Shabazz City High School Shabazz City High School Plastics Recycling Project By: K8, Gekka, Isaiah, Abi, Melanie, Jesse, Ryan, Sam, Doug, Quinn

Results of our Research History of Madison recycling Differences between types of plastic Sense of the communities’ views towards recycling

History of Madison Recycling 1968 Madison is the first city in the nation to have curb side recycling 1972 Madison starts recycling metals, wood, and brush 1980 Madison starts leaf pick up 1989 Madison expands to include plastics, aluminum, and steel cans 1989 Madison helped three neighboring communities start their own recycling systems 1991 Madison creates mandatory curb side pick up for recyclable materials

Plastics 3 and 4 Number 3: shower curtains, some shampoo containers, cooking oil containers, fast food items, PVC pipe Number 4: thin plastic bags (grocery bags), shrink wrap, margarine tub tops

Plastics 5 and 6 Number 5: microwave containers, Tupperware, syrup bottles, diapers, carpeting, and yogurt tubs. Number 6: coffee cups, disposable cutlery, styrofoam (packing peanuts), bottle caps, and plastic cups

Plastics 7 Number 7 plastics are usually made from combinations of plastics 1-6 Ketchup bottles, or other squeeze bottles This is the hardest to recycle due to the combinations of materials

What We Want to Change Reduce the production of landfills Recycle 3-7 plastic Raise awareness in Madison of the current recycling system

Why We Should Recycle 1-7 Environmentally sound community Save landfill space Improve the city’s recycling program Expand the economic foundation for the city

Helping the Cause Used other cities as examples Found a web site that lists companies that will buy recycled plastics Discovered how much waste is generated with 3-7 plastics Surveyed local people

Other Communities Fitchburg,Wi –They charge $3.25 a month to recycle everything that Madison recycles, plus 1-7 plastic, and multicolor paper Grayslake, Il –Charges about $5.00 a month to recycle everything Madison recycles, plus 1-5 plastic, and multicolor paper Deforest, Wi –Green Valley, charges $5,332 dollars per month to the city to recycle everything that Madison recycles, plus 1-7 plastic, and multicolor paper –Number of monthly stops for recycling pick up is 2,538; price being about $2.10 per stop

Sell, Sell, Sell: Buyers of Plastic! This internet site is helpful; it is a search engine to locate buyers and sellers of recycled plastic in any area. Local Buyers of Recycled Plastic Gar plastics Inc Purchases plastic 3, 4, 5, and 7 Arendt Brokerage Purchases plastic 3 Madison Roto Mold Services Purchases plastic 4, 5, 6, and 7 Brown Sales Corp Purchases plastic 6

Waste With 3-7 Plastic The Madison Plastic Recycling Guidelines say plastics 3-7 “account for less than 1% of house hold waste” due to the fact that they do not recycle The chart below provides multiple figures under 1% as to how many tons of recyclable waste Madison generates 2002 the streets division reported 51,455 tons of trash went to the landfill. This chart shows what less than 1% is in tons

So What is a Ton of Garbage? Using our figures of less then 1% for plastics 3-7, the chart below shows how much landfill space is used by this recyclable waste. Waste Management says 1 ton is about 6 cubic yards

Where and Who We Surveyed Campus Area and State Street were our main targets Majority of people surveyed were college students or lived in the campus area The next large demographic was business people from the area, and teachers from Shabazz and Sherman Middle School We surveyed a total of about 185 people

Results of our Survey Many people recycle for environmental reasons A large proportion of people are willing to pay extra money to recycle 3-7 plastics A large percent of the Madison population does not know how to recycle plastic

Why the Community Should Recycle We asked the question, do you think that we as a community should recycle for environmental, economical, or other purposes?

Pay to Recycle? 101 People out of 169 people who answered the question said that they would pay $5 a month to recycle 3-6 plastics!!

Do you Sort Your Plastic? When we asked this question we were shocked to find out how many people didn’t sort out their plastics!!

In Conclusion….. –We realize that this is a big task –However… Landfill space is not limited There are buyers out there Significant support in the communities around Madison Considerable support in the Madison community

Thank You….. Thank you for your time, and have a great evening!