Recycling Plant

Location

The Recycling Plant can be found in Segment 6 of Zone 3.

Purpose

The purpose of the Recycling plant is to recycle items that are able to be recycled. Metal is not recycled at the recycling plant but at Metal Mill in 3 8. As they melt the metal to make products or make ingots themselves. For everything else, there is the recycling plant.

Collection

At various parts of Birdencaster there are collection points for recycling. The collection points are separated into various points. These are described below.

• Plastic - There is just one type of bin as there is only one type of plastic in production, PLA.
• Glass - Is separated into colours which are clear and brown
• Cardboard and Paper - Since there is no Paper Mill in Birdencaster. This waste to be recycled is exported and it is the imports that come back of new items

The Recycling Process

Plastics

Firstly, the PLA Plastic is cleaned and shredded twice to turn it into grains ^[1b]. The grains are then melted into sheets or round and square stock. PLA plastic melts at 130C - 180C (266F - 356F)^[1a]. The resulting recycled plastic is sent to the Warehouses.

Glass

First plastic is removed. Once this is done the glass is broken into uniform pieces and then washed to remove dirt and residue that can ruin the next batch of glass. Magnets then remove the rings and caps from the glass mixture ^[2a]. The separated glass is then sent to the glassworks in 3 9.

Cardboard

As the city of Birdencaster does not have a paper mill the Cardboard and paper to be recycled is exported to a city that does have the facilities to recycle these products. The process is;
The process is that the baled cardboard is dropped into a pulper and mixed with water until the cardboard is made into a paste.
After the paste is made, it is emptied onto a flat surface and the contaminants are removed such as plastics and metals. The pulp is pressed and dried to get the right consistency. It is dried further and turned into pellets that can be used later ^[3a].
Once needed, water is added to get it to the right consistency and chemicals are then added that will give the paper a certain amount of water resilience. At this point, the mixture is 90% water ^[3a].
The paste is then pulped and passed over a drum that has a fine mesh. Vacuum pumps in the centre of the drum that draws water out of the mixture. During this process, the mixture is only in contact with 1 quarter of the drum’s circumference ^[3a].
The mixture is then passed through a series of rollers which then squeezes out more water. Next, the drier but still wet paper is passed through four other drums to make the paper thicker, by adding more layers of paper. The paper is dried and then rolled onto spools which are cut to the right width ^[3a].
When cardboard is produced the spool is then unreeled. The middle sheet is corrugated and glued with two other uncorrelated sheets to make corrugated cardboard. If the middle sheet is not corrugated, then the resulting cardboard will be the type found in cereal boxes.

Paper

As with Cardboard the city of Birdencaster does not have a paper mill. The paper to be recycled is exported out of Birdencaster. The process of recycling paper is as follows;
All types of paper are the same as there are no padded envelopes. The first stage of the paper to be recycled is to add water to a vat to make the paper into a pulp. The pulp is then filtered as there can be metal and plastic in the paper. The resulting pulp is then pumped into an open-air vat and stirred at this point the paper pulp is grey ^[4a].
Chemicals and soap are added to the mixture to remove the ink from the paper. Air is pumped through the mixture which makes bubbles rise and the ink sticks to the bubbles. The bubbles are skimmed off removing the ink ^[4a].
The pulp is then rolled between rollers to remove the water. The damp paper is then passed over eight rollers which are heated to 130C (266F). This process can take over 20 seconds to make paper. When the paper is an acceptable parchment brown colour the paper is then pressed between two rollers to remove the wrinkles ^[4a]. The paper is not sprayed with white ink as it would be in the Old World as brown is seen as more desirable.
Like the cardboard, it is put onto spools and cut to the right width and wrapped in brown paper to keep the paper clean.

Location
3 6

Article Contents

Further Resources

A Wikipedia Article on Polylactic acid (PLA Plastic)

References

Plastics

[1a]Poly (Lactic Acid) - an overview (PLA Plastic)
[1b]A Youtube video on how PLA Bioplastic can be recycled

Glass

[2a]A Youtube video on How Glass Gets Recycled

Cardboard

[3a]A Youtube Video On How Cardboard Is Recycled

Paper

[4a]A Youtube Video On How Paper Is Recycled

Acknowledgements

WriterGreg
Twitch
WriterGreg’s Website
WriterGreg First Draft - Twitch VOD Replay Channel
WriterGreg - Primary Channel
WriterGreg’s World Anvil Author Page