12,000/ 00:00:01 a chronicle of the plastic era
60,000/ 00:00:05 a chronicle of the plastic era by: lindsey millen
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chemistry ethics fyi
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2 virgin materials 315,000 map of CA refineries
3 recycle process SF recycling centers d.i.y.
4 chasing arrows types & recyclability green city index
5 sources colophon
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preface On average, sixty thousand single use disposable bags are consumed every five seconds in the US. The total recycling rate in the country remains steady around 20% for all types of recyclables, yet plastic bags have a recycle rate of only 5%. The recycling rate of this country is far behind world averages which hovers around 50%. These plastic bags have a huge environmental impact throughout their lifecycle, from production to where they end up, which many times is into the waste stream and landfills. We have a responsibility as a leading world nation to be an example of how to responsibly handle our resources and waste.
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CHEMISTRY Although plastic is thought of as being an unnatural material, its chemical structure of polymer chains is found in nature from plant cell walls to our epidermis to the double helix of our DNA. Plant cellulose material was the raw material for the first plastics, which is a “green� method, but now modern plastics are synthesized from hydrocarbon molecules derived from the refining of oil. Polyethelene, the molecule that makes up our most common plastic items, is made up of thousands of ethylene molecules held together by covalent bonds. Covalent bonds are the strongest chemical bond, the molecular structure of covalent solids such as diamonds gives the incredible strength of the material. Ethylene is a stable molecule that polymerizes only upon contact with catalysts, in the popular process called coordination polymerization metal chlorides or metal oxides are used. The process of polymerization is highly exothermic, meaning the reaction releases a large amout of heat. Once the plastic is synthesized, manufactures add chemicals to give the hard, brittle plastic that is generated maleability or added strength. Many of these additives have been found to cause harm to humans. These molecules can agitated by factors like heat or friction causing them to release from the molecular structure and enter our bodies and the environment.
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ETHICS OF PLASTIC
Both Bisphenol A and Phthalates are thought to be endocrine disruptors which can mimic estrogen (estradiol) and can activate the recepors like the natural hormone. Exposure to Phthalates have more severe consequences than BPA although scientists have linked both to heart disease, diabetes, decreased sperm count, breast cancer cell growth, obesity, brain and hormone development in fetuses and children. Birth defects have been linked to Phthalate exposure, as well as other severe health risks.
BISPHENOL A (BPA) BPA plastic is clear and durable, it is used to make items such as baby/water bottles for consumer use and lining water pipes in industrial purposes.
PHTHALATES Phthalates are plastacizers used in plastics to increase flexibility, transparency and durability. They are used in a large variety of products such as adhesives, personal care products, packaging, children’s toys, and food products. They are extremely dangerous to human health and are easily released into the environment because they are not chemically bonded to the plastic molecules.
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FYI: TERMS & MEASUREMENTS listed on this page are units of measurements and good-to-knows for understanding the large quantities measured in this catalogue.
POLYETHYLENE molar mass = 140803.18 g/mol covalent bond is the chemical bond that involves the sharing of pairs of electrons between atoms
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energy 1 Watt = 1 Joule / 1 sec gigajoule: equal to one billion joules. six gigajoules is about the amount of potential chemical energy in a barrel of oil, when combusted.
