RECYCLE
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| cc: wecyclers.com/ |
The Wecycler is a company in Nigeria, with the insight of what the urban center of Lagos need and other places. Their interests are not in fancy things, or glittering and attractive things everyone is looking for around rather it is in the things everyone willing rejects or looking for means to dispose of. It is rubbish but I say it is gold amidst dirt. When everyone is looking for fields or land embedded with gold these people are looking for the rubbish that makes life difficult for you and harnessing the gold in it and at end of the day, we all couldn’t do without them.
We find our self looking for their products and services one way or the other, we purchase these things and end up giving them back cheaply when we are satisfied with it. They collect our waste, biodegradable one and the non-biodegradable as well. The plastic containers, basins, polythene bags and the synthetic materials which are eyesores in the environment when the need for them expires. The used or old papers too. These are light waste that often litters the environment that’s been used and even spread to place not used too. These wastes are collected and taken for recycling; they are melted/dissolved to useable form which can be used in casting another commodity which is reused by the society. They are using the 3R’s method which is:
Retrieve, Recycle and Reuse which also is a cycling process too.
So this way nothing becomes a waste after all and everything turns to raw materials for production.
So this way nothing becomes a waste after all and everything turns to raw materials for production.
It also constitutes to the major demands which made production possible, I will list it in these order and briefly explain them
Machinery is what we used to convert the raw material into finished product. An interconnected series of part or process that works like a mechanical system to produce a result.
A Plant is a factory, power station, or other large industrial complexes where something is manufactured or produced
The important factors that constitute setting up a plant include
- availability of space
- power
- water
- raw material
- good climatic condition
- good means of communication
- ancillaries
- low local taxes
- and similar other economic considerations,
- marketing facilities for the planned product
- space for process disposal
- skilled and unskilled labor locally
Financial and other aids, facilities for expansion presence of related industries, local bylaws, and securities, hospitality are also important factors which one must keep in mind for the location of an enterprise. (Rajender S.2006)
The raw material is what is put together to achieve a finished product. A natural unprocessed material that is used in a manufacturing process. Something potentially useful: somebody or something considered to have the potential for use or development. Types of materials include
The raw material is what is put together to achieve a finished product. A natural unprocessed material that is used in a manufacturing process. Something potentially useful: somebody or something considered to have the potential for use or development. Types of materials include
- The direct materials and
- The indirect materials.
Direct material is anything that is seen in the finished product, while indirect material is are things that do not form anything in the final product.
Labour: it can be the work done using strength or the supply of work or worker for a particular job. There two types of labour
- The direct labour, these are people who add value to the raw material e.g technicians, managers e.t.c
- The Indirect labour, these are supporting staff, they make the direct labour possible. E.g driver, accountant, health service. Anybody who is not adding value in the finished product is performing a supporting staff function.
R. J. Bishop and R. E. Smallman,(1999) said Laws governing the management of plastic wastes in Germany. German legislation requires that, by 1995, 80% of all packaging (including plastics) must be collected separately from other waste and 64% of total waste recycled as material.
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Management of waste plastics
Concern for the world’s environment and future energy supplies has focused attention on the fate of waste plastics, particularly those from the packaging, car and electrical/electronics sectors. Although recovery of values from metallic wastes has long been practiced, the diversity and often complex chemical nature of plastics raise some difficult problem. Nevertheless, despite the difficulties of re-use and recycling, it must be recognized that plastics offer remarkable properties and are frequently more cost- and energy-effective than traditional alternatives such as metals, ceramics, and glasses. Worldwide, production of plastics accounts for about 4% of the demand for oil: transport accounts for about 54%. Enlightened designers now consider the whole life-cycle and environmental impact of a polymeric product, from manufacture to disposal, and endeavor to economize on mass (e.g. thinner thicknesses for PE film and PET containers (‘lightweighting’)). Resort to plastics that ultimately decompose in sunlight (photodegradation) or by microbial action (biodegradation) represents a loss of material resource as they cannot be recycled; accordingly, their use tends to be restricted to specialized markets (e.g. agriculture, medicine).
Landfilling is the main method but sites are being rapidly exhausted in some countries. The principal routes of waste management are material recycling, energy recycling, and chemical recycling. The first opportunity for material recycling occurs during manufacture, when uncontaminated waste may be re-used. However, as in the case of recycled paper, there is a limit to the number of times that this is possible.
Concern for the world’s environment and future energy supplies has focused attention on the fate of waste plastics, particularly those from the packaging, car and electrical/electronics sectors. Although recovery of values from metallic wastes has long been practiced, the diversity and often complex chemical nature of plastics raise some difficult problem. Nevertheless, despite the difficulties of re-use and recycling, it must be recognized that plastics offer remarkable properties and are frequently more cost- and energy-effective than traditional alternatives such as metals, ceramics, and glasses. Worldwide, production of plastics accounts for about 4% of the demand for oil: transport accounts for about 54%. Enlightened designers now consider the whole life-cycle and environmental impact of a polymeric product, from manufacture to disposal, and endeavor to economize on mass (e.g. thinner thicknesses for PE film and PET containers (‘lightweighting’)). Resort to plastics that ultimately decompose in sunlight (photodegradation) or by microbial action (biodegradation) represents a loss of material resource as they cannot be recycled; accordingly, their use tends to be restricted to specialized markets (e.g. agriculture, medicine).
Landfilling is the main method but sites are being rapidly exhausted in some countries. The principal routes of waste management are material recycling, energy recycling, and chemical recycling. The first opportunity for material recycling occurs during manufacture, when uncontaminated waste may be re-used. However, as in the case of recycled paper, there is a limit to the number of times that this is possible.
Recycling of post-consumer waste is costly, involving problems of contamination, collection, identification, and separation.
With these problems to face the Wecycler, they made for themselves waste cargo bicycles for easy transportation and employs the people with knowledge of identification and separation to collect the wastes.
These waste cargo bikes are made with features such as
- Bicycle for driving the cargo
- Detached able carriages
- Grip tires to ply rough roads
- And tiny body for negotiating through traffics or narrow streets.
To saves our environment, Keep it Clean.
I worked as an intern where the first sets of these waste bike are fabricated under the supervision of Jack Whipple (Workshop manager at MIT). I learned a lot from them.
Thank you Wecycler for saving our environment. It's Cleaner now.
