Material properties and recycling

This unit will give you an appreciation of materials, their place in the environment and ways of dealing with their presence in the waste stream. You will gain a basic understanding of the structure and properties of the main classes of materials: metals, polymers and ceramics. You will learn about the ways in which these different materials can be disposed of, ranging from incineration, recycling and degradation, and the technologies involved in these processes. The advantages of these methods, as opposed simply to landfill, will be discussed. Methods of sorting of different materials from the waste stream into their various components will also be covered.