Waste and Recycling Recycling and Energy Recovery

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Waste and Recycling

Recycling and Energy Recovery

PwC's Earn Your Future™ Curriculum

© 2012 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the United States member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors.

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Table of contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Lesson description ............................................................................................................................................................... 3

Grade(s) ............................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Lesson time .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Pre-visit prep ....................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Student learning objectives ................................................................................................................................................. 4

Teacher tips .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Materials .............................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Day before prep ................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Preparing the activities ....................................................................................................................................................... 5

5 Minute Prep ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Background .......................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Vocabulary ........................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Sources .................................................................................................................................................................................8

Lesson activities ................................................................................................................................................................... 9


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Introduction

From rising fuel prices to scarcity of water to climate change and more, the need for creative thinking and action around issues of sustainability has never been more urgent. Consider these facts:

Projected world population growth to exceed 9 billion by 2050*

By 2050, energy demand could double or triple as population rises and developing countries expand their economies and overcome poverty*

Natural resource consumption is expected to rise to 170% of the Earth’s biocapacity by 2040**

60% of the Earth’s ecosystem services have been degraded in the past 50 years**

Addressing questions about meeting human needs in a world of finite resources and complex inter-connected systems is a concern that impacts us all. The next generation of leaders must understand the breadth of challenges we face and the tools we need to develop effective solutions.

The enclosed one hour lesson plan will equip you with the tools needed to teach students the basics about sustainability. Infused with your first-hand knowledge of the integral role business can play in addressing these global challenges, this lesson equips you with a backdrop from which to inspire young minds to contemplate such critical issues and begin making meaningful contributions themselves.

We applaud you for taking an important step in developing our future leaders to be able to address complex issues in the marketplace. We thank you for serving as a PwC ambassador, reinforcing our company’s commitment to sustainability and to youth education. We are thrilled that you have made your time and expertise available to help young people become part of the solution as we work towards a more sustainable future.

Lesson description

Students will learn about what happens to garbage after it leaves our homes, how much garbage we produce per person and together in the U.S. each year, and discuss the harmful environmental repercussions of so much waste. Students will visualize the percentages of material components of garbage and experiment with a waste-to-energy method. Students will strategize about how to reduce the amount of garbage and how to put garbage to productive use for society.

Grade(s)

6-8

Lesson time

45-60 min


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Pre-visit prep

Review the lesson topic and goals, vocabulary and lesson plan.

Obtain the lesson materials listed under the “Materials” section below.

Prepare materials as described ahead of time.

Student learning objectives

Students will:

Describe the characteristics of waste components that make up “garbage.”

Calculate how much garbage people produce.

Calculate how much garbage we can reduce.

Discuss and understand that garbage can be reduced by the choices we make.

Define waste recycling and list examples of products and materials that can be recycled.

Understand that garbage contains energy.

Learn how the energy in garbage can be released and converted to usable power.

Define and discuss the benefits and problems of using garbage as fuel.

Develop a plan to manage waste to save energy resources and improve the environment.

Teacher tips

Prepare ahead: The lesson is not complex, but it is activity based and preparation ahead of time is very helpful. Making the activity materials easy to organize, identify, distribute and use will preserve the lesson time in class for teaching, listening and learning.

Get the lay of the land: Talk to the regular facilitators for this class ahead of time. Understand the teaching conditions and physical layout of the classroom or other learning setting where you will teach. Are there tables and chairs? Is there running water? Where can you set up and store your materials? How many students? Can you arrange tables for activity stations ahead of time? What about clean up time and places for garbage and recycling activity materials? etc.

Ask the students to help: Try to identify the class leaders and rely on them for assisting you to organize the kids.

During discussions, allow a little time for responses to flow from the students.

Acknowledge every response with eye contact and a positive word. Keep the conversation moving and try to summarize their responses briefly after every question.

Keep the conversation and questions flowing during activity setup even if just to let the students know what you are doing.


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Materials

Class/Group

Demonstration materials 12 sheets of sticky note 24 x 36 inch chart paper that sticks to a wall OR

– A roll of blue light tack painter’s masking tape for taping paper to the wall (does not tear paint when removed)

– 12 sheets of 24 x 36 inch easel paper for lists and activities

10 3”x 3” sticky note packs (any color) from which students can take individual sheets

5 – 10 small glue sticks (depending on group size sharing 1 stick among three students)

100 pieces of 2” x 2.5” pieces of colored paper (see chart in “Day before Prep” section for colors and quantity of each). Use recycled or reused paper if possible.

