Caterpillar Day 4

Caterpillar Day 3

Caterpillar Day 2

Caterpillar Day 1

Gif of APES learning curve

Is recycling always good for the environment?

FRQ

a) i) It is recyclable for other uses. ii) It might not be recycled properly and dumped in landfills, which the plastic can be a problem for the ecosystem. iii) Plastic items are not biodegradable, which harms the environment. iv) Using plastic cups means that they can also be rinsed and reused or recycled into other cups.

b) i) It might take less to produce the recyclable cups. ii) The glass cups would need to be washed, which would mean that resources are needed to clean them. iii) Recyclable cups would help the recycle plants use them instead of new resources.

c) Biodegradable plastic might persist in a landfill for a long time because there may be too much non biodegradable items in the way from the plastics and the soil.

d) i) You can reduce by buying items with less packaging. ii) You can reuse your bottles for different purposes. (There are online hacks about that) iii) You can collect the plastics in a separate bag and make sure that everyone knows to recycle and not dump the plastic cups.

In a box advantages and disadvantages

Shale:
Advantage:
- Large domestic reserves
- Existing oil infrastructure can be used
- Easy to transport as solid or oil

Disadvantage:
- Low net energy because of energy and water required to separate oil from work
- High disturbance of land similar to coal mining
- CO2, NO2, SO2, emitted when shale oil is burned


Tar sand:
Advantages:
- Very large potential reserves
- Current oil infrastructure can be utilized
- Tar sand can be easy to transport

Disadvantages:
- Very low energy to extract bitumen
- Large volumes of water are used in process of extracting bitumen
- High land disruption, which leads to habitat loss from surface mining of tar sand
-CO2, NO2, SO2 is emitted into the atmosphere


Oil:
Advantages:
- High net energy
- Although supply is declining, there is still ample supply for the immediate future
- Infrastructure is already in place
- Domestically available
- Little land disruption in mining process

Disadvantages:
- CO2, NO2, SO2 is emitted when burned
- US is dependent on oil imports
- Potential oil spills
- Net energy decreases as energy invested increases


Natural gases:
Advantages:
- Larger reserves remain
- Less air pollution
- High net energy compared to other fossil fuels

Disadvantages:
- Low net energy when converted to LNG
- Releases CO2 when burned
- Difficulty and costly to transport
- Pipeline infrastructure is underdeveloped