Transcript Mixed Recycling - Minneapolis Public Schools

M IXED R ECYCLING
B EFORE R ECYCLING

Always remember REDUCING
comes first.

Recycling is better than throwing
away materials, but the products
still were made.

Creating anything, takes energy
and resources.

Energy and resources should be
conserved.

Before purchasing ask--How was
this product mined, logged, built?
W HAT IS M IXED R ECYCLING ?

Recycling means turning trash into something
useful.

Mixed recycling is the recycling of many different
types of plastics, metals and paper into new
products.

Allied Recycling picks up our mixed recyclables.
Here is a video showing how it works:
http://www.alliedwastetwincities.com/recyclebank-cycle.php
W HY DO MIXED RECYCLING ?
E NVIRONMENTAL B ENEFITS

Recycling turns what could be waste into useful
products.

At MPS, Allied Waste takes our mixed recycling
and sends it to mills, which turn plastics back into
plastic, paper back into paper, cardboard back
into cardboard and aluminum back into
aluminum!
W HY DO MIXED RECYCLING ?
E NVIRONMENTAL B ENEFITS

Recycling almost always saves energy.

Using recycled aluminum scrap to make new
aluminum cans uses 95% less energy than making
aluminum cans from bauxite ore, the raw
material used to make aluminum.

Recycled cans are typically back on the self in
two months.

The EPA found that recycling can reduce climate
change.
W HY DO MIXED RECYCLING ?
E NVIRONMENTAL B ENEFITS
Surface mining

Recycling means manufactures do not have to
mine virgin materials.

Mining can be very harmful to the environment,
and a very dangerous occupation.

Mining for Gold, which is used in many
electronics is particularly dangerous, and
harmful because gold is mainly found in
remote locations.

Extracting a single ounce of gold—the
amount in a typical wedding ring—requires
the removal of more than 250 tons of rock
and ore, even in model gold mines
W HY DO MIXED RECYCLING ?
E NVIRONMENTAL B ENEFITS

Pictures from the HERC incinerator,
MPR Photo/Stephanie Hemphill
Reduces Waste

Waste and what to do with it is a growing
problem. Each year in Hennepin County we
generate enough waste to fill the Metro Dome 11
times!

That’s about seven pounds of trash per person,
per day!

MPS waste is sent to the HERC incinerator
W HY DO MIXED RECYCLING ?
E DUCATIONAL B ENEFITS

Provides an opportunity to learn where products
come from and what happens to them after we
finish with them.

Provides an opportunity to think about our daily
actions. How do our actions affect the earth, and
how does what happens to earth affect us?

MPS also created Green Reports for each school .
These give each buildings carbon footprint, and can
be used to see how buildings match-up.
MPS M IXED R ECYCLING
PROCEDURES


Place blue mixed recycling bins in convenient,
noticeable and busy areas.
•
Hallways
•
Classrooms
•
Cafeteria
Make sure recycling bins are not too full


So people aren’t forced to use the trash instead
of recycling.
Prominently display recycling signs and
information.
M IXED R ECYCLING
P ROCEDURES

Don’t forget your electronics can also be
recycled.

Electronics contain metal, which takes
tremendous amounts of energy to extract, and is
often done in dangerous and polluting ways.

Recycling electronics is a way to avoid those
problems, because the metal in electronics can
be re-used reducing the need to mine

Cell phones, and computers and often re-fitted
and given to people in need.
MPS M IXED R ECYCLING
PROCEDURES

Stop and think before you put something in the
trash.

Ask, “Can it be recycled?”
MPS M IXED R ECYCLING
PROCEDURES
 At MPS there is no sorting. All mixed recycled
materials go in blue recycling bins