Recycling

This lesson covers: 

1. Why the Earth's resources are limited
2. The benefits of recycling materials
3. Recycling aluminium

The Earth has limited resources

The Earth provides us with valuable resources that we use everyday, such as:

• Metals - extracted from metal ores found in the crust.
• Energy - obtained by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil.
• Plastics - made from crude oil.

However, these resources are finite. Once we have used them up, it can take an extremely long time for more to form naturally.

Reasons to recycle

Recycling involves taking old or unwanted products and using the materials to create new items.

Recycling has several advantages over making new products from scratch:

1. Uses less of the Earth's finite resources like metal ores.
2. Requires less energy, often from burning fossil fuels.
3. Can cost less money.
4. Produces less waste going into landfill sites.

Producing aluminium

Extracting and producing new aluminium requires mining bauxite (aluminium ore).

This requires high energy use for processing and transporting materials, creating environmental damage.

Recycling aluminium

By recycling 1 kg of aluminium cans instead, you can:

• Save 95% of the energy needed to obtain new aluminium.
• Avoid mining 4 kg of aluminium ore.
• Greatly reduce waste.

In most cases, recycling uses fewer resources and less energy compared to extracting and producing brand new materials.