2 good water-based markers for notes

Golf pencils, 1 per student (or ask students to bring their own)

Large calculator for display or small calculators for each small group of students

Image (can be saved on flash drive or computer)

Image portfolio (Handout A) Curbside bags of garbage

Day before prep Obtain the supplies in advance of your classroom session and organize all materials at least one day before class

Preparing the activities

1. At the top of nine of the chart papers, write in large letters a category of garbage material from the key chart below: Paper, Yard Trimmings, Food Scraps, Plastics, Metals, Rubber/Leather/Fabric, Wood, Glass, Electronics (and Other)

2. Using the Garbage Mosaic Percentage Key Chart as your guide, cut the colored paper into 2” x 2.5”markers. The number of paper markers for each color is listed on the chart. (The colors are suggestions and arbitrary – you may make up your own depending on the colors available as long as you are consistent and keep a key chart.)


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3. Scramble the order of the pieces so that the colors are evenly mixed. When you hand them out, you want each

student to have a variety of colors.

Garbage Mosaic Percentage Key Chart (for presenter)

Material Percentage of Garbage

Number of Markers

Color Percent Currently Recycled or Composted

Percent Possible to Recycle

Percent Possible to Compost

Percent Possible to Burn

Paper 32.7% 33 yellow 45%

(16 markers)

80%

(25 markers)

50%

(17 markers)

100

(33 markers)

Yard Trimmings

12.8% 13 green 75%

(8 markers)

See compost 100%

(13 markers)

100%

(13 markers)

Food Scraps 12.5% 13 brown 0%

(0 markers)

0%

(0 markers)

100%

(13 markers)

100%

(13 markers)

Plastics 12.1% 12 pink 25%

(4 markers)

75%

(8 markers)

0%

(0 markers)

100%

(12 markers)

Metals 8.2% 8 grey 45%

(4 markers)

90%

(7 markers)

0% 0%

(0 markers)

Rubber, leather, fabric

7.6% 8 black 5%

(1 marker)

20%

(2 markers)

5%

(1 marker)

50%

(4 markers)

Wood 5.6% 5 tan 15%

(1 marker

100%

(5 markers)

100%

(5 markers)

100%

(5 markers)

Glass 5.3% 5 blue 35%

(2 markers)

100%

(5 markers)

0%

(0 markers)

0%

(0 markers)

Electronics and other

3.2% 3 purple 20%

(1 marker)

60%

(2 markers)

0%

(0 markers)

0%

(0 markers)

4. On one sheet of 24”x 36” easel paper, draw a 20”x 30”rectangle with black marker. This represents 100 percent

of the garbage produced. 5. Measure and draw a grid inside the rectangle so that it breaks down into (10) 2” units wide x (10) 2 ½” units

high (100 squares total). The students will fill in each percent of this rectangle with their “garbage” to create a visual representation of the material composition percentage of municipal waste. The paper pieces will each go in one of these squares.

6. On another sheet of the 24” x 36” easel paper, prepare a Garbage Data Sheet with 3 column headers: Material; Recyclable?; Recoverable? Write the list of the garbage categories from the chart above down the left-hand column. Allow as much space as possible between the categories because you will be writing student responses in the two other columns. You may wish to use a meter stick and draw a grid to make the list easier to read and write on.


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5 Minute Prep

Background

Consumers in America create more waste and consume more energy every year than anywhere else on Earth. Fifty years ago, an average American tossed about 2.7 pounds of waste in the trash each day. Today, the average is about 4.5 pounds a day. Even with a recent commitment to recycling, more than half the solid waste produced winds up in ever-growing landfills. Biodegradable food and organic waste make up a relatively small proportion of our total garbage output. Much of our refuse will remain in landfills in the same state as it was discarded, virtually forever. In the same period that America has dramatically increased the amount of trash it produces, it has also tripled its consumption of energy. Whereas fifty years ago we produced about the same amount of energy domestically that we consumed, we now depend on foreign oil for 30% of our energy needs. So we have two big problems that are both outcomes of consumer habits that have grown to unsustainable levels: over-production of waste and over-consumption of nonrenewable resources (fossil fuels).

