Environment/Recycling
Interactive Exercises
Definitions
What do these expressions mean? Match the expressions with their corresponding definitions.
| Reuse | use the same item again after you have used it |
| Recycle | is a process in which a used item is turned into a new product, to reduce waste of potentially useful material |
| Upcycling | process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality |
| environment | The surroundings of, and influences on, a particular item of interest. The natural world or ecosystem. |
| Reduce | To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something |
Word Families
Plastic
The recycling rate of plastics is actually quite low — in 2014, only 9.5 percent of plastic material generated in the U.S. was recycled. The rest was combusted for energy or sent to a landfill where its fate is uncertain — it can either find its way out and pollute our planet or sit in the landfill for up to 500 years before finally decomposing.
Glass
Glass bottles are 100 percent recyclable and an estimated 80 percent of recovered glass containers are made into new glass bottles. Once you toss your glass bottle in the recycling bin, manufacturers can have it back on the shelves in a month. Plus, using recycled glass when making new glass bottles reduces the manufacturer’s carbon footprint — furnaces may run at lower temperatures when recycled glass is used because it is already melted down to the right consistency.
Cans
Like glass, aluminum cans are completely recyclable and are commonly recycled worldwide as part of municipal recycling programs. Aluminum cans can be recycled repeatedly with no limit.