metric 1 meter = 3.28084 feet metric ton = 2204.62 pounds
volume one barrel of oil is equal to 42 U.S. gallons 1 cubic meter of water = 264.172 U.S. gallons
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VIRGIN MATERIALS PROCESS The recycling of plastics is thought by some to be less efficient than making new bags. But let us consider the process of making plastic through the entire cycle. The base material plastics are made from is crude oil. Crude oil, also known as petroleum, is the natural compound which is the product of decaying plants and animals from millions of years ago, a nonrenewable resource. This compound is found all over the earth in varying viscosities and colors. Before this oil can be turned into plastic, it must be made usable through an oil refinery. Crude oil contains hydrocarbons which contain a the building blocks used to make plastics called monomers. These molecules are synthesized through a chemical process known as a condensation reaction. Two monomer molecules combine to form copolymers and the process repeats to add to a string of molecules the chain. Next, the monomers carry out polymerization reactions which produce a polymer resin, small plastic pellets or beads of pure plastic. In a process called extrusion, the
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each year the plastic industry releases 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
MORE PLASTIC WAS PRODUCED FROM 2000-2010 THAN THE ENTIRE 1900’S
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71,600 cubic metres of water per hour
pellets are heated and mixed in a chamber and squeezed through a small opening to become thin filaments or are molded to become their final form. During the time at the oil refinery as well as in the factory of the plastic manufacturer, industrial cooling towers are used to maintain a set, constant temperature. With
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the great amount of energy and heat that these compounds are producing and require to become their final form, vast amounts of water is consumed in the process. The industrial cooling towers in a typical large refinery circulates about 71,6000 cubic metres of water per hour, which is the equivalent to 350,000 gallons per minute. The circulating water requires an additional make-up rate of around 5% (792 gallons an hour) in order to maintain constant volume since some water evaporates due to the high temperatures. When plants do not have cooling towers, they pass water through the system only once and then return to the water source it came from, whether it be the ocean, lake or river and continuously cycled back to the plant as needed. There are adverse effects on the ecosystem as well as the atmosphere when this hot water returns to the environment, it can change the temperature of the body of water and destroy ecosystems as well as release added water vapor to the air causing more greenhouse effect.
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Each single bottle represents 4,000 gallons of water which is the amount used to wash recycleables before regenerating plastic. The 78.75 bottles represented here show the incredible waste of water which is used to generate virgin plastic per minute.
MAP OF CALIFORNIA OIL REFINERIES
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California has 20 major oil refineries that pump a combined total of 2,013,471 barrels of crude oil per day. 43 44 45
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19 West 20 21 Coast 22 23 24 25 26 27 LLC, Carson Refinery BP Products ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Company, Torrance Refinery 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company, Wilmington Refinery 37 173818 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Valero Wilmington Refinery 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Edgington Oil Company, Long Beach Refinery 28 29 30 31 32 33 Valero 34 35 36 Wilmington Asphalt Refinery 37 38 39 40 41 42ConocoPhillips, 43 44 45 Wilmington Refinery Chevron U.S.A. Inc., El Segundo Refinery Lunday Thagard, South Gate Refinery Paramount Petroleum Corporation, Paramount Refinery 01
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Chevron Inc., Refinery 20 21 U.S.A. 22 23 24 25 Richmond 26 27 ConocoPhillips, Rodeo San Francisco Refinery 35 36 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Benicia Refinery 44 Valero 45 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Oil Products US, Martinez Refinery 07 Shell 08 09 Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company, Rodeo Refinery 16 17 18
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16 17 18Company, Bakersfield Refinery Kern Oil14 &15Refining Joaquin Refining 20 San 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Company Inc., Bakersfield Refinery ALON USA, Bakersfield Refinery 29
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CENTRAL COAST CALIFORNIA
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12 13 14 15 16 17 18Maria Refinery ConocoPhillips, Santa Refinery 19 Greka 20 21 Energy, 22 23 24 Santa 25 26 Maria 27
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RECYCLING PROCESS
Plastics go through a series of steps after we put them into our recycling bins. At the recycling plant plastic arrives shipped in bales tightly squeezed together into compressed squares. Large guillotines break up the tightly packed plastic and the pieces are loaded onto a conveyor belt which workers are gathered looking for large contaminates. From the conveyor belt, the pieces are placed into the first “float tank” to clean the pieces and allow heavier contaminates to fall to the bottom and be sorted out of the mix. This step removes items such as receipts, metal cans and large foreign objects. Float tanks are large pieces of machinery, sometimes called a float/sink tank. They range in size but are around 40’ by 7’ and hold
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Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials, meaning we can save a whole lot of energy by recycling plastic.
