If Recycling Is A 'Scam'

Hello everyone. This'll be good to pick your brains.

Throughout the dawn of our civilisation, the early people gather materials to make anything to survive and improve their lives in many ways. With discoveries of metallic ores in particular which they got smelted, they became tools, weapons, useful materials for construction and even money.

It's worth looking at this mine rich in iron deposits and along with metallurgical coal, we create steel and use its applications since the iron age. And then, we have copper especially for our power needs along with aluminium, gold and other resources such as wood for timber and paper productions and crude oil for plastic products.

However, there are environmental costs with the amount of energy used to extract resources, waste pollution and worse still a risk of scarcity making items we all use. With the idea of recycling, anything no longer useful can be recovered, broken down and processed to create new products. With that, recycling saves raw materials, is more energy efficient, reduces landfill and all these should be beneficial for our economy.

But recycling hasn't been too straight forward. Here in Australia, 63% of our waste has been recycled between 2022 to 2023 and even though our recycling efforts are gradually improving, there's a decent journey to get there.

In particular, plastic waste has always been a hassling material to recycle. They come in different types, probably too much for anyone to get their heads around but what doesn't help is we get bombarded with a load of single use items with plastic. Even our take-away coffee cups are lined with plastic so we can't really recycle them. Other things to mention include nappies, textiles, ceramics and in a way, E-waste. But ironically, there are people to throw items in the garbage bins even when they're recycle. This gets me begging why.

But if the idea of recycling gets too complicating, let me show you something.

Last month, I came up with an idea. I felt like cutting cardboard pieces to make a 3 dimensional shape.

To make my idea more ambitious, I wanted to make a ceratopian head out of cardboard pieces to the likes of this Styracosaurus.

So then, I gathered some empty cardboard boxes and started cutting them up.

Along with my ruler, pencil and eraser. I've been able to cut these pieces along with the tabs to fold in or out to adhere to other panels. These are the left and right sides.

Next, I've done a series of measurements and lines to cut up the top piece.

So here, I have 3 pieces.

The final piece is the bottom section measured up and ready to cut.

With everything cut, all of the 4 pieces have been tacked. This is the first mock-up and so far, I've been satisfied with how the way it looks. I've moved to the second mock-up.

With the top piece from my first mock-up, I've traced it on another piece of cardboard. This'll be a clone.

With that clone, I've used my Stanley knife to cut the square holes. These will allow for the horns which next will be an interesting challenge.

And whilst I'm there, I used paper to make templates to make 4 pieces for the nasal horn.

And all this is stuck with PVA glue. But then, problems approach.

Aside from the PVA glue taking its time to dry, creating horns from 4 pieces becomes a nuisance. This is one of the top horns and you can the tip spread out like a peeled banana. I came up with a different method.

So instead of 4 pieces to make each horn, I've decided to combine 3 sections to 1. I'll have 2 pieces to work with.

And with a top horn, the method has worked more effectively despite waiting for the PVA glue to try.

So here is my second mock-up. More work will be needed to make the final piece right but it's certainly taking up shape.

Now comes the third and final mock-up. I grabbed another sheet or so of paper, drawn up the pieces and made as many adjustments to make everything fit the way it should. The end result is the series of templates to trace over sheets of cardboard to be cut and assembled.

And using the template, I went to work tracing them on sheets of carboard to then be cut.

With one nasal horn assembled, I've used it to trim the hole in the top template in order to allow the horn to fit through.

With assembling this top horn, this was a chance for some improvising. I grabbed the clothing peg to hold the pieces together whilst glued.

I even had an attempt with the rubber band but it turned out to be a rather awkward idea but the peg worked out well.

With all the horns within the top piece and the base set, this leaves 2 pieces to be put together.

And then, the whole ceratopian head mock-up is complete.

Let's not forget the neck frill. With all the mock-ups assembled, it was time for the show and tell at this month's SECAN meeting.

And here they are. Reflecting how clever this idea has been, it's won good enough approval to commence the grand project for this year's Challenges art exhibition. With last month's word of the month being 3D paper, this'll be a good opportunity to open up another exciting medium and along with a few more considerations, I'll look to use double sided tape instead of PVA glue. That'll hopefully be much easier. I'll insist using recycled cardboard again for the final piece keeping the theme of recycling in art. I'll get the head sculptures painted but then, I'll need to work out what colours they'll be.

Unfortunately, we don't exactly know what coloured skins dinosaurs had when we're left with mainly fossilised bones and even feathers. Our best bet is to look at other wild animals and their habitats to get the best idea possible. And not only I'll look to do the head of a Styracosaurus, I'll also do a Triceratops beside it.

With other artists, they've used the same recycling motif for their sculptures, pictures and even some wearable garments.

That's the case with this kimono made out of used tea bags. It's worth mentioning throughout the history of art, the clever people inside the movement demonstrated how it's possible to go outside the square. Those kind of frontiers can inspire other people to follow suit and maybe come up with better ideas. But it also opens up doors and insights into designs to potentially new products into our markets. With the idea of mock-ups particularly my ceratopian heads, it's an opportunity to work out any potential problems I could run into. These kinds of principles can apply to car designs including aftermarket parts.

Another thing to add is not to entirely recycle some broken item but can be repaired and sold. That started 2 years ago when my parents suggested I should buy cheap lawn mowers to fix and sell for a profit. That was a good exercise especially when I've taken up a new skill working on cars. From there, I've learnt a load of things including a few hard lessons but all is good when I've successfully sold lawn mowers for a profit.

And here's the previous post about the lawn mowers I have bought, repaired and sold below.

Lawn Mowers Accomplished

And even some scrap materials have some value. Metals such as aluminium, copper, brass and even the precious metals of gold and silver can allow you to earn some extra money if it's over a dollar for every kilogram of its weight. Here's a video from bigstackD casting to demonstrate.

We should all understand that the items were defunct from use, even broken beyond repair and it's never ideal to steal metal and electronic items to extract metals which at times has happened. As long as everyone abides by the laws, all will be good.

To conclude this post, we'll finish off with the brief history on recycling.

Pre-industrial times

*    Romans recycled bronze pieces

*    Japanese shops repulped paper as early as 1031

19th Century

*    Industrial era saw a rise in the use of recycled materials including rags, ferrous scrap metals and even used bicycles

Early 20th Century

*    Steel and automotive industries began purchasing scrap metals for various products

World Wars

*    Recycling efforts spurred during the first and second world wars with people collecting ad reusing materials for the war efforts (including metals, rubber, paper and kitchen fats)

(Courtesy of the US Army)

Post - WWII

*    Rise of disposable culture with single use items pushed the environmental movement for more organised recycling programs

1970s

*    Environmental movement gained momentum with the establishment of Earth Day and the recycling symbol

Modern day

*    Recycling programs widespread with growing emphasis on environmental sustainability and resource conservation.

Now, with regards to recycling being a scam, I honestly don't think so. It is possible with the right know-how. Along with myself and others, our efforts shall be good testaments to what human-kind offers. For those who reckon so, why exactly?

Other than that, see you next time!