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Recycling Vocabulary
Plastics Engineer Recycling unit
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Biodegradable | when a substance is able to be broken down by tiny organisms into smaller pieces |
Carbon Footprint | the total carbon dioxide emissions produced by an individual, group, or location |
Compost | a soil like mixture made from rotting plant and animal matter |
Conservation | the wise use of water, land, and other resources to minimize waste or loss |
Disposable | meant to be thrown away after one use |
Ecological Footprint | the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources. |
Ecosystem | A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. |
Environment | the surroundings in which a person, animal, or plant lives |
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch | patch of solid waste the size of Texas floating in the currents of the North Pacific gyre, mostly consisting of plastics. |
Greenhouse Effect | Heat is retained in Earth's atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases |
Greenhouse Gases | Gases in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat near the surface |
Hazardous Waste | toxic things that are thrown away that harm the earth and living things |
Landfill | an area where garbage is dumped and covered with dirt |
Leachate | polluted liquid produced by water passing through buried wastes in a landfill |
Microplastics | extremely small pieces of plastic in the ocean/air resulting from the breakdown of un-recycled trash |
Natural Resource | something in nature that helps support life or meets people's needs |
Non-Recyclables | items that cannot be recycled |
Organic | grown only with natural fertilizers (no man made chemicals) |
Pollution | the introduction of harmful materials into our soil, air, or water |
Raw Materials | things in nature that people use to make things |
Recycle | to make new things from old materials |
Reduce | to use less or make less waste |
Reuse | to use again |
Trash | things that are thrown away to be taken to a dump or landfill |
Waste Stream | the flow of solid waste that is recycled, incinerated, placed in a solid waste landfill, or disposed of in another way |