The Technology of Recycling

Recycling is usually just publicized as a way to help the environment by taking care of your used products in a more clean and efficient manner. However, the benefits of recycling can even benefit the world with technological advances.

Tarun Naik, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has used his knowledge of recycling and engineering to create great advances for the field which would help the environment simultaneously. Silica, a mineral found in the Earth's crust, is a commonly processed material used in cement. Naik wants to use this material in a new way, to reach the same solution, cement.

Instead of using one of the various processed forms of Silica to create concrete, he wants to use the Silica left over from the processing to create a special kind of concrete which is actually just as strong or possibly even stronger than its processed counterpart. Naik believes that he can reach A30 with the left over Silica, meaning the strength of 30 pounds per square inch, or at the very least A25. A25 is a common strength for concrete made with the usual materials, and the fact that it can be matched or bested by recycled materials only further shows how recycling can greatly shape the world we live in.

Naik's ideas with concrete are just some of many innovations and improvements found from using recycled components, and should give you that extra nudge of encouragement to join the millions around the world already banding together to help our environment and improve our way of life through recycling.