What are heavy metals? how are they produced? How do they get into natural ecosystems? where are heavy metals produced/found in Tasmania?
Think about all of the metal that currently lies in landfills. Say we went treasure hunting for all that metal. We could melt it down and reform it into new cars, buildings, bicycles, etc. all without having to send a bunch of over-worked, under-paid miners to destroy another beautiful mountain side.
It takes less energy to create a new aluminum can than to make an aluminum can from recycled aluminum. To explain further, the aluminum ore must first be mined, then transported, then processed and then melted and molded into new cans. The recycled aluminum cans eliminate several of the first steps.
Extracting and producing any metal from it's ore is very resource intensive. The process results in the emissions of various air and water pollutants. One of these air pollutants is carbon dioxide (CO2), which is likely to cause global warming. Recycling metals is much less resource intensive, and emits much less CO2.
cashew, did you mean to say: it takes MORE energy to create a new aluminum can than to make an aluminum can from recycled aluminum in your answer above? :)
