Wastewater Treatment

Water is available to anyone for no cost. It can be found in so many places. The earth is comprised of mostly water. Human depend on water for every day things and it is up there with needing food. Some of the daily chores that we must complete can not be done without water to help. When water is used, can it be recycled to be available again?


Even wastewater is recyclable when it completes a process known as wastewater treatment. There is not only one method for wastewater treatment. Many of the methods are still as good today as they were years ago. This method of wastewater treatment gets rid of the odor by getting rid of the algae or bacteria in the water. The taste is also made better by chemicals being added to it in other treatment processes. The particles are gotten out with a filtration process. Methods for treating wastewater differ in many ways to ensure that the water is clean and safe for you to reuse again and again.


Wastewater Filtration
The method for treating wastewater that is know as filtration, takes out the particles in the wastewater by grabbing the particles and letting the remaining water flow through a membrane. The filter sifts the water and the particles causing them to separate from each other. More than one filter type is available for the filtration method. Simple filters that resemble fine nets are also utilized for the smaller particles in the water. For micro sized particles, an advanced system for filtering is needed.


Each filter has its own life expectancy. After the filter has been used for an extended period of time and the particles are gathered into the filter, the water will start to flow through it slowly. To eliminate the gathered particles from the filter, it will need to be washed by a method called backwashing. Taking the filter and flipping it inside out and running water through it will separate the particles from the filter. If this method does not help the flow of water through the filter, replacement of the filter is necessary.


Wastewater Aeration
Industries use the aeration method of treating wastewater more than the residential sectors do. Aeration simple means that air is brought to the water. The water becomes oxygenated by the air. This process is completed to get rid of the foul odor creating chemicals. These chemicals could be ammonia or hydrogen sulfide. There are many different ways to aerate the water.


Diffused aeration is completed by making bubbles in the water while aeration by a spray is completed by spraying the water in the air. Repeated aeration is done by letting the water go through the many conduits before it is allowed to mix in the air. The cascading aeration is completed to make little waterfalls that allow the water to flow through many layers. The final type of aeration is stripping. This stripping mixes multiple aeration and cascade aeration together.


Wetlands Created On The Site Of The Wastewater
There are many cities and municipalities in the US and some countries overseas that utilize the wetland method when treating their wastewater. These onsite wetlands are largely used as a method for treating wastewater because it has been shown to be the best for the environment and help to keep the balance of the ecosystem.


This treatment of wastewater can either be natural wetlands or manmade wetlands. These wetlands provide a filter by allowing the water plants and rocks to separate the solid waste from the water. This wetland method also gets rid of the odors by using a biological method of removing the bacteria and the odor molecules are broken up.


Large industries provide their own ways to treat the wastewater before they allow it to flow into the water sources. Homes have their own particular ways also. The same outcome is wanted with all the methods and that is to make the water recycled and ready to use again.

Paper Recycling Facts

• To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
• Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
• If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
• If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
• If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you'd get about 700 of them. A busy supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket can go through over 6 million paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are just in the United States!!!
• The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
• Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
• Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.
• The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.
• In 1993, U.S. paper recovery saved more than 90,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space.
• Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
• The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.
• The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.

Aluminum Recycling Facts

• A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days. That's closed loop recycling at its finest!
• Used aluminum beverage cans are the most recycled item in the U.S., but other types of aluminum, such as siding, gutters, car components, storm window frames, and lawn furniture can also be recycled.
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours -- or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
• More aluminum goes into beverage cans than any other product.
• Because so many of them are recycled, aluminum cans account for less than 1% of the total U.S. waste stream, according to EPA estimates.
• An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now!
• There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminum can be recycled.
• We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year.
• At one time, aluminum was more valuable than gold!
• A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel. In one year in the United States, the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18,000,000 homes!

7 Ways You Can Easily Save Paper and Avoid Killing the Environment

1. Buy Recycled Paper, Duh
   According to the City of Seattle a ton of paper made from recycled paper, as opposed to virgin paper, saves the equivalent of 4,100 kilowatt hours of energy, 7000 gallons of water, 60 pounds of air emissions, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space.
2. Check Your Work to Avoid Printing Copies that Have to Be Thrown Away
   Make sure to spell check your work, and even read over it on screen. Use the Print Preview feature to preview your work to make sure everything lines up correctly.
3. Use the Print Range feature to Print Only what You Need
   You can use the Print range feature available in most programs to print only the exact pages or the selected text that you need.
4. Don’t Throw Away Your Mis-prints, Keep it as Draft Paper
   You can keep paper that you may have printed earlier which you no longer need, and print on the blank side instead of throwing it way like I am sure we have all done before. You can even use it to jot down notes for yourself instead of wasting Post it notes.
5. Make Use of Double Sided Printing
   It’s actually pretty simple. First print the odd pages by editing the Print range after pressing Ctrl+P. Then flip the pages over and put them back in the paper tray. Then just print the even pages by editing thePrint range once again.
6. Avoid Printed Envelope Labels, And Print Directly on to the Envelope
   Save paper by avoiding printing addresses on to labels, only to turn around and stick that label on an envelope. It is very easy to addresses and more right onto the label using Microsoft Word or other word processing programs.
7. Send Documents via eMail or eFax
   Although you may not always be able to, try to send stuff via email whenever possible. If you are going to fax something, many times people never use the functionality of many printers which allows for eFax. With eFax you don’t have to print something out just to stick in the fax machine and then throw it away when your done.