The second law of thermodynamics is a principle which puts constraint in the direction of heat transfer and the efficiencies of heat engines and goes beyond the limits of the first law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics explains why a properly designed source separation recycling program takes energy and produces less pollution than a centralized program that collects waste over a large area and hauls it to a centralized facility where workers or machinery separate the waste for recycling as discussed below.
The second law of thermodynamics states that in every change in energy there is waste and that the earth's capacity to store usable energy is constantly being lost. It sates that as energy changes from one form to another; the end result is lower quality or less usable energy than the starting one. This is because the lower quality of energy usually takes the form of heat given out at low temperatures to the environment. Due to dispersion by random motion of air and water molecules they end up being less useful as a resource. Generally, there is no violation of the fact that when energy changes it becomes less useful and is considered degraded and capacity to work reduced. For example when a vehicle is moving, it uses gasoline and research has shown the 94% actually is emitted to the environment. In addition a bulb only uses 5% in lighting while the 95% goes to the environment as low quality heat.
This second law of thermodynamics also means that we can't reuse or recycle high quality energy to perform useful work. The residual heat discussed above is never used and at times referred to as waste heat. The degraded energy takes much energy to be reversed and therefore pointless. To add heat is economically used when moving in short distances as compared to long ones. This is because energy turns to waste heat when one tries to move long distances. Shorter electrical lines mean less energy loss energy loss being lost to the environment.
When the wastes are disposed a lot of harm and expenses are incurred. Costs of collection and handling are high and other means of getting rid of the collected waste have proven unsatisfactory. It is obvious that wastes are never done away with but usually are relocated. Wastes should be recycled and not disposed or collected. When wastes are collected they usually are never done away with or maximized its use since it could serve other purposes.
In addition, when a properly designed source separation recycling program produces less pollution than a centralized program that collects waste over a large area and hauls it to a centralized facility where workers or machinery separate the waste for recycling. This is so because according to the second law of thermodynamics explains that separation of wastes actually produces less pollution to the environment. Most wastes are reusable to other purposes instead of having to collect. A centralized facility on the other hand has to incur the expenses of hiring people to collect the waste in one area. At the same time, when the wastes are being transported to the large area it causes pollution as some dirt must get dispersed to the environment causing more pollution. To add the waste has to be separated thus wasting a lot of time that could otherwise be used in other purposes.
To add, in a centralized machine where the wastes have to be collected in a large area causes more pollution in having to collect it from its main source and having to pollute another place to wait for separation and later recycling. The properly designed source separation machine produces less pollution compared to the centralized machine since the wastes need no transportation to a central facility.
In conclusion, the second law of thermodynamics is a principle which puts constraint in the direction of heat transfer and the efficiencies of heat engines. According to the second law of thermodynamics, when energy changes from one form to the other there is waste and that the earth's capacity to store usable energy is constantly being lost. According to this law a properly designed source separation machine produces less pollution and energy compared to a centralized machine where wastes are collected in a large area as discussed above.
