Rethink: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Lesson Summary: Students investigate items found in an average classroom

garbage can, finding creative ways to reduce, reuse and recycle these items.
Essential Understanding:
Environment and community require many interconnected systems.
Choices people make can have positive impacts on their environment
and community.
Working well together enhances stewardship and a sense of
community.
Knowledge developed:
There are abiotic, biotic, and cultural elements of any ecosystem or
watershed.
Abiotic factors (Light, Air, Water, and Soil) interact with one another
and with biotic factors to support life.
Biotic factors or living species or organisms (Producers, Consumers,
and Decomposers) adapt for survival in response to one another and
to the abiotic factors.
People throughout history have changed and been changed by their
environments and these actions affect sustainability.
Skills developed:
OBSERVING: five senses and emotional
PREDICTING, ANALYZING, INTERPRETING and REPRESENTING
information using creative, scientific, and verbal approaches
DEVELOPING & EXPRESSING perspective, empathy, & selfknowledge
APPLYING what has been learned to new situations

Age group: 4th- 6th

Venue/s: indoor or
outdoor classroom with
a dry erase board or
chalkboard
Materials included:
1 copy IslandWood
Times article
Scissors
Materials needed:
Trash bin filled with
reusable, recyclable
and compostable
items
Recycled poster
board
Old magazines,
Glue sticks
Markers
Time: Quick= 25 min.
Extended=45 min.

Preparation:
1) Make copies of the IslandWood Times article to be given to small groups.
2) Obtain 3-4 trash items (recyclable, reusable, etc.)
3) Write the 3 Rs on the board: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle with enough space left to add the
classrooms definitions.
Introduction:
How many of you have heard of the 3Rs? What do these words mean?
The core lesson:
1) Write out the definitions the class creates.

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IslandWood Rethink: Reduce Reuse and Recycle Lesson

2) Do you believe the order that the words appear in is important? Why? Why not? This
discussion can be very interesting. Some environmental scientists were worried that once
people learned to recycle that they might forget to reduce or reuse their garbage and would
end up using up resources faster than they would be if we only had the first 2Rs: reduce and
recycle. That is why the 3Rs are listed in the order of importance.
3) Lets add a fourth R and rethink the ways that we currently deal with our trash. Who can
tell me what happens to your trash after it gets picked up from the curb? Where does it go?
Discuss the path that trash takes from curb to truck, to train (sometimes) and finally ending up
at the dump.
4) How does this change when we reduce our waste? How is this different when we recycle?
What happens to garbage that is recycled?
5) I have a news story from the future that will help us get into the mindset of why we need to
worry about where our trash goes in the first place. Divide the students into groups of 3 or 4
and hand out the news article.
6) Have the students read the article out loud in their small groups. Do you think this could
possibly happen to us in the future? How do you think it would feel to live in that reality?
Ask the students to rethink the ways that people throw away their trash and what they can do
today to keep the news story from coming true and discuss it with each other. Give students a
few minutes to discuss these ideas.
7) Next pass out 3 or more trash, recyclables and reusable items to the student groups. Ask the
students to come up with alternative ways to Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle the items they were
given and record their ideas on a sheet of paper.
8) Tell the students to create a short skit that illustrates one or two of their ideas.
9) Draw a blank chart on the board (illustrated below) for the students to place their ideas in the
appropriate columns.
10) Once all of the students have finished sharing their ideas within their small groups, ask each
group to share their examples on the board.
11) Next have each group perform their skit on how they would reduce or reuse an item. Consider
limiting the amount shared, so each group will have an opportunity.
REDUCE
1. Buy a large
container of juice and
pour it into a
reusable beverage
container to pack in
lunch instead of juice
boxes.
2. Buy in bulk: Dried
beans take up less
space and use fewer
resources than
canned beans.

REUSE
1. Use yogurt or other
plastic containers to
carry lunch items or
leftovers in.
2. Shop at a secondhand clothing store.
3. Make art out of
garbage. Soda can
mobiles..etc.
4. Store dried beans in
washed out spaghetti
sauce jars.

RECYCLE
1. Rinse out aluminum
cans.
2. Stack and recycle
old newspapers.

