Session 6 - 4 R’s

The Four R’s of Wasting Less
One of the perils of environmental education is that it can leave kids (and adults) feeling helpless in the face of vast problems. Hence this effort to introduce simple ways to combat the trash epidemic: reduce, reuse, recycle, respond.


Citizens can work toward environmental goals by blending lifestyle changes and advocacy.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggests four strategies to stop trashing the planet: reduce the amount of waste, reuse things instead of pitching them, recycle whatever you can, and respond to business and politcal leaders by voicing your environmental concerns.



Try This!  

Check out recycling sites.
Get some trash-reduction tips.
Find out how to start composting.
Learn about the Earth Day Groceries Project.
Download cool handouts.



Recycling Sites

The EPA provides information they’d love to see you recycle:

  • Four principles, twelve tips-who could ask for more?
  • Miss Redux teaches the kids in Recycle City how to keep their world in good shape.

The American Forest & Paper Association site includes a Kids & Educators section.



Trash-Reduction Tips

Haven’t read the EPA’s Consumer Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste? (We know: You’re waiting for the movie.) These are some of its suggestions, along with a few of our own.

Reminder: Clean food containers carefully!

  • Select items with the least unnecessary packaging.
  • Store and transport produce in reusable containers.
  • Don’t take more food than you really think you’ll eat.
  • Bring a mug or cup to school and reuse it.
  • Use washable utensils.
  • Buy drinks in refillable containers or use a thermos.
  • Reuse boxes, bags and other containers. Paper shopping bags make great book covers.
  • Reuse scrap paper and envelopes.
  • Use both sides of a sheet of paper for writing notes before recycling it.
  • Save and reuse gift boxes and ribbons as well as wrapping and tissue paper.
  • Save packaging, colored paper, egg cartons, and other items for reuse or for school projects.
  • Egg cartons are incredibly versatile. You can use them as tiny flowerpots to sprout seeds or as a tray to sort small items (screws, nails, buttons, pills, coins, and the like). You could make party favors by dividing a carton into segments, each of which gets decorated and filled with candy or nuts. Or make dollhouse furniture. Then again, you might cut the cartons up for packing material.
  • Reuse packing materials such as newspaper, foam "peanuts," and bubble wrap.
  • Use jars, milk jugs, coffee cans, margarine tubs, and similar containers to store paper clips, pens, pencils, thumbtacks, and myriad other items. An empty coffee can make a fine flower pot.
  • Choose recyclable products and containers and recycle them.
  • Participate in community recycling drives and curbside programs. Community officials, the local recycling center, or a nearby recycling business can give you details. (Tip: Use a magnet to distinguish aluminum cans from others, since magnets don't stick to aluminum.
  • Compost food scraps (except animal products), leaves, grass, wool, cotton rags, sawdust, and shredded newspaper.




Easy Composting

This primer is based on information from Seattle Public Utilities (ck name!). You can learn even more from Pennsylvania's Compost: It's Mulch Better site.

Composting Ingredients

  • Vegetable scraps
  • Grains and pasta
  • Fruit rinds and peels
  • Breads and cereals
  • Coffee grounds and filters
  • Tea bags
  • Egg shells
  • Paper napkins

Do not compost any animal products or oily foods. They smell and attract rats.


Composting Process

Step 1: Select Spots
Food scraps can be buried in empty spots in vegetable and flower gardens.

Step 2: Dig Holes
They should be at least a foot (about a third of a meter) deep.

Step 3: Add Food Scraps
Put three to four inches (eight to ten centimeters) of food scraps at the bottom of the hole. Use your shovel to chop the scraps and mix them into the soil. Doing so will speed composting.

Step 4: Cover With Soil
Shovel at least eight inches (twenty centimeters) of soil over the scraps to prevent rodents and pets from digging them up.

Step 5: Wait
Buried food scraps may take two to six months to decompose, depending on your composting ingredients, soil temperature, moisture, and worm populations. In good garden soil, leafy greens will break down in weeks while citrus peels may require several months. Before planting anything, check your burial areas so that decomposed food doesn't come to the surface when you dig.



Earth Day Groceries Project

Each year on April 22, thousands of U.S. students decorate brown paper bags that will used by their local supermarkets. The kids' eco-art provides shoppers with a gentle reminder to recycle.

Interested? Get the 411, as your pupils might say, from the Project's home page.



Handouts

These EPA (?) materials may be useful in your classroom. They require the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Kindergarten, Grades 1-3

Grades 4-6
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