Recycling 101: Exploring the Fate of Your Discarded Items
We think that when we throw trash in the designated bin, the work is done, but that is not the truth. There are many methods and steps involved in recycling any item. This course is designed to help you understand what goes on with the materials that we discard, exploring the complete recycling process.
Target Audience
This course is for everyone who wants to learn what actually happens to recyclables:
Individuals interested in gaining knowledge of the recycling process.
Professionals in sustainability who want to deepen their understanding of waste management.
Anyone who wants to learn about how to reduce waste for a better environment
Course Prerequisites
No specific knowledge is required to pursue this course. The main requirement is the curiosity to learn what goes on behind the scenes in making the environment better and cleaner.
Objective
This course will help you:
Deep understanding of the recycling process after items are discarded.
Correctly identifying problems in the Materials Cycle and what solutions should be taken to reduce them.
Positive impact of recycling and reducing waste.
Helping learn to reduce the amount of non-recyclable items for making conscious moves for a better future.
Topics Covered
This course will help you:
Deep Knowledge about the Materials Cycle, including: Manufacturing, Consumption, Recovery, and Plastic Processing
Real Problems and Pitfalls of Every Stage of the Cycle
In-depth Exposure of Specific Materials
Modern Solutions for Bettering Recycle Cycle
Course Module
There are 20 lectures in this course that will talk about:
What is Recycling?
The Importance of Recycling for a Healthy World
What comes under the Material Cycle?
Challenges come under this Cycle
New Solutions for a Better Recycling Process
Where can you repair the cycle?
By the End of this Course
You will have a comprehensive understanding of the material cycle of recycling along with its drawbacks. Along with that, you will also gain a deep perspective on the modern solutions to improve this cycle for cleaner surroundings.
Enroll Now
Enroll in the “Recycling 101: Exploring the Fate of Your Discarded Items” course to gain profound knowledge about what really happens to all the items we think we recycle on a daily basis. You will become more conscious about what to use and things that do not actually protect the environment.
Welcome and Introduction
Meet Fern Gookin, Director of Sustainability at Revolution Recovery, as she provides some context for the issues plaguing the construction industry in the recycling process today.
The Materials Cycle
Understand the difference between waste disposal systems and learn about The Materials Cycle.
Fern explains the Consumption portion of the Materials Cycle using plastic buckets as an example.
This lesson explores what is included in the Recovery section of the Materials Cycle, highlighting the importance of shipping weight in recycling.
Learn how the plastic bales are processed at facilities and made into PET flakes and then "nurdles".
Problems and Pitfalls
Understand the biggest challenge in manufacturing - the low price of virgin materials.
This lesson discusses the greatly increased demand for single-use plastics and packaging.
Dive into the issues of recovery, including cheap landfill prices and low-value materials.
Fern describes the Plastic Processing stage, including what percentage of plastic made is recycled more than once.
Materials
This lesson discusses how any material can be recycled, but it can depend on what markets exist for reuse. Fern explores the process of recycling cardboard from the construction industry.
Learn how metal from construction is melted down and turned into new metal products.
Fern explains what happens to drywall after it’s thrown away, and the difficulties in separating it for recycling.
Discover how contractors can benefit from separating their rubble and how it later becomes a crushed aggregate.
This lesson details the diversion process of the most used construction material – wood!
Learn the differences between salvage models and some interesting ways that materials can be reused.
New Solutions
Fern highlights manufacturing solutions such as recyclable plastics, takeback programs, or recycled resin.
This lesson explores consumption solutions like avoiding unnecessary plastics, refill programs, and more complex collection and separation methods.
Learn about these new recovery solutions: keeping on top of new markets, getting creative with reuse, and increasing efficiency.
Fern explains how the plastic-to-fuel process, chemical decomposition, and chemical purification are all crucial solutions for plastic processing.
Where can you repair the cycle?
In closing, Fern urges you to consider where you can be a part of the solution.