Reduction

• Advantages in reduction of use, recycling of materials


  1. Conserves finite ores
  2. Uses less energy
  3. Lower energy costs
  4. Reduces landfill
  5. to avoid the need for quarrying / mining
  6. to limit the amount of carbon dioxide produced
• Metals, glass, building materials, clay ceramics and most plastics are produced from :

  • limited materials
• Where do limited materials and the energy come from? 


  Energy for the processes come from limited resources
• Ways of obtaining raw materials from the earth

  • Quarrying
  • Mining

  Has negative environmental impacts
• How can glass bottles be reused?

  • Crushed and melted to make different glass products
• What happens to the other products that cannot be reused?

  • Recycled for a different use
• How can metals be recycled?

  • Melting, recasting or reforming into different products
• What does the amount of separation required for recycling depend on?

  • Material and properties required for the final product
• Why we should we limit the use of landfill?

  • Sites have limited space
  • Loss of habitat and reducing biodiversity
• Give two reasons why iron produced in a blast furnace is converted into steel :

  • Iron from the blast furnace is brittle
  • Steel produced is strong / flexible
• The use of scrap steel and iron :

  • Scrap steel can be added to iron from a blast furnace
  • to reduce the amount of iron that needs to be extracted from the iron ore
• Why shouldn't we reuse in some cases?

  • Damage / metal fatigue