Materials, Trash & Recycling
Chem Reflection
How does the chemical composition and structure of a substance determine its properties with regard to its use, capacity for reuse, and capacity for recycling? I learned that when recycling there are many factors to what can be recycled is usually based on each material compound. And some are just one element. For example, a product like a plastic bottle is harder to recycle than something like aluminum because it is made from multiple elements so in order to recycle it you would have to separate and break the compound down, whereas aluminum is not a compound so there is no need to break apart the compound. A common way of breaking down the compounds is by heating them up.
How do the choices we make as consumers (purchasing, use, reuse, recycling, and discarding of materials) impact our local community and environment, and the global community and environment? Choosing to throw away a plastic bottle is bad for the environment because at some point in that bottle’s life it will most likely end up in a landfill or in the ocean. The time that it takes for a plastic bottle to degrade is between 400- 500 years. If we continue to throw our trash in the ocean imagine what our oceans would like in a few hundred years from now. If you choose to recycle your plastic bottle instead it would go to a recycling plant where it would be melted down and turn into a new item made of plastic.
What else did you learn through this project? Through this project, I learned a lot more about the environmental impacts that have been happening to our environment and a lot about how we can prevent more from happening to our earth. For example, when I started to research into my project I really wanted to know exactly how long that it takes for polystyrene to decompose, I learned that it can take anywhere from 100-1000 years for it to decompose. The numbers were far longer than I had ever heard as most of the time I would hear about it taking 7-8 years to decompose.
How does the chemical composition and structure of a substance determine its properties with regard to its use, capacity for reuse, and capacity for recycling? I learned that when recycling there are many factors to what can be recycled is usually based on each material compound. And some are just one element. For example, a product like a plastic bottle is harder to recycle than something like aluminum because it is made from multiple elements so in order to recycle it you would have to separate and break the compound down, whereas aluminum is not a compound so there is no need to break apart the compound. A common way of breaking down the compounds is by heating them up.
How do the choices we make as consumers (purchasing, use, reuse, recycling, and discarding of materials) impact our local community and environment, and the global community and environment? Choosing to throw away a plastic bottle is bad for the environment because at some point in that bottle’s life it will most likely end up in a landfill or in the ocean. The time that it takes for a plastic bottle to degrade is between 400- 500 years. If we continue to throw our trash in the ocean imagine what our oceans would like in a few hundred years from now. If you choose to recycle your plastic bottle instead it would go to a recycling plant where it would be melted down and turn into a new item made of plastic.
What else did you learn through this project? Through this project, I learned a lot more about the environmental impacts that have been happening to our environment and a lot about how we can prevent more from happening to our earth. For example, when I started to research into my project I really wanted to know exactly how long that it takes for polystyrene to decompose, I learned that it can take anywhere from 100-1000 years for it to decompose. The numbers were far longer than I had ever heard as most of the time I would hear about it taking 7-8 years to decompose.
Degrading styrofoam by using super worms
The plan is Simple:
Superworms price - $10
Styrofoam price - $5
Make a video showing my experiment
sorces--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS9PWzkUG2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IziJsNNMlUE
https://livingearthsystems.com/mealworms-compost-styrofoam/
https://www.chasingasun.com/blog/how-styrofoam-eating-super-worms-are-helping-us-so-zero-waste
https://news.stanford.edu/pr/2015/pr-worms-digest-plastics-092915.html
https://www.wikihow.com/Dispose-of-Styrofoam
https://ourhappyplanet.org/how-do-you-properly-dispose-of-styrofoam/
gut bacteria (Exiguobacterium sp. strain YT2)
Mealworm’s gut bacteria break down the styrofoam into usable organic matter!
We also have found that the plants we grow with the mealworms manure show no significant differences from those grown in other compost. This is an ongoing experiment. We are looking to have the plants tested, that are grown with the mealworm manure and try and see if there any detrimental effects.
Americans alone throw away around 25 billion Styrofoam cups every year. And by volume, Styrofoam products fill up to 25-30% of all the landfill space around the world!
The plan is Simple:
Superworms price - $10
Styrofoam price - $5
Make a video showing my experiment
sorces--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS9PWzkUG2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IziJsNNMlUE
https://livingearthsystems.com/mealworms-compost-styrofoam/
https://www.chasingasun.com/blog/how-styrofoam-eating-super-worms-are-helping-us-so-zero-waste
https://news.stanford.edu/pr/2015/pr-worms-digest-plastics-092915.html
https://www.wikihow.com/Dispose-of-Styrofoam
https://ourhappyplanet.org/how-do-you-properly-dispose-of-styrofoam/
gut bacteria (Exiguobacterium sp. strain YT2)
Mealworm’s gut bacteria break down the styrofoam into usable organic matter!
We also have found that the plants we grow with the mealworms manure show no significant differences from those grown in other compost. This is an ongoing experiment. We are looking to have the plants tested, that are grown with the mealworm manure and try and see if there any detrimental effects.
Americans alone throw away around 25 billion Styrofoam cups every year. And by volume, Styrofoam products fill up to 25-30% of all the landfill space around the world!