Recycling is a HOT Topic

Newspaper clipping from the Straits Times about harnessing of heat as energy

It seems like there are many things that can be recycled, including waste heat! As reported in the Straits Times, a seemingly useless by-product of industrial processes, in this case, heat, can be used to cool buildings down. Sounds pretty contradictory huh?
Scientists at A*Star and Hitachi have discovered that the 440 degrees Celsius heat waste produced by diesel generators can be used to heat water, which is then used in a thermochemical reaction to get cold water of about 7 degrees Celsius that is circulated throughout the building. Sort of like an alternative to air conditioning.

I'm quite excited for what may be to come in the future; a revolution of the air conditioner! As many of you may have noticed, normal air conditioners have condensers outside the building which emits a fair amount of heat. Waste heat! (If you're not sure how air conditioners work, may I refer you to this page?) With this new discovery, I believe that many new and clean technology can be developed soon!

Everyone Recycles!

Okay, maybe the title isn't exactly true, but recycling has become increasingly popular recently. In NUS, many initiatives have popped up, to encourage the student population to recycle. Some examples: 

Recycling of electronic waste in NUS

Recycling of clothes in NUS

So we have the collection of waste for recycling. The real question is... Where does this go? And what happens to them?

I will use the recycling of electronic waste as an example. In Singapore, most of our recycling is sent to specialized local recycling facilities such as Climelia Resource Recovery Pte Ltd and TES-AMM (Singapore) Pte Ltd. Their main activity is to recover the precious metals found in our electronic waste. The other recyclables that come with our electronic waste like plastics and metals are also dealt with. 

If you guys are concerned about the emissions of gaseous waste when it comes to recovering the precious metals, worry no longer. TES-AMM uses a hydrometallurgical process which produces very little emissions. In this process, the precious metals are leached to form cathodes, powders, or compounds recovered from a solution.¹ 

Personally, these initiatives are a fantastic idea. I feel that this makes people, students in this case, more aware of the waste they produce, and at the same time, letting them know that there's something they can do about it. Killing two birds with one stone! However, I feel that the posters should hold a bit more information, or have a link to a website, or even a QR code, to give the public more information about where these recyclables are sent to and what the process is like. 

Literature cited:

Peters, E. "Hydrometallurgical Process Innovation." Hydrometallurgy, Theory and Practice Proceedings of the Ernest Peters International Symposium. Part A 29.1 (1992): 431-59. Sciencedirect. Web. 26 Aug. 2014

Why Do I Recycle?

What is recycling?

"verb (used with object), recycled, recycling.

1. to treat or process (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse

2. to alter or adapt for new use without changing the essential form or nature of

3. to use again in the original form or with minimal alteration " (dictionary.com)

Spending 4 years of my childhood in Cambodia has given me some insight as to how our trash is disposed of. I've visited a dumping ground called Stung Mean Chey (or Smokey Mountain). I see people, young and old, make a living by searching through mountains of rubbish, collecting plastic, metal or paper from what we throw away. They then clean these items and sell them away, to be recycled. It led me to wonder why people have thrown those items away in the first place, especially since they could have been recycled.

Children scavenging for recyclables to sell 

This experience has sparked my interest in recycling, and has led me to find ways to reduce the amount of things that I discard and also to reuse or recycle materials.