Word: plastics
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...white coat and rubber sandals picks his way through the crowd to weed out the youngest, most desperate cases. Gathering them together in another part of the compound, he feeds each one a spoonful of antidiarrhea medicine from a rusty thermos bottle. Every child under five receives a plastic bracelet, which entitles the wearer to a protein biscuit in addition to a bowl of gruel. The bands are color coded; blue for severely malnourished; red for those on the verge of death...
...Though plastics constitute 8.3% of all municipal solid wastes and are proliferating faster than any other material, less than 2% of waste plastic gets recycled. Largely this is because it is cumbersome and expensive to separate the seven basic types and relatively cheap simply to manufacture virgin plastics. Wellman Inc., of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, has emerged as a leader in recycling so-called PET bottles, the most common clear plastic containers for liquid, turning discarded ones into furniture textiles, tennis * balls, electrical equipment and yarn for polyester carpet. The Coca-Cola Co. services major markets nationwide with two-liter bottles...
About 39% of the paper and paperboard going into landfills and incinerators comes from packaging. The German example shows how that number can be dramatically reduced. Lever Bros., for instance, manufactures a superconcentrated powder laundry detergent in small boxes, saving the equivalent of 13 million plastic bottles a year. L & F Products sells its Lysol brand and other liquid cleaners in Smart Packs that take up 65% less landfill space than the jet-spray containers they are designed to refill. Imperial Chemical Industries of London has developed a plastic, soon to be distributed in the U.S., that biodegrades with...
Recycling is a new frontier for technical innovation. New processes, for instance, are needed to remove contaminants. Sorted solid wastes often include contaminants that gum up recycling systems, such as clear plastic tape on envelopes or sticky yellow Post-its on office paper. A single ceramic cap from a bottle of the Dutch-brewed Grolsch beer can contaminate an entire batch of green glass. "We haven't begun to tap the potential for technical innovation in recycling," says Lloyd Leonard, legislative director for the League of Women Voters...
...dread, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena are rushing to augment an already extensive seismic network with portable instrumentation. "Before the San Andreas goes," reflects geologist Ken Hudnut somberly, "maybe we'll catch a precursor." A hot wind swoops across the desert as Hudnut retrieves a plastic box from under an oleander bush and pops the lid to reveal the small satellite receiver it shields from blowing sand. Nearby, a tripod-mounted antenna straddles a survey pipe like a spindly sentinel. Coded signals beamed down by orbiting ! satellites, Hudnut explains, serve to pinpoint the location of the pipe...