Recycling in the United States is in serious trouble. How does it work?

TwitterFacebook

You probably have no idea how recycling works.

Most Americans — who recycle nearly 87 million tons of waste each year — likely think that the plastic and paper thrown into those special blue bins gets sorted by some nebulous government agency and automatically becomes an environmentally-friendly product.

But that’s not how it works. Recycling, first and foremost, is a business.

When recycled goods get picked up by the state’s waste management corporation, they are taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where everything is separated and packaged up to be sent to another facility where it’s processed depending on the material.  Read more…

More about Science, United States, Recycling, Recycled Materials, and Science

View More Recycling in the United States is in serious trouble. How does it work?

This woman is cleaning up the streets by turning old chewing gum into new rubber objects

TwitterFacebook

Anna Bullus is the founder and managing director of Gumdrop Ltd. – a company that takes used gum and uses it to manufacture anything from pencils to rubber boots.  Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Manufacturing, Rubber, Bubblegum, and Recycled Materials

View More This woman is cleaning up the streets by turning old chewing gum into new rubber objects