OTHER
1. Build compost bin
and compost food
scraps

Formative Assessment and Conclusion:

1) Do you think we can apply what we just learned to reduce the waste that is created at
school? At home? In our communities? What are some ways we can remember to do these
things? (Create signs that remind us, create different collection bins for reusable items and
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recyclable items, etc). Do you think we can make an impact by reducing the amount of waste
we put into landfills?
2) Extended Option: Use old magazines to create beautiful collages that illustrate the importance
of the 3 Rs to be displayed in the hallways or lunchroom of their school. This can also be taken
into younger classrooms, so students can teach them what they learned about the 3 Rs. Do
you think it is important to pass on knowledge to others? Lets share our new ideas with the
rest of the school by creating posters to put up in the lunch room and hallways.
3) Pass out recycled poster board, butcher paper, or other poster material and have each group
create a poster that illustrates:
a. The importance of the 3 Rs (including the relevance of the order)
b. Why we should rethink what we do with our trash
c. Examples on how they can do these 3 things
Extension Projects:
1) Compute your ecological footprint. Check out the IslandWood ecological footprint calculator
on the CD in the module or on our website at:
http://learn.islandwood.org/footprint/default.htm
2) Research the current system in place for removing trash, recycling, and food waste from a:
a) school or classroom
b) local restaurant
c) home
3) Organize a school or classroom garage sale/fundraiser to encourage reusing materials and
raise funds to donate to a cause the class agrees on, to attend IW or other activities.
4) Organize a classroom clothing swap
5) Visit or learn more about a local recycling center through a presenter.
6) Cascade Recycling Center
Phone: 425.485.8145
th
Fax: 425.482.9681
14020 NE 190
Woodinville, WA
Email: cascaderecyclinginfo@wmnorthwest.com
7) Schedule your visit online at http://www.wmnorthwest.com/cascaderecycling/
Visits last about one hour, including 40-45 minutes in the conference room, where they
discuss recycling procedures, watch a video, and observe sorting on closed circuit television.
At the end of the visit youll watch the sorting from the observation deck for about 5-10
minutes.
8) Tours are provided on:
a) Tuesdays: 10:00 am to 8:00 pm.
b) Wednesdays: 10:00 am to 8:00 pm.
c) Limit 30 visitors
d) Visitors ages 4-12 must be supervised by at least one adult for every four young people
9) Take a virtual tour:
http://www.cityofseattle.net/util/About_SPU/Recycling_System/History_&_Overview/COS
_003982.asp
10) Seattle Tilth is scheduling classroom presentations for 4th graders on recycling and waste
prevention. To schedule, contact Lisataylor@seattletilth.org.
Background Information
Definitions:
REDUCE: Essentially, to make less garbage. For example, instead of buying juice boxes for
lunch, buy a large container of juice and use a washable single serving container
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to take it to school. Or better yet, make your own juice from fruit and youll have
no waste at all.
REUSE:
To use an item more than once. For example, when you get a plastic bag from the
grocery store put it in your car and use it again the next time you go shopping.
RECYCLE: Turn an item into another useful item. For example, scrap paper from the
classroom might be turned into newspaper or paper bags when sent to the
recycling plant.
How much trash?
Every day we create trash. In Seattle, the average resident creates approximately 2.7 lbs of solid waste
(waste that does not enter the sewer system) per day. Our garbage fits into the Municipal Solid Waste
(MSW) category, since it includes all the garbage, recyclables, and yard waste that residents and
businesses set out for collection or haul in to a City Recycling or Disposal center.
Whos making all this waste?
According to Seattle Public Utilities, almost one-half of all waste is collected from businesses and
nearly a third is collected from single-family residences. Residents of multi-family buildings generate
less than a tenth of all Seattles waste. The remaining waste comes from self-haulers (residents and
businesses who bring waste directly to transfer stations).
What is done with the waste?
Based on the statistics of nearly 10 years ago, Seattle residents were creating nearly 800,000 tons of
waste a year with 19,000 tons being composted in individual yards and 330,000 tons were recycled or
composted through different recycling programs.
Seattle Public Utilities website states that the remaining 426,000 tons were hauled to a landfill in
Eastern Oregon. This gives an overall recycling rate of 44% (percentage of total tons generated that is
recycled). Considering residential waste only, however, 50% of this waste is recycled. Self-haulers
recycle only 18% of their waste, due to lack of recycling opportunities at the transfer station, and the
effort it takes to separate materials for recycling for little or no financial payback. Paper products are
the number one recyclable item still put into the landfills each day, adding up to nearly 90,000 tons in
1995.
For information outside of Seattle City Limits visit: www.wmnorthwest.com/washington.html
Recycling Facts:
Most paper, glass, metal and plastic are recyclable. The materials are divided up and delivered to
manufacturing plants to be made into all sorts of useful products from recycled paper and glass to
fleece jackets and more.
The number on the bottom of plastic containers indicates the resin (a type of plastic) content. The cost
of recycling some items exceeds the value of recycled plastic.
References:
Adapted from Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (before we run out of space at the dump!), lesson plan on
KidZone.
http://www.kidzpne.qa/plans/view.asp?i=150
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Also adapted from the Make a Difference Curriculum by Joseph Petrick.

Seattle Public Utilities:
http://www.cityofseattle.net/util/About_SPU/Garbage_System/History_&_Overview/inde x.asp
Waste Management NW:
http://www.wm.com/WM/community/Resources.asp?id=sub6

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