5th Grade Recycling Project Mrs. Boylan Hannah Kelsi Ashley Tyler Dakota 5th Grade Recycling Project

Natural Resources Over the course of a few weeks, students received instruction on: Natural Resources Conservation Real life strategies to make a difference

Wrap It Up! As a final activity before we joined the high school students, we made posters to show the importance of the 3 R’s that will be displayed around the school!

REDUCE Reducing resources means to use less. What are some ways we can do this?

REUSE To reuse means to use a resource again. What are some easy ways to reuse resources?

RECYCLE To recycle means that items are changed into a form that can be used again. What are some ways we can easily recycle?

Interesting Facts On average - we throw away 240 milk jugs (Elem.only) in the morning at breakfast and 535 milk jugs at lunch. This totals: 775 Per day 3,875 Per week 697,500 Per year

More Interesting Facts Some days our school throws away 535 Styrofoam trays which cannot be recycled. They go to our landfills, where they will sit forever! We could stop this by using the reusable trays at lunchtime!

WOW!! Americans go through 25 billion plastic bottles each year. If every American household recycled just 1 out of 10 HDPE (laundry detergent type) bottles they used, this would keep 200 million pounds of plastic out of landfills each year! Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups each year, enough to circle the earth 436 times. Recycling one aluminum beverage can can save enough energy to run a 100 – watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours and a TV for 2 hours.

Our Project Mrs. Boylan’s 5th grade homeroom class teamed up with the Science Club to make Recycling Bins for various teachers to use in their classroom throughout the building.

High School Part Miss Hess sent out an email asking each staff member about the recycling habits of the classroom and if he/she would be interested in receiving a recycling bin? 51/96 employees responded, which is pretty good since 72 rooms are being used!

Results (Of those who responded) 2/51 do not recycle at all 37/51 recycle paper 40/51 recycle plastic 0/51 recycle aluminum

Figure 2 Science Club members observed offices/classrooms which hold a recycling bin. 38/72 classrooms/offices have a recycling bin 34/72 did not have any type of recycling bin. Note the area around the cafeteria, which generates, by far the most TRASH!

What We Made Most teachers already recycle paper. Almost all of the people who responded - requested a plastic recycling bin so that is what we made as Christmas gifts!

Some SIMPLE ways our school can GO GREEN Put recycling bins in the cafeteria and classrooms that do not currently have one We have teachers willing to help raise money for the bins or donate a bin. Install a system to get the recyclable materials to the recycling center, which is right across the street

What's in it for us? A healthier environment Cuts costs of goods used The school that quit using Styrofoam trays saved $3,000 a year! Conserves our natural resources Saves landfill space Conserves energy Reduces water pollution, air pollution and the green house gas emissions that cause global warming.

THANK YOU! Thanks for listening to our presentation. We hope you will consider helping us to make recycling an important part of what we do here at school.