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| REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE
The Peak District Mining Museum, in partnership with
the Derbyshire Environmental Trust has created a large and informative
exhibition on the important subject of RECYCLING. We are particularly keen for school children to see this exhibition which deals with the problems of domestic waste and the importance of reducing landfill. 27 million tonnes of domestic waste is created every year in this country, much of which can be REDUCED, REUSED OR RECYCLED. The exhibition deals with compost, plastics, glass, metals, paper and, as we are a Museum primarily dealing with Derbyshire Lead Mining, we have an informative display covering the usage of lead products as this commodity is 100% recyclable. The exhibition itself is free but if you would require a guide and talk, this would incur a charge. The COMPOST section has a wormery, photos of local community compost schemes, such as Sheffield City Farm and Tideswell Community Composting. This has been made possible through the Agenda 21 schemes operated by the local authorities which have made funding available to these communities. Even the Roman statesman Marcus Cato introduced composting as a way to build soil fertility as he considered compost production and use essential for maintaining healthy agricultural soils. |
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The PLASTICS section deals with the process from the bring sites at the supermarket and the need to organise doorstep collections to encourage people not to place plastic in the dustbin. There are many large photos and easy to understand text about the processes. We have received valuable help in our research from companies such as Sheffield Reclamation who employ staff with learning difficulties which in turn helps them tremendously to feel part of the community in a worth while job. Plastics are made from oil which was formed many millions of years ago. Oil is a non-renewable supply of energy and will one day run out. Recycling will reduce the demand for this precious natural resource. The METALS section comprises mainly of steel and aluminium cans. Steel has been recycled for decades. The Rag and Bone Man with his horse and cart would exchange such items for a gold fish or baby chick in days gone by. Today this has become much more sophisticated with Corus Steel having many collection points throughout the country. Alcan Recycling organise ‘cash for can schemes’ for schools and charities to collect used drinks cans which are collected, crushed and taken to their recycling plant at Warrington, Lancs, where they are cast into large ingots weighing 26 tonnes. Each one being made from 1.5 million cans. The production of aluminium from the raw materials is a very expensive process; particularly in its consumption of energy. Recycling saves up to 95% of energy used in the primary production. The prime use of recycled PAPER is for newsprint and household items such as kitchen roll and toilet paper. About 15 trees are used to make 1 tonne of paper and turning wood into pulp is hard work and uses lots of energy and water. It takes 6 kw of electricity and 300 litres of water to make 1 kg of paper. We throw away about 5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard each year. Apparently 65% of paper and board made in the UK contains recycled materials. Prehistoric man is known to have used naturally formed GLASS for arrow heads and tools. It was not until 1st century BC that glass as we know it today made its appearance. Glass is by far the most recycled packaging material in the UK. In 2001, we recycled about 630,000 tonnes which equates to a recycling rate of about 33%. We still fall far behind the rest of Europe, eg. Switzerland recycles 93%. |
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When the bottle banks started in 1977 there were only 20 collection sites. Now there are 22,772 plus doorstep collections. Recycled glass is not only used in making glass containers. It can be turned into a decorative and hard wearing flooring. A good example can be found at Sheffield Hallam University. Decorative glass has become very fashionable as a ground cover in gardens. LEAD is not mined in the UK any more. The Romans exploited the Derbyshire lead mines 2000 years ago. It could be that some of this lead which they mined is still being recycled today. It is therefore very important that as much as possible is recycled. The main source of lead in recycling is found in car batteries. There are approximately 28 million cars on the roads in the UK. Each car requires a lead acid battery to power the ignition and lights. Approximately 95% of the material which is used in the production of a lead acid battery can be recycled. These are primarily ‘lead battery plates and compound’, ‘polypropylene’ from the battery case and 'sulphuric acid' which is the activator. Lead is melted down and reformed into ingots or strip lead. It is then made into several products, e.g. strip lead for battery plates, rolled lead for roofing and general building purposes, TV screens, computer monitor screens, X Rays, and atomic reactors.. The battery cases are broken down into polypropylene chips which are heated and extruded to form a feed stock material for new battery cases, buckets, plant pots, etc. The sulphuric acid which was always an environmental
problem is mixed with limestone to form gypsum and trials are currently
being conducted to use gypsum from this source |
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Peak District Mining Museum - The Pavilion, Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, DE4 3NRTelephone : 01629 583 834 Email : mail@peakmines.co.uk |
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