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# 34
 

Can Plastics Help Us Save the Environment?

Did you know ...

§1 -  Plastic products account for about 7.3% of municipal waste by weight. Paper and paperboard, by comparison, account for 35.6% of the solid waste stream.

Document 1: municipal waste by weight 
 
 

§2 -  Landfilled (1) wastes are sealed off (2) from air and moisture (3), preventing wastes (plastic or otherwise) from degrading quickly enough to extend the life of the landfill. Once buried in a landfill, plastic is far less likely to contribute to the production of toxic air emissions than other landfilled materials.

§3 -  Plastic products have already contributed substantially to reduction of the waste stream by replacing heavier, thicker materials previously used in packaging, and through reductions in the amount of plastic used in containers.

Document 2: paper vs. plastics 

§4 -  According to the National Association for Plastic Container Resources, more than 30% of all plastic soft drink containers are already being recycled into new consumer products, and the demand for recycled plastic is growing.
 
 

Document 3: Plastics can be made to be more degradable (unstable) in natural environments: Plastics degrade slowly in the presence of sunlight. Additives can accelerate this degradation process. The modified materials are called photodegradable plastics. Some plastics degrade in the presence of microorganisms. Others can be blended with additives to create this property. These are termed biodegradable plastics.

 
 

§5  -  Plastic products have the highest energy value for modern waste-to-energy incineration. For example, the energy content of a pound of polyethylene is 19,900 Btu. A pound of Wyoming coal contains 9,600 Btu (4).

Document 4: recycling of municipal waste by major countries 

§6 -  Plastic products are popular because they provide safety and health benefits for which no other material is equally suited, including tamper-evident (5) foods and medicines, shatter-resistant (6) containers, freezer-to-microwave prepared foods, and wrappers that preserve freshness.
 

Plastics and the Environment, 1999

Vocabulary notes:

(1) to landfill : to place (waste) in a landfill (= une décharge)
(2) to be sealed off : to be isolated
(3) moisture : wetness, humidity
(4) BTU, British thermal unit; 1 BTU = 1,055 joules
(5) to tamper :(here) to open and damage
(6) to shatter: to smash, break
 
 
 

WARMING UP

Plastics and the Environment :    What do most people feel when they think about plastic and the environment ? Do they say  it is environmentally-friendly?  What do you personally think of it?
 
 

BUILD UP YOUR READING STRATEGY

Read the text once and do the following exercises.
 

1 Vocabulary: French-looking words ( mots transparents).

• Pick up the French-looking words in paragraph 5  (10 words)

• Read the following text in which only the French-looking words have been retained.

Now, say

• where the study was made,
• what was studied and compared,
• what the conclusions are concerning savings, air pollution and quantity of waste.

a – Use the context to find out the meaning of

§1 account for (see the chart for help) – §2 prevent(ing) - §5 content (look at the following  sentence in which a word will help you)

b - Read the following text and use the context to find out the meaning of the words in italic type. (Note: these words have been invented for the exercise. It’s no use looking them up in a dictionary!)

The faught below provides the material glakety by volume of the municipal solid waste in the USA. Although the glakety may vary from one community to the next, one can easily see from this faught how tolder fits into the waste equation. Contrary to what many believe, tolder is not the major component, it accounts for only 9.4% of municipal waste glakety.

Document 5: municipal waste by volume
 
 
 
 

 3 Vocabulary: Dangerous little words. What does each word mean here ? Look at the context and the help provided below.

§1 about: Plastic products account for about 7.3% of municipal waste

Help: The text is about plastics and the environment – We came back home at about 10 o’clock – I’ll have to think about it. The man is almost 60 years old, he is about to retire

(parler de, traiter de – vers, environ – penser à – être sur le point de)

§2 once: . Once ( it is) buried in a landfill, plastic is ...

Help: Once upon a time, there was a Prince… - The phone rang once and then was silent – Once you have finished your work, you can watch TV – He pressed the button and the machine stopped at once.

(autrefois – une [seule] fois – une fois que, après que, quand – immédiatement)

§2 far : plastic is far less likely to contribute ...

Help: Washington is not very far (from New York) - a plastic pipe is far lighter than a metal one – Most plastics have been non degradable so far – As far as I am concerned, I think …

(loin [de] – bien, beaucoup plus / moins … que – jusqu’à ce jour - quant à )

§3 through: Plastic products have already contributed to reduction of the waste through reductions in the amount of plastic

Help: In France, about 450,000 tons of oil equivalent fuels are saved each year through the use of waste combustion – the rain fell through the roof – I tried to phone you but couldn’t get through – I am through with this exercise.

(grâce à, au moyen de – à travers – obtenir la communication – terminer)
 

 4 Compound words and phrases

a - Pick up every compound noun and adjective in paragraphs  4, 5 and 6.

b- Whenver  necessary, delimit the whole noun clause which it is part of.
Each of the following words is part of such  clauses

§4  resources, drink, products;
§5  products, value, waste, content, Wyoming;
§6  plastic, benefits, medicines, resistant, prepared.
 

