnt degenerate with time
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written by andrew, January 19, 2009
I'd second the contamination sentiment. From what I gather, the mechanical method and user-sorted method are a wash in terms of environmental benefit, currently. With mixed collection, you get a much higher rate of user participation but the quality of the recycled material is way, way down. Newspaper printing companies wont take paper from these facilities because it may contain glass fibers which can destroy their printing machines. The user-sorted method delivers much higher quality end product, though participation drops 25-30%. No one has a perfect system but in the end, people have to understand that it takes EFFORT and RESPONSIBILITY to be green. Nothing is free.
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written by Anastazia, January 20, 2009
We should be concerned about these machines. While yes, they are pretty cool and impressive...I do not approve. Part of why we're in this whole pickle is because of human jobs being replaced by machines! I feel that job markets, etc should be taken into consideration in the "green" movement. All of us need to get away from the laziness of letting other people (or machines) do little things for us and do them ourselves. It does not take too much time to recycle and it certainly does not take up too much space. If your creative about it, I'm sure you could make a discreet, even stylish recycling area in your home. So in short, while this may be cool and make life a bit easier, I really don't feel this is a step in the right direction.
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written by Kevin de Caluwé, February 03, 2009
I'm quite happy to live in Belgium, where 70 to 80% of the household waste gets recycled.
We need to seperate the following things :
* paper, cardboard
* plastic bottles, milk cartons
* 'green' waste like vegetables/fruit waste
* glass
* all the rest
One bag for 'all the rest' costs about €1,2, bags for plastic bottles is cheap (should be around €0,1 I think).
A BBC article on the topic:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6539813.stm
We need to seperate the following things :
* paper, cardboard
* plastic bottles, milk cartons
* 'green' waste like vegetables/fruit waste
* glass
* all the rest
One bag for 'all the rest' costs about €1,2, bags for plastic bottles is cheap (should be around €0,1 I think).
A BBC article on the topic:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6539813.stm
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written by matthew, March 12, 2009
I am no expert on recycling or the economy or business. I am not an expert in anything to tell you the truth, but icare for the environment and conservation (not preservation) of earth and it's resources. If the recycling process becomes fully automated, wouldnt that take away from jobs required for sorting. A good aspect to explore would be how many jobs are required to run a recycling facility where they do not have an automated recycling machine, versus how many jobs are required to run a recycling facility that uses an automated reycling machine. A problem with the United States is not only the recycling incentive and process, but also the employment factor. If we can conquer two birds with one stone why not? A human can just as easily sort recycled material as an automated machine can, however it takes much longer i presume for a human to do it. But the truth is, if it gives 200 people a decent paid job, then we get the material recycled and produce employment. I have volunteered at my University's recycling plant and done the dirty work. Indeed it is dirty work, but it needs to be done and I did it with pride and with happiness knowing that I contributed to a cleaner earth.
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