| On our final recycling trip of this year, Fourth graders traveled to the American Paper Company in Claremont, NH, with Municipal Manager, Frank Heald. This is the company where sorted paper from Ludlow's Transfer Station is sent. We were able to follow some of "our" paper (called recovered paper) from start to finish along its way to being recycled into new paper.
We saw HUGE vats (called pulpers) where paper is chopped into small pieces, heated and mixed with water and chemicals to form a mushy mixture called pulp. This pulp is then forced through screens containing holes of various shapes and sizes. The screens remove small bits of plastic and globs of glue. This screened pulp is then cleaned by spinning it around in large cone-shaped cylinders. Heavy contaminants (like staples) are thrown to the outside of the cone and fall through to the bottom. Lighter contaminants collect in the center of the cone and are removed. Next, the pulp is deinked. This process removes printing ink and "stickies" (any material that is sticky and has a glue residue.) After this, the pulp is colored or bleached, if any color other than brown is being made. Finally, the clean pulp is made into paper by ridding it of excess water, heating it and rolling it into GIGANTIC rolls that can be as high as 30 feet and weigh as much as 20 tons!
We have learned so much about the importance of reducing, reusing and most important, recycling, these past few months. We thank Mr. Heald for arranging and accompanying us on these trips. We appreciated all the doughnuts, too!
In the Spring we will travel to Wheelabrator, in Claremont, NH, to see how the energy from incinerating trash can be used to produce electricity. We will also visit Ludlow's Waste Water Treatment Facility to learn how this system operates and how we can better conserve our water
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|