These issues have motivated scientists, engineers and business people to collaborate on innovative solutions that have the potential to create a more sustainable future. Basic science concepts applied to new ideas and developing technologies are assisting communities enact effective approaches to help fulfill the environmentally responsible goals of Reduce; Reuse; Recycle to better manage the problem of waste. The waste itself may provide a partial solution to the problem of energy consumption through advanced energy production technologies that utilize waste as fuel for electrical power generation. A ton of garbage contains the same energy value as 500 pounds of coal. Cleaner and more efficient high temperature burners allow us to recover and release the energy locked inside our garbage and have the additional benefit of producing lower harmful emissions than conventional power plants. Other waste-to-energy technologies show promise, such as using natural biological processes in landfills to stimulate production of biofuels in the form of combustible methane gas and liquids.

None of these solutions alone can solve the problems of too much waste and finite natural resources. A growing global population and the increasing demands of these consumers for more products, fresh food and easy access to electrical power, faster transportation and cheap fuel will continue to challenge succeeding generations. These future generations will have to discover and implement their own plans for the sustainable use and preservation of the earth’s precious resources, clean and healthy communities, and life-giving natural environments.

Vocabulary

Greenhouse gas: Any number of natural and man-made gases that promote heating of the atmosphere (like a greenhouse). Carbon, in the forms of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC or “Freon”), methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), are the biggest culprits. Too much artificially produced greenhouse gasses from pollution contribute to global warming and climate change.

Pollution: Harmful objects, materials, or chemicals that have contaminated a natural resource (usually air, water or soil).

Landfill: Enormous pits or mounds in which human-produced garbage and trash that is not recycled or reused is collected and dumped. Nearly half of landfills are composed of paper and paper products that might take 500 years or more to naturally break down into soil. Food scraps break down within 2 years, whereas some plastics and metals will last forever in the fill.

Recycle: To take a product that is no longer useful and reprocess all or part of it into another useful product. Paper can be recycled and reprocessed up to 10 times.


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Reuse: To use the same thing more than once without reprocessing it and remanufacturing it. Using the blank

back of paper for notes or artwork is an example of this. Using the box from a shipment you received as a storage bin is another example.

Reduce: Lessening the amount of something. For example, choosing to read a book or magazine online instead of buying a paper version might reduce the amount of paper you use.

Recover: To take materials back out of the waste stream so they can be reused, recycled, or used for energy production through waste to energy conversion (burning garbage to produce heat energy, usually to produce electricity).

Natural resource: Any organism or material found in nature that can be used by people to fill a need or want. Plants and animals for food, trees for wood, fuel and paper for many purposes, oil and coal for energy, water for drinking and cooking, etc., are all natural resources.

Renewable resource: Any natural resources that can renew or replace themselves through natural reproduction and growth at a rate that is faster than they are consumed. Living things, like plants, trees and animals can renew themselves naturally under good conditions; non-living things like oil, coal, minerals, and water cannot reproduce and are non-renewable.

Fuel: Any material that can be combusted to release its stored energy as heat. This heat can be used directly or converted into mechanical energy that can generate electricity.

Fossil fuels: Any number of naturally occurring hydrocarbon resources such as petroleum, natural gas or coal that developed over time from deposited organic matter. These fuels take so long to develop that they are considered non-renewable resources. Increasing rates of consumption of fossil fuels is threatening to exhaust reachable supplies before new technologies replace their purpose. When burned without adequate filtering, fossil fuels release toxic chemicals and contribute to greenhouse gasses.

Waste to energy: Any of a number of processes used to release the energy stored in some forms of garbage, usually by burning it as fuel to heat boilers and produce steam power, heat and/or electricity.

Boiler: A container for boiling water and producing steam that can be directed under pressure to transfer

energy to mechanical apparatus (turbines, or pistons) or pipes for distribution as steam or water.

Cogeneration: The simultaneous production of electricity and heat, using one fuel source to generate two types of energy.

Composting: Combining living organisms (worms, certain beetles and bacteria) and organically-derived material, usually garbage (food scraps, paper products), that interact to produce enriched soil. Composting produces by-products (heat, methane and other gasses) that can be harvested for fuel and other uses. Some landfills are designed and maintained as giant composting facilities.