According to the EPA, recycling plastic uses about 10% of the energy required to make a pound of plastic from virgin materials.
anywhere from 2,600 to 4,000 gallons of water and circulate around 50 gallons of water a minute. This water is in a closed loop, meaning the plant recycles and reuses the same water continuously which make this process very resource efficient. Compared to the incredible quantities of water used in producing petroleum and synthesizing plastics, float tanks should be considered “green�. After having passed through the float tanks, the plastic pieces run though a magnet to remove small pieces of metals and are then heated in a process called extrusion, melting the plastic to a toothpaste-like substance. This long tacky plastic is chopped into small pellets. The plastic pellets generated from recycling is of high quality, and can be used to manufacture new plastic bags or sold to other manufacturers to be made into other goods. The pellets are created from both post industrial and consumer products.
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There are 38 centers for recycling #4 plastic bags, common grocery and single use bags, in San Francisco. Many of these are grocery and hardware stores that also accept items ranging from plastic bottles to batteries to paint. Find where in your neighborhood you can take your plastic bags.
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Downtown / Soma Foods Co 1800 Folsom St
Cole Fox Hardware 70 4th St
Safeway 145 Jackson St
Bristol Farms 845 Market Street #10
Safeway 298 King St
Safeway 2020 Market St
Whole Foods Market 399 4th St
Safeway 2020 Market St
Cole Fox Hardware 70 4th St Trader Joe’s 555 9th St
Cala Foods 1095 Hyde St
Embarcadero / Marina / Russian Hill Safeway 350 Bay St
Safeway 15 Marina Blvd
Trader Joe’s 401 Bay St
Cole Hardware 2254 Polk St
Lower Pacific Heights Cal Mart Inc. 3585 California St.
Mollie Stone’s Market 2435 California St.
Safeway 1335 Webster St.
Trader Joe’s 3 Masonic Avenue
Safeway 1335 Webster St.
Whole Foods Market 1765 California St.
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Noe Valley / Twin Peaks / Bernal Heights 03
Safeway 5290 Diamond Heights Blvd Safeway 3350 Mission St.
Cole Hardware 3312 Mission St
Mollie Stone’s Market 635 Portola Dr
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Good Life Grocery 448 Cortland Avenue
Safeway 625 Monterey Blvd
Whole Foods Market 450 Rhode Island St
Mollie Stone’s Market 4201 18th St
Mission / Protrero Safeway 2300 16th St
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Richmond District Smart and Final 350 7th Ave
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Safeway 850 La Playa St
Delano Retail Partners 6333 Geary Blvd
Safeway 730 Taraval Street
Lucky Supermarket 1515 Sloat Boulevard,
Safeway 2350 Noriega St
Other Avenues 3930 Judah Street
Andronico’s Markets 1200 Irving St
Sunset
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D.I.Y. Instead of using those ultra thin produce bags provided at the grocery store, bring your own cotton bag. If you’re a “do it yourselfer”, an old t-shirt can be transformed into an upcycled, reusable bag for produce or loose items such as nuts or grains. Follow the pattern to make your own. Here is what you’ll need: an old t-shirt scissors needle and thread
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1. cut off the sleeves and around the neckline
2. thread your needle and begin to sew up the bottom of the t-shirt
voila!
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CHASING ARROWS Everyone is familiar with the chasing arrows symbol for recycling, but deciphering what can actually be recycled can be difficult. Not all plastics are able to be recycled, some types of plastic are harder to recycle than others and have a lower recyling percentage. Even when the symbol appears on the plastic, it is not necessarily recyclable. There is no regulation with the symbol, and the plastics industry can put it on virtually any plastic which confuses buyers and ends up polluting our communities. Only about half the country has curbside recycling services and only 12 states have deposit returns of 5 and 10 cents. States with deposit returns show a much higher recycling rate than states without, Michigan has a bottle deposit of ten cents and they see a 97% type 1 bottle return rate. Some states with bottle deposit return programs only include effervescent beverage bottles, and do not include single use water bottles. There have been efforts to include
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these types of plastics in the return program, but they face major opposition from the multibillion dollar corporations such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle who have nearly limitless resources to lobby against these additions. The bottled water companies are in such fierce opposition because these companies are responsible to pay the return premium, 5 or 10 cents on each bottle returned, which cuts into their profit margin .
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common plastics & recycling habits
type 1 PETE (polyetylene terephthalate) common forms: soda/ water bottles, plastic cutlery, dressing and sauce containers, to go plastic cups.
