Thursday, 19 March 2015

The Auckland Refuse Station Report

The waitakere transfer station is where we take our rubbish and where our rubbish is taken to be sorted and recycled.The transfer station is also where you take waste that is not suitable for kerbside collection. The public’s dangerous chemicals and explosives/etc. You could come and take unwanted paint from the toxic/explosives area. At the back of the station there is a classroom for teaching people how to recycle, how the refuse station works and how our rubbish is managed.

First, they pick up all the kerbside rubbish and drop it off to the Waitakere Transfer Station. Then, they sort the rubbish into different categories and crush the plastics/ (occasionally aluminum) into solid blocks for delivery to other countries so they can make new things out of it. Some things are melted, such as metal, sand and aluminum. Some leftovers that cannot be recycled are put into the landfill, which is a large hole in the ground where unusable objects are dumped into, which can be preserved for up to 3000 years. Some gets recycled or recovered and some is burned, but the majority is buried in landfills. Transfer Stations are also used for waste management purposes, such as the temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or processing of waste material (sorting, treatment, or recycling).  People can collect free wood and paint, as a way of encouraging people to recycle and save the environment.

First, the rubbish is taken to the dump and is sorted into piles. There is a wood pile, a greens pile (leaves, grass and trees), a metal pile, a recyclable pile, a hazardous chemical pile, and a landfill pile!!! In one week, there is enough landfill rubbish from West Auckland to fill a whole rugby field! That is a lot of rubbish!  There are workers whose jobs are to sort the rubbish, to operate the machines and to operate the trucks. You can take wood and chemicals away. (you can take the chemicals on Tuesday and Wednesday between 1 and 3 pm) The metal that is useful is fixed and sold whereas the no longer useful metal is melted down and turned into other metals.

You can recycle by simply finding the recycle sign on the object and putting it into the recycling bin. For example you can put paper in to the recycling but you can’t put plastic packets into the recycling bin because it doesn’t have the recycling sign. Recycling can also be done by crushing metal into a block and then melting it into new metal. Crushing plastic to dust can also be recycling plastic and putting them into clothes that are being made which is called polyester. Melting useless glass can be used to make new fine glass. Sorting your rubbish can help with putting the correct things into the recycling bin.

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