Sources

* “Facts and Trends to 2050: Energy and Climate Change.” World Business Council for Sustainable Development. (http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/xxSdHDlXwf1J2J3ql0I6/ Basic-Facts-Trends-2050.pdf)

** “Sustainable Consumption: Facts and Trends from a Business Perspective.” World Business Council for Sustainable Development. (http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/I9Xwhv7X5V8cDI HbHC3G/WBCSD_Sustainable_Consumption_web.pdf)

Yahoo! Kids Dictionary : http://kids.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/english

About.com: http://forestry.about.com/od/treephysiology/tp/tree_value.htm

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Answers.com: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org/

Clean Energy Resource Teams: http://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/technology/cogeneration

http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/xxSdHDlXwf1J2J3ql0I6/

http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/%20I9Xwhv7X5V8cDI%20HbHC3G%20/WBCSD_Sustainable_Consumption_web.pdf

http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/%20I9Xwhv7X5V8cDI%20HbHC3G%20/WBCSD_Sustainable_Consumption_web.pdf

http://kids.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/english

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.nrdc.org/


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Lesson activities

Preparing the classroom If possible, arrive 15 minutes ahead of time to prepare the classroom.

(Keep in mind this might not be an option if teaching is taking place just prior to the activity.)

1. Tape or stick up your garbage percentage grid on a convenient wall at a height where the students can reach the top.

2. Tape or stick up the nine easel sheets to the left of the garbage grid. 3. Have your colored paper and pencils at hand to randomly distribute to students when they come in. Each

student will get three, four or five of these depending on the number of students. You must distribute all 100 pieces of paper.

4. Set up your photo pages in order of presentation and place them near the place you will lead your discussion or by the computer if using a projector to access images.

5. Your students will be moving around a lot. Consider moving desks if access to the front of the classroom is impaired.

6. Grab your markers and you are ready to go!

Greeting As students gather, or as you enter, introduce yourself and where you are from. If it is a large class (24 -30 students) and you aren’t able to set up the classroom ahead of time, you will need to take a few minutes to hang up charts and set out materials. Greet the students while you are setting up and enlist the help of a few students.

Begin by asking students if they threw anything away today. Have a few volunteer share what they threw away. Then ask them, “Where is away?” Where do they think the trash they threw out went once it left them? Tell them that they will be exploring what happens to garbage and how we envision garbage being handled in the future.

Activity A – What is garbage? (30 minutes)

Materials

Class/group 12 sheets of sticky note 24 x 36 inch chart paper that sticks to a wall OR

– A roll of blue light tack painter’s masking tape for taping paper to the wall (does not tear paint when removed)

– 12 sheets of 24 x 36 inch easel paper for lists and activities

8 rolls of all-purpose tape

10 3”x 3” sticky note packs (any color) for students to take individual sheets from

5 – 10 small glue sticks (depending on group size sharing 1 stick among three students)

100 pieces of 2” x 2.5” pieces of colored paper (see chart in “Day before Prep” section for colors and quantity of each) Use recycled or reused paper if possible.

2 good water-based markers for notes

Golf pencils, 1 per student (or ask students to bring their own)

Large calculator for display or small calculators for each small group of students

Image Portfolio – Handout A


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Part 1 Show and discuss the picture of curbside bags of garbage. What do they think is inside the bags?

Ask students to think back over the time since they got up yesterday morning and think of the things they threw away. Explain that each thing they list will belong to one of the categories on the nine charts hanging on the wall. Make sure they can see and read the categories. They will write one thing they threw away on each sticky note and place the sticky notes into the categories on the chart paper. Have some students start the process by saying one thing they threw out. If you need to prompt the students’ thinking, refer to daily activities that generate garbage:

Preparing and eating food

Doing homework

Reading newspapers

Do you ever break a toy or do your pens run out of ink?

Did you ever wear out your clothes or outgrow your shoes?

Do you ever unwrap a present?

What do you do with your empty soda cans or juice boxes?

What do you do with tissue after you sneeze?, etc.

Do you ever help with raking leaves or mowing the lawn? Do you bag up the trimmings for the garbage?

Once they have the idea, pass out the sticky note packs and the pencils and give them five minutes to post their garbage on the charts in the proper categories.

Part 2 Discuss some of the more interesting things on the list and note the variety. “We sure do throw out a lot of different things, don’t we?”

Explain that now you will be exploring what kinds of garbage and how much garbage is created each day. Using the paper pieces you prepared, they’ll be helping you create a chart that shows how much of each kind of trash is generated. Show the paper pieces. Explain that each of the colors represents one category of garbage. Pass out the paper pieces you prepared so that the colors are as evenly distributed as possible.

