Environmental Issues

Greenhouse Effect

- the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, and deforestation have caused the concentrations of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" to increase significantly in our atmosphere.

- gases prevent heat from escaping to space, somewhat like the glass panels of a greenhouse.

- gases are necessary to life as we know it, because they keep the planet's surface warmer than it otherwise would be.

http://www.epa.gov

Human activities have enhanced the natural greenhouse effect by adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, very likely causing the Earth’s average temperature to rise.

- gases come from burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil to power our cars, tractors, semi-trucks, factories, power plants, homes, offices, and schools.

http://www.epa.gov

Climate Change

Seals need the ice to have their cubs on.

Polar bears need the seals for food.

http://abcnews.go.com

Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals are changing their feeding and migration patterns.

http://www.nrdc.org

"Swimming 100 miles is not a big deal for a polar bear, especially a fat one," said Dr Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service.

"They just kind of float along and kick. But as the ice gets farther out from shore because of warming, it?s a longer swim that costs more energy and makes them more vulnerable." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-433170/Global-warming-sees-polar-bears-stranded-melting-ice.html#ixzz0gyRR6YMY

Wind Energy

Turbines' wings rotate an electromagnet. Generator changes kinteic energy to electric energy.

Like most new technologies, the cost to build starts high and then decreases.

Recycling

Glasss

-separated by color

-broken into small pieces.

-crushed and sorted

-cleaned and added to sand, soda ash, limestone

- melted at 2700 ºF

http://saferenvironment.wordpress.com

** Crushed glass melts at a lower temperature than the raw materials and therefore the more recycled material that is in the mixture the less energy it takes to melt the materials into glass.

**Producing glass from all raw materials creates nearly 400 pounds of mining waste and by replacing 50 percent of the raw material with recycled glass about 75 percent of that waste is reduced.

**“For every ton of glass that is recycled to make new glass products 693 pounds of carbon dioxide is saved”.

** A recycled glass container is just as strong as one made from original material, and it can be recycled again and again without any loss of quality.

Plastic

* 6.4 million tonnes of debris reaches the world's oceans each year. * 80% is thought to come from land based sources,

* More than half of the rubbish is believed to be plastic.

* 15 % float on the surface,

* 15% collect in the water column near the shore and

* the rest sinks to the bottom of the deep ocean. http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com

The higher the number, the harder it is to recycle.

Metal

* scrap steel and iron is processed to remove any toxic or hazardous waste materials

* sold back to steel mills

http://helptheenvironmentbyrecycling.info/?p=168

Aluminum is an infinitely recyclable material making it a perfect material.

http://www.novelis.com

Recycling aluminum from scraps and discards uses only about 5 percent of the energy required to manufacture new aluminum.

http://www.benefits-of-recycling.com

Paper

Wastepaper comes from newspaper, cardboard and typical office and copier papers.

* paper is baled

* take to a paper recycling plant.

* convert back into paper pulp.

* make corrugated supplies, such as boxes, and recycled paper and tissue products.

http://helptheenvironmentbyrecycling.info/?p=168

Electronics

* not safe to dispose of in a landfill

* extract the toxic substances such as lead, mercury, asbestos, and cadmium,

* extract the metals and plastics for recycling and reuse.

http://helptheenvironmentbyrecycling.info/?p=152

To reduce contamination and improve recycling efficiency, wash and squash!

Wash - Scrape out any food remains/pour away excess liquid. Rinse the container (use your washing-up water)

Squash - Crush metal cans. Squeeze plastic bottles flat to expel as much air as possible.

If you can remove labels and lids from glass jars and bottles, that's great,

Removing the caps and lids from plastic containers is more important. be left on - a minimal amount of contamination is tolerated.

Remove paper clips, staples and plastic envelope windows from paper. Also remove excessive amounts of tape and labelling from cardboard packaging.

Can I recycle soiled paper?

Paper fibres cannot be recycled if they are contaminated with food. Here are a few tips - Put greasy wrappers into your compost/main rubbish. Tear out contaminated portions (e.g. a cheesy pizza box lid), and recycle the clean remainder. Use tissues as compost, as their dense fibres make them unsuitable for paper recycling.

http://www.werswaste.ie/material-recycling-facility.htm

Hybrids

- hybrid cars produce 80% less harmful pollutants and greenhouse gases than comparable gasoline cars.

- carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane

http://www.hybrid-car.org

Regenerative Braking.

- energy from the wheels turns the motor, which functions as a generator making electricity, which is stored in a battery

Electric Motor Drive/Assist.

- electric motor provides power to assist the engine in accelerating, passing, or hill climbing.

- smaller, more efficient engine can be used.

- In some vehicles, the motor alone provides power for low-speed driving conditions where internal combustion engines are least efficient.

Automatic Start/Shutoff.

- shuts off the engine when the vehicle comes to a stop and restarts it when the accelerator is pressed.

- prevents wasted energy from idling.

http://www.theautochannel.com

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/science-channel/37750-deconstructed-wind-turbines-video.htm

http://www.novelis.com