 5 Answer the questions.

§1

• Explain what “municipal wastes” are. What word could ‘municipal’ be opposed to?
• Show  the part played by plastics in the solid waste stream.

• Explain  “landfilled wastes are sealed off from air and moisture”. What is this done for?
• What is the consequence?
• In the case of plastic, is this a positive or a negative point? Explain why.

• Is this paragraph about advantages or drawbacks of plastics?
• What materials were used before plastic was developed? What are their characteristics?
• What has plastic contributed to ? How?
• State another reason why there is no much plastic  in the waste stream.

§4

• What is the keyword / key idea of the paragraph?
• 30% : What does this percentage correspond to?

• What other ways of dealing with plastic waste in mentioned here?
• Explain: “waste-to-energy incineration”.
• What is the advantage of incinerating plastic?
• Compare the figures.

• What are the reasons why plastic is proving popular?
• List the uses mentioned in the text.
• Explain what " tamper-evident "  packages  are.
• Explain what "shatter-resistant containers" are.

 6 Conjugate the verbs

- Plastic ( not to represent / present) the major component of the solid waste stream, yet, when incinerated, it (to supply / present) 30% of the energy.

- According to the Association of Plastics Manufacturers, plastic recycling ( to double / preterit) in 1995. The recycling of municipal solid waste (to increase / present perfect) from 7% to 27% in the last 30 years.

- It  (to estimate / present / passive)  that in 10 years countries such as the USA (to recycle / future) 50% of municipal waste. They ( not / to incinerate / future) as much waste as today.

- However, recycling ( to go / present) together with source reduction: new engineering techniques (not/ to require/ present) as much raw materials as before
 

 7 Look at document 2.

a. study these examples:

i) 1,000 plastic bags weigh 150 lbs. The weight of 1,000 plastic bags is 140lbs.

ii)The left pile is 46 inches high. the other one is 4 inches thick.

b. Complete the description with the required dimensions

Document 6. 

20*8*10 (L/H/W) (= length, height, width)  ( adjectives: long; high; wide)

This box has a ….. of 20 cm, a …… of 8 cm and a ….. of10 cm. It ……… 2kg.
This box is 20 ………., 8cm ……….. and 10 cm …………. . Its …………… is 2 kg.

c. Ask questions about these dimensions.

d. Do the same with document 7
 

Document 7     Height of the trunk 20 ft  Depth of the roots : 10 ft         (adjective: deep) Age of the tree: 5 years

 8 Look at documents 1,2 and 5 and compare the weight / volume of the various wastes.

Use: light, heavy, thick, important, bulky (= encombrant), voluminous.

e.g. The amount of plastic waste is more important than that of wood – Metal waste is bulkier than food waste -
 Food waste is not as / so bulky as  metal waste.
 

 9 Passive

a. Compare: Plastics can be made more degradable ( passive) – We can make plastic more degradable (active)

b. Whenever possible, turn the sentences of document 3 (see above)  into the passive or vice versa.

c. Read this text:
 

• Which modal verbs would you use to express a/ obligation b/ advice? ( may? must? can? should?)
• Turn the text above  into the passive with the pattern : modal verb + be + past participle.

COMMUNICATE

10  Graphs

• Name the 2 kinds of graphs ( doc. 1, 4 and 5)
• Look at document 1 and study theses sentences:

c. Draw as much information as possible from documents 4 and 5.
 

 11 Read the following text

Polystyrene foam is completely non-biodegradable; it just won’t go away. Even 500 years from now, the foam cup that held your coffee this morning might still be sitting on the earth’s surface.

Newsweek, 5. 1990.

a. What is the unfortunate characteristic of polystyrene? What will a plastic cup be like in 500 years’ time?

b. What is environmentalists’ usual point of view concerning plastic? (Remember what has been  said in the Warming Up exercise.)

c. Show that the main text develops a very different point of view.

You can use: it is usually said that…; it is often argued that…; it is believed that…; it is often assessed that …; it is possible to say that…; it can / must be mentioned that…; this raises the issue of …; there is no doubt that…; it is obvious that…; it goes without saying that…; it is clear that …; three is a (total) consensus that…; there are indications that…; the most striking fact is that… Also use linkwords expressing opposition and contrast (See Tool box)
 

12 Team work.

Work by teams of 3 and discuss other important sources of air / water / soil pollution. Then report to the class.
 

 13 Written work

a. Adapt the words between brackets so as to write complete sentences.

1 Facilities (=installations, centrales) for the recovery of energy ( to burn / present) (waste / solid / municipal) in combustion chambers and (to use) the (heat / resulting).

2 This (to create) electricity.

3 (facilities / modern) burn (  + clean : comparative [plus propre] ), create ( - ash / comparative [moins de]), and utilise controls for air pollution.

4 These contraols ( to remove) (particles /harmful) from the emissions of incinerators.
 

b. Improve your first draft.

Sentence 1: recast " Facilities for the recovery of energy" as a compound noun.

Sentences 1 and 2: link the two sentences so as to express aim.

Sentence 3 : recast " controls for air pollution" as a compound noun.

Sentences 3 and 4: avoid repeating 'controls' by linking  the two sentences with a relative pronoun.

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