Pollution and Recycling Case Study Example

Imagine that you broke a compact disk (CD) that had music on it. Please respond to the following questions in paragraph form:

How do you typically dispose of a broken CD?

It is of great importance to be aware that a CD that is broken cannot decompose and therefore this kind of waste can be dangerous to the environment. A broken CD cannot be used again or be recycled into a new one thus it can only be thrown away as trash. Another way of disposing of it is by burning or burying it since it has no more use. Incineration and landfill are a bit friendly to the environment, therefore using these two ways will ensure that the CD parts are discarded as well (Librizzi, Bowles & Duben, 2012).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Does your community have a means of recycling CDs?

A CD recycling center has aided in recycling CDs in New York which has helped we as the citizens of the USA. The recycling center says that the CDs have materials that can be recycled such as polycarbonate, lacquer, gold, and aluminum. If these CDs are correctly recycled, these materials can be useful in producing new products. Recycling helps save mining of new minerals since the materials such as those mentioned above are used instead of mining fresh materials (Tenhunen, & Penttinen, 2010). Examples of the natural resources are natural gas, water, and oil which are greatly required during processing of new materials. CD donations are accepted by the CD recycling plant of America especially through the mail. A person is only required to pay for transport costs but the recycling is not charged. Many donation centers have been started around my community and are easily accessible to anyone who wants to donate CDs for recycling.

Considering Figure 4.2 in the textbook, what infrastructure would be needed in your community to have the best end of life option, which is reuse? If reuse is not possible, discuss re-engineering, recycling, or combustion as options instead of disposal in a landfill.

As it is shown in figure 4.2 for a smooth collection of these CDs, the municipal facility should put in place the CD vendor and the whole community to enable them to release the old and broken CDs from their home so that they can be taken for recycling in the recycling firm. This is a crucial move since it is hard to find the CDs in the primary and secondary levels in the process of segregating. It is environmentally friendly to find a way of reusing CDs than recycling since no energy requirements to change the useless CDs into resources that can be used. This is only applicable if the infrastructure is joined to the efforts made by the people, for example, selling the old CDs or giving them to the freelance network sites, using them in the arts industries, making clocks and using them again as coasters.

Another way is reducing the use of CDs by burning new CDs if at all is necessary. Rather than using the CDs, it is in order to use the reusable USB keys or use of internet storage. The useless CDs can also be used as scarecrows in the farms to scare away the birds that destroy crops in the farm; they can also be used in the aircraft. Even though recycling is not very common, there are factories that deal with recycling and creation of new things from the recycled materials.

Research the materials that are on a CD. Considering Table 4.1, is recycling a possibility?

CDs are mainly made of this type of polycarbonate which is a plastic. There is a shiny layer that reflects which is made of aluminum and a protective acrylic lacquer. Their cases are often made of polystyrene. A key thing to note is that compact disks do not contain cyanide as it is believed by most people. Recycling is possible because the material mentioned above can safely be cut although during this process the need to watch the splinter and the sharp edges must not be ignored. In many situations, some people heat the plastic so as to remodel it which is dangerous due to the fumes emitted during the exercise. In America, highly specialized recycling industries are put in place but a person has to pay for the services offered. Centers for collecting the CDs for recycling are established where a person can drop their old CDs. Many are the times when a person is required to separate the casing, papers, and sleeves from the discs, however, in most cases this vary from center to center, depending on the regulations (Garcia-Serna, Perez-Barrigon & Cocero, 2007).

References

Garcia-Serna, J., Perez-Barrigon, L., & Cocero, M. J. (2007). New trends for design towards sustainability in chemical engineering: Green engineering. Chemical Engineering Journal, 133(1-3), 7-30.

Librizzi, M., Bowles, M., & Duben, A. (2012). U.S. Patent No. 8,200,533. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Tenhunen, M., & Penttinen, E. (2010). Assessing the carbon footprint of paper vs. electronic invoicing. In Proceedings of ACIS (Vol. 2010).

Imagine that you have a smartphone that has been crushed and is no longer usable. Please respond to the following questions in paragraph form:

How would you typically dispose of a broken smartphone?

Many times when a smartphone loses its worth mainly through breaking or through other means, the thoughts that hit the minds of the person is discarding it. This is wrong because it brings a serious environmental problem which results from e-waste. This leads to a wide range of pollution starting from land, air and water pollution. However, there are better ways of discarding a smartphone that is no longer useful and this is by recycling where one gives it to the recycling firms as a donation (Balde, Wang, Kuehr & Huisman, 2015). During the process of recycling, the phone is first dismantled using a process that does not harm the environment. After this, it is then sold to manufacturers as a raw material to incorporate them in other electronics. The spoilt smartphone may lack any value for reselling but might have high value to other organizations that depend on donations to assist soldiers in faraway countries and other disadvantaged people such as victims of gender violence and the less fortunate children.

Other times these organizations carry the burden of repairing these phones so as to put them in a good working order. It the phone cannot be repaired, they can sell them to recyclers and use the money obtained to fund their humanitarian activities. A smartphone may contain harmful chemicals which make recycling the best means of disposing them to avoid these chemicals from getting to the surrounding. This helps to reduce piling up of e-waste.

Does your community have a means of recycling smartphones?

Yes, my community has a way of recycling spoilt smartphones. The people of New York are highly advised to take broken smartphones to the available recycling plants. After recycling, the product is sold to manufacturers who later make new electronics from them. The offices of the recycler are accessible to all to facilitate an efficient process. Additionally, these smartphones are donated to organizations for humanitarian programs either by selling them and using the proceeds to aid or giving those that are working to the less fortunate people. Those that are not completely spoilt are repaired and used by these organizations as in emergency communications (Nnorom & Osibanjo, 2009).

Considering Figure 4.2 in the textbook, what infrastructure would be needed in your community to have the best end of life option, which is reuse? If reuse is not possible, discuss re-engineering, recycling, combustion as options instead of disposal in a landfill.

The infrastructure required in my community after considering figure 4.2 is a high-end facility equipped with responsible recyclers or reputable charity organizations. It is significant to ensure that all the data is erased before donating your gadget to these organizations. By having these organizations and recycling firms, it is possible to have a safe environment for the coming generations since the issue of accumulated e-waste will not be a threat.

Research the materials that are on a smartphone. Considering Table 4.1, is recycling a possibility?

Smartphone are small and often fit in the pocket, they are made of valuable metals. A phone like iPhone which most people in my community use is made of gold, palladium, silver or platinum. It also has traces of aluminum and copper. Some of these metals are rare and difficult to mine them from the earth. These metals include neodymium, gadolinium, terbium, praseodymium, lanthanum, and yttrium. Plastics, glasses, and battery are also contained in the phone. More than 2billion people have phones in the world and the number is set to rise with time and more of these ingredients will be used to manufacture phones (Yla-Mella, Keiski & Pongracz, 2015). Nevertheless, recycling is the best way to avoid accumulation of e-waste. People tend to upgrade their phone approximately after 11 months but only 10% is recycled and the precious metals recovered.

References

Balde, C. P., Wang, F., Kuehr, R., & Huisman, J. (2015). The global e-waste monitor 2014: Quantities, flows and resources.

Nnorom, I. C., & Osibanjo, O. (2009). Toxicity characterization of waste mobile phone plastics. Journal of hazardous materials, 161(1), 183-188.

Yla-Mella, J., Keiski, R. L., & Pongracz, E. (2015). Electronic waste recovery in Finland: Consumers' perceptions towards recycling and re-use of mobile phones. Waste management, 45, 374-384.