How is plastic recylced?

The short answer to Andy Brunning's question, of course, is that it's recycled badly and far too infrequently.

I'm typing this up on Earth Day - though it won't post for a month or so now - and am just torn up that less than 20% of the PETE is being recycled, but I watch my students through water bottles away all the time even though the recycling bin in two inches to the left of the trash can.

I don't have any idea why recycling is so infrequent because it just seems like an automatic thing to me at this point. I'm the one carrying cans away from meetings because there aren't recycling bins in our meeting rooms.

The Composition of US Coins

Thanks, Compound Interest.

And thanks, ACS for working with Andy Brunning (of the aforementioned Compound Interest) to produce this great, visual guide to the metals in US coinage.

That non-pure copper penny can make for some great lab experiments.

Then again, so can the pure copper.

Lead in the Water - the Flint water Crisis

Flint Water Crisis chemistry

The environmental and human tragedy of the lead-contaminated Flint water system is awful.

The chemistry, however, is fascinating.

I'll readily admit that I had no idea we still used lead pipes anywhere in modern plumbing (ironically named after lead's Latin name). I thought that lead had been entirely excised from the pipes in - at least - the Western world or the developed world or the whole world.

No, it turns out that there are still lead pipes in our water system, we're just adding corrosion inhibitors called orthophosphates to crate lead (I assume IV) phosphate layers that won't dissolve into the water coming into our homes.

Without those orthophosphates, however, the lead heads right into the water...like it did in Flint, Michigan.

The corrosion then also lowered the chlorine level and allowed new bacteria to thrive in the last pipe leading into the homes and businesses of Flint,

On Friday, officials at the McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint said they found low levels of Legionella bacteria in the hospital’s water supply in 2014. That bacteria may have caused a recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a severe kind of pneumonia, that sickened 87 people — 10 of whom died — in Genesee County since Flint switched water sources, (source)

Corrosion matters, folks.

Read more about the political and human side of the story here.

Big thanks to, as is often the case, Compound Interest for the graphic up there.

The recycling rate of smartphone metals

We have to recycle more.

The issues inherent in recycling, however, are amazingly complex, most of which - by my understanding - comes to the cost of separation of the materials into individual recycling stream destinations.

It's far, far easier to recycle already separated materials, but it's tedious, dangerous, and costly to pull out every battery, screen, motherboard, chip, and plastic casing. That, apparently is why we send the task to nations where the labor laws are more lax and the labor costs far cheaper.

Thanks, as always, to the outstanding Compound Interest for the great graphic.

The Elemental Composition of Metal Alloys

Green gold...white gold...red gold...chartreuse gold...yellow gold...royal blue with a hint of pink gold...

Are there any colors that can't be used to describe gold?

Compound Interest just posted a great graphic showing the metals in a number of common alloys - along with ranges for each metal's percentage composition within that alloy. Plus the page also has some explanations of just what alloys - particularly substitutional and interstitial alloys - are.

Great info...

Removing Tarnish from Silver

Usually when I turn to Compound Interest, I'm looking to find a gorgeous infographic explaining some aspect of chemistry. Today's post from them (him, really), isn't graphical in the least. Instead, it's an in-depth exploration of one of the NACE labs that we perform in our summer, teacher camps: Quicksilver.

Why does the sodium bicarbonate need to be there? Andy explains.

Why do we need the salt? Andy explains.

Where does the rotten egg smell come from? Andy explains.

Why do people still buy polishing plates for as much as $30? Even Andy can't explain that.

Compound Interest is a British blog through which Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher with a flair for graphic design, posts outstanding chemistry-themed infographics.

The Chemical Elements of a Smartphone

I am an admitted smartphone convert. After I was dropped into Salt Lake City needing a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's, Office Depot, a bookstore, and a laundromat in the span of a few hours - all of which I found with no problems whatsoever - I don't think I can ever go back to not having the world's knowledge at my fingertips.

Admittedly I wasn't aware of just how many rare earth metals were found in my smartphone, however. Thanks to Compound Interest, now I know.

Compound Interest is a British blog through which Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher with a flair for graphic design, posts outstanding chemistry-themed infographics.

The Metals in UK Coins

I had no idea that the University of Kentucky had its own mint - or that it used the pound instead of the dollar. Interesting.

In all seriousness, though, the metal composition of United Kingdom coins - something that is surprisingly in flux - is a lot more varied than is the metallic composition of United States coins.

And do remember that the US mint is losing money on every penny it produces. Check out just how much money over on coinflation.com.

Compound Interest is a British blog through which Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher with a flair for graphic design, posts outstanding chemistry-themed infographics.

The Polymorphs of Chocolate

I have to admit that I have not much experience with the various crystal structures (or, as named, here polymorphs) of chocolate. In my world there's the form of chocolate that hasn't been opened yet and the form that's in my belly. Most of my research happens on the tongue .

Here Compound Interest goes through the six different structures of chocolate and how temperature affects the stability of each one, something that can be highly relateable to some of the alloys that we cover in our summer teacher camps.

Compound Interest is a British blog through which Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher with a flair for graphic design, posts outstanding chemistry-themed infographics.

The Chemistry of the World Cup Ball

Apparently there's some sort of football futbol tournament going on in South America this month. I assume that there's something I don't understand about the game because that ball up above doesn't look like the pigskin, oblong spheroid that I'm used to.

Wait, they're playing soccer? Oh, that's different. That makes more sense.

It's apparently a pretty involved bit of chemistry in trying to make the ball as perfect as they can, as non-water-absorbant, as perfectly round, as free from drugs and cheating and shoulder-biting as it can be.

Check out the full-sized pdf of the infographic at this link and the original post - with a lot more chemical explanation - here.

Compound Interest is a British blog through which Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher with a flair for graphic design, posts outstanding chemistry-themed infographics.

The Myriad Uses of Stronger than Steel Kevlar

Kevlar is pretty amazing stuff, stronger and lighter than a steel strand of equivalent diameter would be...unable to stop a knife but fully capable of stopping a bullet.

Compound Interest is a British blog through which Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher with a flair for graphic design, posts outstanding chemistry-themed infographics.

What Causes the Colour of Gemstones

Compound Interest is a British blog through which Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher with a flair for graphic design, posts outstanding chemistry-themed infographics.

The image above shows sixteen gemstones, their chemical compositions, Mohs hardnesses, and - most interestingly to me - the source of their various colours (note the British spelling, I'm so cultured, donchaknow). In summer camp we cover the idea of crystal defects - primarily toward the mechanical properties imparted with dislocations and subtitutional/interstitial/vacancy defects. Here we get the effects of crystal defects showing up as colours in the various gemstones.