Once you’ve done that, have all of the people who have yellow pieces hold them up. Explain that these represent the category of paper. They show how much paper we dispose of each week. Wow! That’s a lot of paper. Have them label their pieces as “paper.” Show a sample of a properly labeled piece from one of the students.

Have them hold up the green pieces. Write “yard trim” on the green pieces.

Proceed like this through the list, describing and labeling each piece of paper, referencing the color-coded chart you used to prepare the paper pieces.

Once the pieces are all identified, they will put the garbage in the trash can grid. (Point to the trash can grid.) Give each small group of students a roll of tape. Each student should take one small piece of tape for each paper piece. They will roll the tape and stick it to the back. Have them temporarily stick loose pieces with tape onto the back of their hands to make it easy to store and retrieve.


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Explain that you want to keep a neat pile of trash, and that the students will start adding trash to the trash can beginning with “paper” on the bottom. Have the students with paper squares come up and add their squares to the trash can beginning at the bottom and filling in the rows as they go up. Repeat this for each of the other types of trash, working from the greatest number to the least, bottom to top.

Once done, ask students to look at the garbage pieces and tell me what percent of all the garbage is plastic. How much is paper? When someone volunteers and is right, ask them how they figured that out and reiterate to the students that, if each piece is 1% of the total and there are 100 pieces in the garbage, then they can just count the # of pieces of each garbage material type to figure out its percentage of the whole.

Uncover the percentage chart and keep track of the percentages. Go through all of the types of garbage. You’ll want this list for reference later on.

Part 3 Ask students to assume that this can holds 100 pounds of trash and recyclables. Explain that this amount is about what a family of four produces in one week. Remind students that a family doesn’t produce this much each week, but that over a year’s time the average, (including things like wood, yard waste and electronics) will equal this much. Explain that each of these pieces of paper is one percent of the total so the can is 100% and weighs 100 pounds.

Lead students through the calculations that show how much garbage is produced across the country each year.

Each person, on average, produces 4.5 pounds of garbage/recycling each day.

4.5 lbs. x 7 days = 31.5 pounds per week per person 31.5 lbs. x 52 weeks per year = 1638 pounds per year per person

Now for the hard math: 1638 lbs. x 310,000,000 people in the United States = 507 billion pounds of trash and recycling per year.

Explain that this is enough to bury 82,000 football fields six feet deep in compacted trash.

Activity B – Getting rid of garbage: The 4R’s: Reduce, reuse, recycle, recover (15 minutes)

Part 1 In this final activity, the students discuss the properties of each type of waste, find out how much of it is recycled and reused (and how much can be reused or recycled) and begin to distribute the garbage in appropriate ways. They will discuss the benefits of each waste management method and determine a realistic goal for the allocation of each material. This will leave some garbage left over for other methods of disposal (landfill) or energy recovery (burning for fuel).

Ask students to consider where we put all this trash that we “throw away.” Have them suggest some things they know about trash collection methods. Ask them to consider: if they were in charge of a town, what would they do with the trash that is being picked up every week? Where can our thrown-away materials go?

Most students will know about recycling and some will know about landfills. They should be able to explain that today we usually separate recyclables from garbage. The remaining garbage often ends up in landfills. Have them explain what is good about recycling. (It reduces the amount of trash going into landfills.) Explain that we use 4 R’s to remember how to handle trash. You may wish to write these on a chart paper as you say them. Reduce (the amount you throw away), Reuse (as much as you can), Recycle (as much as possible).


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Now we add a fourth R: Recover. Once something that should be recycled goes into the garbage, can it ever be used again? Ask what they think recoverable garbage is? (Let the students offer their responses after you ask each of the following questions.)

Explain that recoverable garbage is when materials can be separated out of the garbage and given a new purpose or reused. An example is metals that get thrown in the garbage. Once metals are thrown out, they’re on their way to the landfill. Ask students if there a way to separate metals from the rest of the garbage? (Magnets can separate out magnetic metals.)

Explain waste-to-energy technology. New facilities have equipment and people who separate out any recyclable material. Materials that can be burned are considered to be recoverable. The energy in those materials can be used as fuel to turn generators and make electricity. Ask students to name some of the things in garbage that could burn and list those on the board. It may surprise students that food can be burned for fuel, even though most of them can remember something burning on the stove. Food contains energy that our bodies use, so it is possible to burn leftovers to create heat. Heat is used to make generators create electricity. So rather than burn fossil fuels, this plant generates electricity from our waste.