5.6%
plastic bags
type 2
type 4
high density polyethylene plastics
low density polyethylene
common forms: motor oil containers, laundry detergent, shampoo bottles, gallon milk jugs, household cleaners.
common form: wrapping film, grocery bags, sandwich bag
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10.7% heavy plastic
19.5%
plastic bottles
In the United States, we consume 50 billion plastic bottles a year compared to 380 billion plastic bags each year. Yet, of that 380 billion only five percent get recycled. Although we may recycle many more plastic bags than bottles, the total amout used each year makes the percentage seem insignificant. 5.6% of 380 billion is 20.8 billion. That is an impressive number, but not when compared to the remainer of 359 billion single use bags which end up in landfills or in the ocean. A defense for plastic bags is that if they are reused; such as trash can liners, picking up after your pet or holding lunches, that this reuse is justification for producing them. But even when they are used several times, these “reuses� eventually put them into the landfill or worse, get blown into the ocean. The best practice for our environment is to recycle what plastic we have already to keep regenerating resources and to be conscious of plastics and try to avoid them.
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SIEMENS GREEN CITY INDEX: SF Rating of the environmental health and policy of populated cities worldwide. Factored criteria include: water, waste and land use, CO2 emissions, energy, air quality, buildings, transport and environmental governance. San Francisco was rated as the best overall city in the U.S. and Canada Green City Index in 2011.
water The city was ranked 5th in the water category for its water treatment policies and efficiency, preventing water loss as leaks and consumption per person. 9% of the total water supply is lost to leaks in San Francisco compared to 13% elsewhere in the index. Water consumption per person beats the Index average by 13 points at 142 gallons per day. Local government will supply free low flow shower heads and faucet aerators to reach their goal of saving 4 million gallons of water daily by the year 2017.
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recycling San Francisco placed first in the Waste and Land Use category which judges municipal waste production, waste recycling, waste reduction policy and green land use. In 2011 the city reported a 77% recycling rate, due in part to a 2009 action requiring waste and compost separation by citizens.
creating jobs Recology Sunset Scavenger of San Francisco reports: “According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, recycling creates ten times as many jobs as sending material to landfill. According to the More Jobs Less Pollution: Growing the Recycling Economy in the US Study from Blue Green Alliance, if all cities in the United States recycled and composted like San Francisco it would create 2.3 million jobs.�
Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates 1 job Landfilling 10,000 tons of waste creates 6 jobs Recycling 10,000 tons of waste creates 36 jobs
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SOURCES
http://www.statisticbrain.com/plastic-bag-statistics/ http://earth911.com/ http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/ articles/bags2.asp http://www.care2.com/causes/how-many-marinemammals-did-your-plastic-grocery-bag-kill-today.html http://www.care2.com/causes/how-many-marinemammals-did-your-plastic-grocery-bag-kill-today.html http://abagslife.com/meet-bag-family/ https://www.ncga.coop/newsroom/paper-or-plastic http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/ ecocenter/How_to_Tuesday_Cut_Your_Use_of_Plastic_ Plastic_Plastic.html http://search.earth911.com/?what=%232+Plastic+Bags&wh ere=san+francisco+ca&max_distance=25&country=UNITED+ STATES&province=California&city=San+Francisco&region=Sa n+Francisco&postal_code=94125&latitude=37.7749295&long itude=-122.4194155&list_filter=locations&page=1 http://waste360.com/source-reduction/san-franciscorecycling-rate-reaches-80-percent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6hzhKmw4EY http://www.navarini.com/wanne_e.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/ oil-refining2.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/plastic1.htm
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http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/petroleum/refineries.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene http://www.sunsetscavenger.com/eighty-percent.html http://earth911.com/recycling/curbside-recycling/ http://earth911.com/news/2012/10/17/how-much-energy-watersaved-by-recycling/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-brief-history-ofplastic-world-conquest http://www.siemens.com/entry/cc/en/
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COLOPHON
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Florin Sans Light ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ RSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstu vwxyz
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Designed by Lindsey Millen in 2013 for DAI 525: Advanced Graphic Design, Professor Stacy Asher, Project 1.