5th Grade Recycling Project

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

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

3. 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!

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

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

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

7. 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

8. 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!

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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!

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

13. 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!

14. 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!

15. Hard At Work

16. Finished Products

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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.