Some students will note that burning food or paper produces smoke and a bad smell. Others may note that any burning produces smoke, which is a pollutant. Explain that these modern facilities have developed special smokestacks that can “scrub” the exhaust from the burning. They remove smoke particles and other noxious gases. They do allow carbon dioxide to escape which we know contributes to global warming. That’s why we don’t want to depend entirely on this type of technology to get rid of our waste. It is much better to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover. All four R’s are important.

Part 2 Turn back to the chart you uncovered and ask students to consider how much of the trash they throw out can be recycled or recovered.

Using the Garbage Data Sheet you developed, go through each category, asking students for ideas on how each can be either recycled, recovered, both or neither.

Material Recyclable? Recoverable?

Paper Yes, can be made back into paper. If dry, paper can be recovered from garbage and then recycled. If wet, paper would not be recoverable.

Yard Trimmings Yes, yard trimmings can become compost.

Difficult to recover once in a landfill, will decompose.

Food Scraps Yes, food scraps can become compost. (In urban areas, compost can be collected by the cities and turned into fertilizer for urban trees and gardens)

Difficult to recover once in a landfill, will decompose.

Plastics Yes, plastics can be melted down. Yes, plastics can be removed from garbage. Plastics are light-weight and float, and could be sorted out.

Metals Yes, metals can be melted and reshaped into new products.

Yes, metal can be recovered using magnets.

Rubber/Leather/ Fabric

Somewhat. Rubber and fabrics can be broken down and recycled.

Difficult to recover once in garbage.


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Material Recyclable? Recoverable?

Wood Yes. Wood can be reused, and also recycled into pulp to make paper.

Possibly. It may be difficult to recover wood from garbage unless it is in large pieces. Would need to be sorted.

Glass Yes, glass can be recycled into new glass.

It may be difficult to recover glass, as it breaks easily.

Electronics Electronic parts can be reused. Possibly. Electronics may be recovered from garbage.

Part 3 (Optional—if time allows) Turn back to the 100 grid trash can chart and use the data on the presenter’s copy of the Garbage Percentage Chart to discuss how many of the squares would disappear if we recycled or recovered energy from the garbage. First show students how many would disappear if we recycle or recover at our present rate. Start with one category and go through the chart. For example, at current rates of recycling, 45% of paper is being recycled. Remove 16 “paper” markers to show this. But 100% of paper could be recycled. Remove the remaining “paper” markers to show how this practice could reduce our waste each week. Discuss the other categories so that students can further discuss the benefits of reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering waste.

Closing reflections (5 minutes) Review with students that today they investigated how waste-to-energy generation solves two of our nation’s big problems: production of a great amount of waste and the need for ever-increasing amounts of energy. By burning trash to produce electricity, we eliminate garbage and power our machines all at once. That’s a win-win for everyone.

Ask students to share what they learned today about waste and energy.

Use the following questions to prompt students for a quick assessment:

What problem do we have with garbage?

What problem do we have with energy?

How can burning garbage help solve both of those problems?

How can we produce electricity from the burning of garbage?

Is it better to burn garbage to produce energy, or produce less garbage?

Thank students for having helped you today and for their great ideas. Tell them that you hope they will continue to help look for solutions to our waste problems and to practice the four R’s.

Evaluation/assessment of student learning

Ideas for post-lesson assessments Groups of students will create posters that encourage people to “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.”

Students will imagine themselves in charge of a town’s waste management. They will review the Garbage Percentages Chart and use it to explain how they would decide which type of waste management to use for each category of trash.

Extensions/enrichments Suggest that students review their family’s recycling plan and offer ways for the household to reuse, reduce, and

recycle more.


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If there is a waste-to-energy facility in the vicinity, students and their families might enjoy arranging a tour.

Teachers might also arrange such a tour for their classes.

If there isn’t a plant nearby, students can take a virtual peek at a waste-to-energy plant in Baltimore at the U.S. Energy Information Administration web pages (http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=RESCOE_Plant ), while reading more about how these plants work.

Students can pick up some easy tips for reducing and reusing materials at lunch on the “Tips for a No Waste Lunch at home and at School” page (http://www.recycleworks.org/schools/lunch.html ) of San Mateo County’s Recycle Works website.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=RESCOE_Plant

http://www.recycleworks.org/schools/lunch.html

Documents

Waste and Recycling Recycling and Energy Recovery