Fun with Character: Trash Talking
For a cool math problem and to get your students thinking about how they can affect the environment and be environmentally responsible, ask them to count how many bags of trash their family goes through in a week. Add up the numbers from the class, then average that number. Use that number to estimate how much trash the families in the school discard in a year, how much the county throws away, and even how much trash your state produces! Google “population of the United States” and “population of your state” to get the numbers needed.
Discuss recycling in Sweden. They have a motto: ‘Miljönär-vänlig (“miljönär” is a play on the words “environment” and “millionaire”) – Get rich by making, borrowing and recycling,’ conveys the message that you can save the environment as well as money by being eco-friendly. They have done such a good job at recycling that they must import trash to burn in their trash-to-energy incinerators. Visit these websites for more information.
Next, have them split into groups to come up with creative ways to reduce the amount of trash thrown away. Start with what the trash can in the room has right now. You may want to “preload” some garbage to launch a discussion, such as
an empty plastic sandwich bag – replace with a reusable container
a disposable water bottle – replace with a reusable water bottle
a lunch bag – replace with a lunch box
They can even launch a recycling drive at the school to recycle something that the school doesn’t already recycle.
Visit Terracycle to get some ideas about unusual things that can be recycled and earn money for the school. (Local newspapers would love to feature a story like this.)
End the discussion by challenging the students to be mindful of everything they toss in the trash for the next week.