Project Introduction
This is my weebly page for our Pre-Engineering Lifecycle Project, where I am going to be studying the lifecycle of recycled mulch.
Timeline
Raise and extract:
The resources for this mulch is rubber, which comes from specific plants and such. Many plants, when you break the stem, ooze a thick resin which can be refined and made into rubber. After the rubber is made, car tires are made from this rubber, and put onto cars. After the cars are done with these tires, the tires are recycled, and are almost ready to make mulch.
The resources for this mulch is rubber, which comes from specific plants and such. Many plants, when you break the stem, ooze a thick resin which can be refined and made into rubber. After the rubber is made, car tires are made from this rubber, and put onto cars. After the cars are done with these tires, the tires are recycled, and are almost ready to make mulch.
Process:
Now that the rubber is there, it is cleaned very thoroughly. After it has been cleaned a lot, the tires are cut up and slashed into tiny pieces. Once everything is cut up, it is coated and painted with certain materials, which could have chemicals in them. The paint is dried and the mulch is now ready to be manufactured.
Now that the rubber is there, it is cleaned very thoroughly. After it has been cleaned a lot, the tires are cut up and slashed into tiny pieces. Once everything is cut up, it is coated and painted with certain materials, which could have chemicals in them. The paint is dried and the mulch is now ready to be manufactured.
Manufacture:
Once the mulch is painted and such, sometimes the mulch goes into rolls to pad playgrounds, or other places like walkways, but sometimes it is just bagged to get laid out for flowers and trees. If it is going to be in a roll, it will be all laid out and heated to be compressed into a large rectangle, which gets rolled very tightly. If it is going to be bagged, it just gets placed into bags, and the bags get sealed and shipped to wherever it needs to be.
Once the mulch is painted and such, sometimes the mulch goes into rolls to pad playgrounds, or other places like walkways, but sometimes it is just bagged to get laid out for flowers and trees. If it is going to be in a roll, it will be all laid out and heated to be compressed into a large rectangle, which gets rolled very tightly. If it is going to be bagged, it just gets placed into bags, and the bags get sealed and shipped to wherever it needs to be.
Use:
The product is used by many people. Normally, it is used as the padding for playgrounds, where children are going to be running around, as well as animals and other things. It is also used to pad walkways, where people could be walking or running with their animals, or just by themselves. Also, the bagged mulch could be laid down to help plants, trees, bushes, etc. grow without being interrupted by other things, such as weeds. Also, it just makes gardens and plant pots look more aesthetically pleasing.
The product is used by many people. Normally, it is used as the padding for playgrounds, where children are going to be running around, as well as animals and other things. It is also used to pad walkways, where people could be walking or running with their animals, or just by themselves. Also, the bagged mulch could be laid down to help plants, trees, bushes, etc. grow without being interrupted by other things, such as weeds. Also, it just makes gardens and plant pots look more aesthetically pleasing.
Dispose:
Normally when this product has reached the end of its lifecycle, it is used to produce more rubber mulch. The rubber is melted down, cleaned, and slashed again. Once it is all cut up, it will be painted and cleaned yet again. Once it is all cleaned, the manufacture process will basically start over from the beginning, and it will keep repeating itself until there is no rubber left.
Normally when this product has reached the end of its lifecycle, it is used to produce more rubber mulch. The rubber is melted down, cleaned, and slashed again. Once it is all cut up, it will be painted and cleaned yet again. Once it is all cleaned, the manufacture process will basically start over from the beginning, and it will keep repeating itself until there is no rubber left.
Lots of people use this recycled mulch to pad playgrounds, or make gardens and plant pots look more aesthetically pleasing. Below, is two pictures of recycled mulch being used. People use recycled mulch to pad playgrounds, because if any of the children fall off anything on the playground, they have a nice rubber padding to land on and not get as hurt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_mulch
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/rubber.html
http://www.natureswayresources.com/DocsPdfs/RubberMulch.pdf
These are my 3 sources where I learned all my facts about Rubber Mulch.
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/rubber.html
http://www.natureswayresources.com/DocsPdfs/RubberMulch.pdf
These are my 3 sources where I learned all my facts about Rubber Mulch.
Conclusion Questions
Product lifecycle basically means the 5 steps of manufacturing a product. Raise and Extract, Process, Manufacture, Use, and Dispose are the 5 steps of the lifecycle, and the product lifecycle is basically the products way of all of those steps.
It is important for companies to determine a products lifecycle so that they wont cause harm to the environment around them. This includes people, animals, plants, etc.
I would change the way it is manufactured and cleaned, so that it would use less chemicals to clean them. If you think about the people using the product, it is going to be more children, animals, and plants. I would use a product that cleans the product just as efficiently, but without all of the chemicals. I would do this so the children and animals do not get sick, and so the plants do not die.
I think over time it will become obsolete, because this will not be needed anymore. I feel many people will start using other, less dangerous products for childrens play places. With all the chemicals that this mulch has, I feel it will be not used in the near future.
A trade-off is basically losing one attribute from a product, but gaining back another equal attribute. In rubber mulch, the rubber has to be cleaned to wipe away all the chemicals of the road and other places, but the cleaning materials also use chemicals in them.
I feel that trade-offs were made during the design phase of this product. I think to make the product work specifically, they had to refine it in a specific way to get all the sharp edges off and such, but doing so added chemicals that could be potentially dangerous.
It is important to recycle because it will help the Earth from becoming so polluted. If we don't recycle, the world will become more polluted, and it will become less and less safe to live on every day. Also, if we do not recycle, the world will be losing resources a lot faster than we could if we had just recycled.
Product designers play a role in recycling, because they try to use as much recycled parts as possible. Also, product designers normally try to design their products to be able to be recycled when the product has reached its final use, so that it will be put back into the recycling cycle.
Society plays a big role in recycling. Normally, when someone has an old popped tire, they just throw it in a dumpster, or into the ocean. If they could just throw it in a recycling dumpster, it could be used for so much more, just like recycled mulch. The same thing goes for water bottles. Some people just throw them out of their car, or into a normal trash can. If they had just taken the time to throw it into a recycling bin, the world would be using less and less plastic everyday.
I can make sure that people are putting their recyclables in the correct places, and I could also fight to get more recycling bins placed around the cities, and near the major dumpsters where people dump all of their big trash. I could also fight to get a more efficient trash filter, and recycling filter in the landfills and such.