I have a short intro Biology Lab assignment this week. Attached the document with link to video inside.
Plastics Lab
Name__________________________________________________
Recycling plastics – Resource efficiency with an optimized sorting method - YouTube
Plastics are in a multitude of products but only a small percentage of plastics are recycled in the U.S. (Wang 2020).
There are seven different possible codes on plastic products.
The purpose of the number is to identify the type of plastic used for the product, but not all plastics are recyclable or even reusable. There are many plastic-based products that cannot break down and cannot be recycled in many areas.
Montgomery County recycling accepts the following:
| We accept these plastic item types | with these resin numbers | with these examples |
| bottles | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 | plastic bottles that contained food, drink and household products, medicine, pill, and vitamin bottles |
| containers, tubs and lids; pails and buckets | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 (except items marked biodegradable or compostable) | mayonnaise, peanut butter, yogurt, cream cheese and butter containers; deli and ice cream tubs; yogurt cups; medicine vials; detergent, pet food and kitty litter containers; #1 PET thermoform plastics including: clamshell containers, bakery trays and cake domes, deli containers and trays, fruit and vegetable containers and baskets, cups, tubs and lids |
| Tupperware™ or Rubbermaid™ -type durable plastic containers and lids |
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| nursery and flower pots | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 | all colors of rigid pots |
| beverage (stadium) cups |
| fast-food fountain drink cups |
Link for phot examples of what Montgomery County, MD will accept for plastics recycling:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcrecycles/sets/72157606218434552/
Procedure:
You have been saving the plastic waste you have generated for one week.
1.Take a picture of all of the plastic waste for the week. Insert the picture below.
2A.Fill in the data table with your plastic items, the appropriate category (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7) and if it is recyclable in Montgomery County, MD or not. If you need to add more rows, please do so.
| Item | Category | Recyclable or Not Recyclable |
2B.Now separate the plastic waste into the different categories of plastic (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7). Take a picture of each category of your plastic waste that you generated and label it with the appropriate number. Insert pictures below.
3.Do you have any plastic waste that does not fit into one of the numbered categories? If so, what is that plastic waste?
Here are two links that will help you answer the following questions:
https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/DepHowDoI/material.aspx?tag=plastics&material_key=64
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/SWS/Resources/Files/recycling/recycling-contamination-enforcement-flyer.pdf
4.Can you recycle plastic lids? Do you see any problems with recycling plastic lids? Hint: there are holes in the Montgomery County blue plastic recycle bins and lids are small.
5.Can you recycle plastic bags in Montgomery County? What should you do with them?
6. How should you prepare plastics for blue bin recycling?
1960-2017 Data on Plastics in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) by Weight (in thousands of U.S. tons) EPA Data from EPA.gov 2020
| Management of Plastic | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| Generated | 390 | 2,900 | 6,830 | 17,130 | 25,550 | 29,380 | 31,400 | 34,480 | 34,870 | 35,370 |
| Recycled | 20 | 370 | 1,480 | 1,780 | 2,500 | 3,120 | 3,240 | 2,960 | ||
| Combustion with Energy Recovery | 140 | 2,980 | 4,120 | 4,330 | 4,530 | 5,330 | 5,340 | 5,590 | ||
| Landfill | 390 | 2,900 | 6,670 | 13,780 | 19,950 | 23,270 | 24,370 | 26,030 | 26,290 | 26,820 |
Above you see a data table with data obtained from the EPA.gov website (2020) about how plastic has been managed in the U.S. since 1960.
7.What does combustion with energy recovery mean? (look it up)
8.Besides Generation, what management type of plastic produced the largest amount of MSW? When was this?
9.Create an Excel graph (or use other graphing software) to generate the appropriate graph of this data. Make sure to include a title and label your axes. Insert graph below.
According to the American Chemistry Council, the U.S. generated 35.4 million tons of plastic in 2017. This accounted for 13.2% of the MSW (municipal solid waste) generated in the U.S.
10.Go to the following NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) webpage:
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html
Watch the video clip and read the information to answer the following questions.
11.What are microplastics? Where do they come from?
12.What are microbeads? When did they first appear in personal care products?
13.How are aquatic life and birds impacted by microplastics?
14.Are microbeads still used in beauty produces like body washes?
15.Read this article
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/
Why can’t some plastics be recycled? What is the difference between thermoset versus thermoplastics?
16.What do you think about plastic? It is very convenient. Should we continue to use it? Why or why not? What are other options that we could use instead of plastics? How likely is it we could switch? What would prevent us from decreasing our plastic generation?
(This question requires you to support your answer. You may have to research some data to support your answers to these questions. You should write a well-constructed paragraph consisting of at least 6 sentences).
