The City of Tampa collects paper, aluminum, glass and plastic from our school for recycling.  Each of these materials goes through different steps for recycling.  The City of Tampa sells the various types of materials to different vendors for recycling.

Paper must be sorted, graded, and transported to a recycling mill.  At the mill, water is added to the shredded paper to make pulp.  The paper pulp is screened, de-inked, and cleaned in this stage.  After drying, the new paper is sold to various companies.

Aluminum recycling uses only 5% of the energy it would take to make aluminum from the mineral bauxite!  In the recycling process, aluminum cans and trays are shredded and any colored coating is removed.  Next the shreds are melted.  The molten material is then poured into ingot casts to set and sold to companies who will again melt the aluminum and make it into cans or foil.  One ingot will produce 1.5 million cans!

Plastic can also be recycled easily.  First plastic is sorted according to type-the number in the recycling triangle marked on each piece of plastic.  The plastic is then shredded, washed and melted.  The melted plastic is formed into small pellets to be sold to companies which will form the pellets into the product needed.

Glass is one of the easiest products to recycle.  Switzerland and Sweden recycle over 90% of the glass in their countries.  First glass is sorted by color and crushed.  The crushed glass is then mixed with raw materials, melted, and finally molded or blown into new bottles or jars.