Using the Three Rs to Help the Environment Adapted from http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/midlit11.sci.spl3r/

Our society creates and buys lots of products (uses energy and materials). When we no longer need these products, many get thrown away. How can we change the way we buy and use things to better protect Earth?

Defining the Problem How much does a typical person in the United States throw away? 4-5 lbs every day… >200 million tons of waste each year Most goes to landfills Almost none is biodegradable (breaks down naturally and become part of the soil)

What Is Not Biodegradable? Examples: plastic, metal, glass Items made from these materials remain in our ecosystem for a long time On page 109 (bottom), list some of the things you threw away yesterday Note what kinds of materials these items were made of Put a “B” next to them if you think they were biodegradable Biodegradable video

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle To get the most out of things you own, use less energy and materials, and keep waste out of landfills, consider a solution known as “the three Rs”: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reduce To reduce means…? …to do or use less of something Use less energy and fewer materials, make less waste Examples: Get as much use as you can from what you already have Look for products with the least amount of packaging (which just gets thrown away)

Reuse To reuse means…? …to use again Reuse instead of throwing away Examples: Pass items on or donate to charity Freecycle Reusable shopping bags Reusable water bottles

Recycle To recycle means…? …to use old items (or parts of them) to make new items If you can’t use less or reuse it, try to recycle it Examples Recycling newspaper Companies taking back their old products, recycling parts for new products Recycle video

Making Old New Again Products are often recycled into the same type of product Example: used metal cans recycled into new metal cans Companies are now using materials from one product and turning them into something completely different Example: rubber shoe bottoms ground up and spread out under playground equipment Example: plastic water bottles used to make fleece jackets Prototype video

Two More Rs: Resist and Repair! Resist: Do you really need it? Buying new things uses up materials and energy and contributes to the waste problem Repair: Can you fix it? Repairing rather than buying uses fewer materials, less energy, and creates less waste