Discarded, Ditched, and Dumped – Rubbish Photography

We live in a throw-away society in a world with limited resources. Perhaps, an appreciation of the resources, and the time and the energy-intensive multistep manufacturing processes that went into making many of the things that we discard so readily, might foster a greater interest in recycling and better stewardship of our resources.

Aluminium beverage can

Red Bull Can

It once gave a student some wings,

And helped them do marvelous things.

But now it's been squashed,

Soon to be washed,

To see what the next life-cycle brings.

Footnote - The fate of 30% of the 420 billion aluminium beverage cans produced each year is to be tossed away with little or no hope of recycling. The disdain for the empty can is at odds with the complex multistep energy and resource-intensive processes required for its manufacture. The production of an aluminum can starts with mining of the mineral bauxite. This is crushed and then digested with hot caustic soda. Cooling of the digest and precipitation produces solid aluminum hydroxide which is dehydrated by heating at 2,000 °F to form alumina. This intermediate product is subject to an electrolytic process and this leads to molten aluminium which is then cast into ingots. A heating and rolling process converts the ingot into a thin sheet of aluminum. Circular “blanks” are punched from the sheet and the blanks formed into cups which are then stretched in a “body maker” to produce the can. The can is then trimmed, washed, coated with a protective internal layer, and printed with branding before being shipped to beverage companies for filling.

Limericks written using Google (AI mode)

This project is a collaboration with my brother Professor L. J. Kricka