What is Recycling?

Questions and Answers

To increase the amount of waste in the environment.

To produce new materials from non-recyclable waste.

To reduce the amount of trash in landfills and preserve natural resources. (correct)

To separate different types of trash from each other.

A star with five points

A triangle with three arrows (correct)

A circle with a cross

A picture of a tree

They are thrown away with other non-recyclable trash.

They are bundled and sent to a landfill.

They are melted down to create new paper.

They are shredded, heated, and mixed with chemicals to create a material to make new paper. (correct)

Batteries Signup and view all the answers

To reduce the amount of paper waste in landfills. Signup and view all the answers

It is washed in a bath to clean off any remaining label or dirt Signup and view all the answers

It is melted into liquid Signup and view all the answers

They are separated using magnets Signup and view all the answers

New metal containers Signup and view all the answers

Because they take as much as 700 years to decompose and can pollute the air when burned Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Recycling is the process of taking materials ready to be thrown away and converting them into reusable materials to reduce trash in landfills and preserve natural resources.
Recycling helps reduce pollution of Earth's soil, water, and air.
It also prevents depletion of natural resources.

Only certain materials can be recycled: glass, paper, plastic, and metal are the main recyclables.
Some recycling centers also take organics like banana peels and chicken bones.
The symbol indicates that a product can be recycled.

Paper can be recycled and reused, including cardboard boxes, newspapers, computer paper, paper bags, junk mail, magazines, and activity books.
Recycling factories ensure paper is clean, bundle it, and send it to a paper mill.
At the mill, paper is shredded, heated, and mixed with chemicals to create a material for making new paper.

Plastic items like plastic bags, containers, rubber bands, plastic wrap, and milk cartons can be recycled.
About 60 million water bottles are destroyed by burning or sent to landfills, where they take up to 700 years to decompose.
Plastics are ground up into tiny flakes, washed, dried, and melted into tiny pellets that are sold to companies to be formed into other products.

Glass bottles can be recycled and reused.
Collected glass is cleaned, crushed, and sorted.
Crushed glass is used to make raw glass material, which is mixed and heated to create liquid glass that can be used to make new glass bottles and other materials.

Metal containers like soda cans and food cans can be recycled.
Collected metal is separated from other materials using magnets, washed, crushed, and melted at high temperatures.
Liquid metal is flattened and dried into sheets, which are then sold to companies to be reused.