A/V Geeks 16mm Films: The Phoenix - 1970s Kansas Recycling Film

Solid waste. It comes in all sizes, shapes, and so much solid waste that every man, woman, and in the United States discard six pounds every day, and this is increasing. So where does that six pounds end up when you're through with it? A lot of people really don't care. They throw the trash in the wastebasket, empty the wastebasket into the barrel in the alley. They then walk away, hoping that that's the last they'll see of it. Like they say, out of sight, out of mind. But is it really out of sight that it exists? Sometimes we can get so used to something, we don't see it anymore. Recycling has been going on for industries deal with recycled or secondary materials. Recently, states have enacted laws to encourage recycling. For example, banning the selling of soft drinks in anything but returnable containers. And a lot has been happening in the state of Kansas, but we need to make Kansas people aware of the alternative of recycling. Much of our solid waste need not go into the trash can. Let's start with this aluminum can. A major beer distributor, these cans could very easily have been collected and recycled. More and more soft drink bottlers are pointing out the advantages of returning a bottle for deposit, while fewer are being distributed in non-returnable packaging. If consumer awareness were increased, then these bottles wouldn't end up where they don't belong. Another problem is over-packaging. These packages, for example, were designed for one purpose. They are easier to see among the surrounding products. When a product is easier to see, it's bought more often. And this means bigger sales figures for the companies. But what happens to this package when the product is removed? It ends up right here, where it really doesn't belong. This particular burial ground is referred to as a sanitary landfill. So far, these landfills have been very successful. They have worked where there has been plenty of room for them, and they are established in a location where they don't easily offend someone. By charging for the use of the landfill, it usually becomes self-supporting. They serve their purpose when they are located in an area where there is enough traffic to keep them going. The whole idea of a sanitary landfill is not only to find a reasonable solution to waste disposal, but when properly managed, the land is returned. For example, this field, just a year ago, was being used as a landfill area. This hospital was constructed on land that was reclaimed by proper landfill management methods. But there are many things that find their way to a landfill, or a dump for that matter, which shouldn't. Once in a landfill, the material is forever lost. Much of the trash that ends up here could, and should, be recycled. A perfect example is the newspaper and other paper products, such as cartons and letters. There's very little paper that cannot be recycled, but too much that could be reused ends up on a dump, used only once. This paper company in Wichita is in the business of selling used paper. The company's best-known product is shredded used print. Any paper is accepted for reprocessing. They divide all paper into three groups, process cardboard, newspapers, and mixed varieties of paper. The paper companies shred and bundle all paper they receive and ship it by rail into the different mills across the United States. Used paper is valuable. All one has to do is pick out a spot on the back porch or in the garage to store these used papers. Then periodically, gather them up and take them to be recycled. Or better still, contact a local Boy Scout troop. There are also other charitable organizations that make the collection of old newspapers a profitable practice. This paper mill in Hutchinson receives their paper stock from Kansas as well as surrounding states. This mill uses only old paper in its process, giving it a second or maybe a third life. The scrap paper is first turned back into pulp by mixing it with water and chemicals. The pulp is then formed into a sheet of very wet and fragile paper. By running it through a series of dryers, all the water is removed and out comes the finished product. In this case, it is a paper product called chipboard. It's used mainly in the manufacture of packaging. The paper turned out by this mill is of the coarser variety. A paper that is produced here, vital in everyday uses, is brown wrapping paper. Among its many uses is in corrugated cardboard. Cardboard manufacturers, like this one in Wichita, utilize thousands of tons of this product each year. In fact, so much of it is used that many manufacturers are complaining of a shortage. This machine flutes or corrugates the paper, then sandwiches it between two layers of a thicker paper, forming a sheet of cardboard of varying sizes. From here, it is taken to the other areas of the plant to be printed. When it is finished, out comes a completed carton. Another major problem, even more unsightly than paper, is junk cars and trucks. For example, the disposal of the family automobile has long been difficult. When it becomes obsolete, it all too often is shoved into a river or left out in the field to rust and rot. Many are dumped in an auto graveyard. Eventually, someone may come along and salvage a needed part. However, with the rising price of scrap, this is rapidly changing. More efficient methods of processing the materials are being developed. At the salvage yard, this machine is constantly busy. It is capable of reducing a full-size automobile to a thickness of about one foot. Then it's loaded onto a flatbed trailer and hauled to a speed. These trucks are waiting to be unloaded at the Prolarizer Steel Company in Kansas City, Kansas. When their turn finally comes, a crane quickly removes their loads. This particular processor only requires the tires and back seats be removed. This eliminates all but a small portion of the waste having no value. The auto bodies move up the conveyor into a crusher. Where they can be completely shredded in less than three minutes. All the metal is salvaged and separated magnetically. The unusable interiors are discarded. The finished scrap is dumped into railroad cars for transport to a nearby steel mill. This machine is able to consume over 1,000 autos in a day. Its continuing operation requires that many to make it economical. Because of transport costs, discarded automobiles piled up in areas remote from Kansas City have not been recycled. As scrap prices rise, it is becoming economically possible for even the rural salvage dealer to dispose of his auto hulks this same way. This scrap is sent to a steel mill in Kansas City, Missouri, which only uses scrap metal. The automobiles chewed up yesterday become today's new metal. Heated to a temperature of well over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, electric furnaces melt the scrap, which is then poured into weighting ingot molds. The ingots are then shipped to other mills or can be processed at this mill. The steel, being mostly of construction grade, can be used for products like these building beams. In thinking of waste, we normally think of the things we personally throw away daily. Newspapers, plastic bottles, tin cans, and so on. What we don't realize is that Kansas, being an agricultural state, has a more serious problem with agricultural waste than any other. When feedlots were introduced, the problem became almost too large to handle. Consequently, restrictions had to be placed on the operation of these beef assembly lines. The larger owners have been able to make the changes, but at a very high cost. Runoff ponds and a lagoon system are some of the improvements at this speed. The water from the holding ponds is pumped onto a nearby field for fertilization purposes. Lagoons are also a method of dealing with the problem of runoff. They are set up to receive the waste and to hold it. By natural evaporation and the working of bacteria, the lagoons will be held at a constant low level. This method is being tried in an effort to comply with water pollution laws. But manure can also be recycled. Manure makes a good soil conditioner for farm fields. It can also be composted for use in a home garden. The problem here is economics. It has been less expensive for the farmer or homeowner to buy commercial chemical fertilizers than to drive to the feedlot for compost. But chemical fertilizers are rapidly increasing in price. Another product from manure is methane gas. Nothing has to be done to start the production of the gas. It is an efficient energy source that is used for heating. Perhaps the power plants of the future will be built near feedlots. It has been predicted that we will be living in a totally recycled society by the year 1990. We might be on our way, for we have made remarkable progress, and the opportunities for recycling surveyed in this film already exist in Kansas. But there are still a lot of changes to be made. Like the phoenix of old, many of our natural resources, having outlived their usefulness in one life, can be purified, revitalized, and returned to the economy. This cycle of reclamation, which preserves our precious natural resources, is the modern counterpart of the phoenix, arising from the ashes of its own funeral pyre to symbolize, in ancient times, the perpetuity of life.