Category Science

We make metals by digging up minerals and then heating them in a hot fire or furnace.

Minerals like silver, copper and lead are hard to find. So, people do not usually throw them away. But we do throw away lots and lots of steel and aluminium cans.

Luckily, it is easy to recycle metals, which saves minerals and energy.

This hot furnace is making iron.

Iron is a tough metal made by melting iron ore, limestone and coke from coal in a furnace. By adding carbon and other minerals, iron can be made into even tougher steel. Steel is used to build ships, trains, bridges and buildings.

Valuable metals like iron and steel are often recycled. Most steel objects now contain some recycled metal.

This giant magnet picks up steel cans.

Cans to store food and drink are mostly made from steel or aluminium. At the recycling plant, a large magnet is often used to pick out the steel cans. These are reheated in a furnace to make new products. The steel in your empty drink can could end up in a steel support high on a skyscraper, or as a paper clip!

Mines spoil wild places.

Metals are found underground as ores. When ores are mined, wild places are destroyed and huge piles of waste rock are left behind. By recycling metals we can avoid new mines and reduce waste and pollution.

You can use a magnet to test metals.

A magnet can separate different metals because iron and steel are magnetic, so they stick to the magnet. Aluminium is not magnetic, so it does not stick.

At home, use a magnet to test cans, bottle tops, foil trays and tin foil to find out if they are magnetic. All of these metal items can be recycled.

Picture Credit : Google

We throw away lots of paper and card each day. But we can recycle this waste to make new books, comics and even banknotes.

When we recycle paper and card, it saves materials and energy. We also help to protect wild forests where animals live.

These trees will be cut down to make paper.

Wood is the main raw material used to make card and paper. Most timber used to make paper comes from conifer trees grown on special plantations.

Wild habitats, such as bogs and heaths, are sometimes cleared to plant these forests. Recycling paper means that fewer timber forests are needed. So, recycling can help to save wild places and the animals that live in them.

The grey cardboard inside a cereal packet is recycled.

Newspapers and magazines have lots of ink on them. When they are recycled, it is cheaper not to remove all the inks. That is why recycled cardboard is grey! Clean, white paper is the best paper for recycling. It can be made into writing paper.

Old newspapers can be made into toilet paper.

All sorts of products, including toilet paper and toilet rolls, are now made from recycled paper.

Look out for recycling symbols that show materials have been recycled. We can also avoid wasting paper by reusing envelopes and writing on both sides of paper. Ask your teacher if paper is recycled at your school.

You can also recycle your Christmas tree.

Christmas trees are also grown on conifer plantations. Many councils now provide special recycling points where trees can be left after Christmas.

So, instead of dumping your tree, recycle it! The trees are cut into chips to make rich compost which can be put on the garden to fertilise the soil.

Picture Credit : Google

Glass is one material that is easy to recycle. Like metal and paper, it is made with raw materials from the natural world.

The more we recycle the fewer raw materials we need. Recycling materials like glass also saves energy.

Glass is made in a furnace.

Glass is made from sand and limestone. These raw materials are mined from the ground and heated in a furnace. They melt to make a hot, runny mixture. This is shaped by being blown or poured into moulds. The red-hot mixture cools to form glass.

This broken glass is ready to recycle.

Glass can be made from recycled bottles and jars instead of fresh sand and limestone. The used glass is smashed up to form a substance called cullet. The cullet is then reheated. The furnace does not need to be so hot to melt cullet, so recycling glass saves energy as well as raw materials.

At a bottle bank we sort glass into different colours.

First, wash your used bottles and remove the lids before you take them to the bottle bank. Most bottle banks have separate holes for brown, clear and green glass, so the glass is sorted before it goes to the recycling plant. As well as bottles, recycled glass can be used to make glass bricks, tiles and fibreglass boats or canoes.

Glass can be reused, so avoid plastic bottles.

Reduce waste by asking your family to buy milk and juice in glass bottles instead of plastic bottles or paper cartons.

Glass milk bottles are returned and refilled up to a dozen times. But plastic and paper cartons are used just once before being thrown away, and plastic bottles do not rot.

Many people are quick to throw things away. They do not reuse things. Reusing means using old things in new ways.

In developing countries, people waste less. They are better at recycling materials. They often repair and reuse old equipment.

When people reuse or recycle, there is less waste. Less waste means less harm to nature.

This old freezer creates waste and can poison the air.

People in developed countries have money to spend on expensive goods such as cars or computers. We like to bud new things when the old ones break or go out of fashion. All this causes waste and pollution. Scrapped TVs, cookers, fridges and cars may give off chemicals which pollute the natural world.

People reuse the cardboard boxes that this man sells.

In poor communities, people often repair or reuse broken equipment, so less is wasted. Some people sort through rubbish heaps for bottles, tins, plastic, bricks and cardboard that can be sold for recycling. Wood and metal sheets are reused to build shacks.

Packaging can make products look nice but it causes waste.

In the United Kingdom, a lot of our rubbish is packaging. This is the paper, card and cellophane used to wrap products or to keep foods fresh. Colourful packaging also helps to sell products. But when we get home, most of this packaging is just thrown away, which is a waste.

Some packets have lots of layers!

Next time you visit a supermarket, examine the layers of packaging used on different foods.

Are all the lagers really necessary? Individually wrapped foods are fun, but use a lot of extra packaging. They use up valuable materials, such as paper and plastic, which cost money.

Picture Credit : Google

Rubbish is often solid, like an old can or box. But waste from a power station or factory can also be a liquid or a gas.

Some of this waste is dangerous. It harms nature if people do not clear it up properly.

Cars and homes also produce harmful gases by burning fuel.

Power stations produce waste gases.

Power stations release waste gases as they burn fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, to provide us with electricity. This energy is supplied to our homes, schools and factories to run machines. So, every time we switch on the computer or TV, we are helping to create waste.

Some factories empty liquid waste into rivers.

When factories make goods such as soap, medicine or paint, they may also produce poisonous chemicals as a waste product. Waste liquids sometimes leak into lakes and rivers, where they harm plants and wildlife such as fish and birds.

These workers’ clothes protect them from toxic (poison) waste.

Some factories produce toxic waste. This is very dangerous and contains chemicals that are harmful to all living things, including people. Toxic waste cannot be released into the air, soil or water.

Toxic waste and nuclear waste from power stations must be stored in sealed containers. This waste is buried under the ground, but it can still cause problems if it leaks out. It can be harmful for hundreds of years.

Batteries contain poisonous metals or acid.

Batteries contain metals and acids that can poison the environment. Most batteries usually end up in a hazardous waste landfill.

However, they can be recycled. Some towns collect batteries as part of a recycling programme.

One alternative is rechargeable batteries. They can be used many times and can also be recycled when they no longer work.

Picture Credit : Google