LESSON PLAN FOR GARBAGE PIZZA

Episode Four 304 – Where Trash Goes (Physical Science) You toss it and forget it, you put it out to be collected and it disappears from view, but one man’s trash may indeed be another’s treasure. Each person in the United States creates about four pounds of trash each day! We know that some of that trash is recycled, but most of it actually goes to a landfill. Our landfill takes in about 1,000 tons of trash every day from like you and me! What kind of stuff are we throwing away to make all that trash? In this lesson we will investigate where trash goes and how you can help reduce and recycle.

Funded by: Eli Lilly and Company Foundation Dr. Laura Hare Charitable Trust

Indiana Academy of Science Overview Students will investigate the various materials that we put into our landfills. Students will sort the materials and look for ways to reduce and reuse materials. Students will make their own Garbage Pizza pie chart models. Students review how much refuse or garbage is generated by Americans each year. The class will discuss the impact on the environment, why it is important to reduce, reuse or recycle, and how that can be accomplished. Background information Statistics show that the average American generates about four pounds of trash every day! That's 1,460 pounds of trash per person every year. Multiply that by the number of people living in the United States; and you'll realize that as a nation, we throw away about 210 million tons of stuff each year. It comes from our homes, businesses, government agencies, and institutions like schools and hospitals. But where does it all go? About 27 percent of it is recycled or composted, and 16 percent is burned, but the majority 57% - is buried in landfills. Connections to the Indiana Academic Standards for Science, Grades 3 – 7 The following standards contain the grade-level standards and indicators addressed in this lesson. 3.2.6; 4.2.4, 4.2.5, 4.2.6 Science Process Skills

• Calculating • Communicating

• Hypothesizing and predicting • Inferring • Measuring • Posing questions

Estimated Time Requirement One 45- minute session Materials – (make sure materials are clean and free of sharp edges)

• Empty pizza box – for each group • Bag of “garbage” for each group

o Food: Orange peels, banana chips, dried pasta, cheerios, dried beans o Glass: Beads, sea glass, marbles, etc. o Metal: Screws, nails, bolts, aluminum foil, crushed cans, paper clips o Plastic: Crushed pop bottles, bubble wrap, straws, plastic bags, plastic fruit snack wrapper,

plastic cup o Paper: Scrap white paper, cardboard, toilet paper roll, small milk cartons, newspaper ,

napkins o Yard: Dead flower heads, sticks, leaves, pressure-treated wood scrap, grass clippings o Other: Fabric, Styrofoam plate pieces, rubber band, leather scrap, toy pieces, button,

battery, drink box (aseptic) • Plastic gloves • Recycling Fact Sheet • Poster board • Markers

Vocabulary Landfill Refuse

Recycle Compost

Environment Aseptic

Objectives Students will:

Construct a “Garbage Pizza” to represent all the trash thrown away, Learn the composition and the proportion of the types of trash that enter the landfill, Classify recyclable materials, Analyze how personal choices make a difference in the amount of generated waste in a landfill.

Procedure Anticipatory set:

• Visit the website: www.IndianaExpeditions.org • View the Where Trash Goes Indiana Expeditions segment • View the video lesson from the this episode

Lesson sequence:

• Inform the students that today they are all going to learn about recycling and sorting garbage. • Each team is assigned one of the seven garbage groups: Food, Glass, Plastic, Metal, Paper, Yard,

Other. • Pass out or share on the board the Garbage Pizza pie chart.

• Study each pizza slices. Students will notice that the pieces are not the same size. • Find the largest slice. This slice is so big that it is almost half of the pizza isn’t it? This slice of pizza

is going to measure 41%. Do you see how 41% is almost half of 100%? What type of trash do you think makes up nearly half of what we throw away? Paper! That’s paper and cardboard.

• Pass out to each group the materials. Each group needs a pizza box, a bag of garbage, a poster board, and materials to make a poster. Make sure each student wears plastic gloves.

• Sort your garbage by the seven types of materials in the pizza box. • Use your Recycling Fact Sheet to discuss:

o How can you reduce the use of materials to create less garbage? o How can you reuse materials instead of simply throwing them away? o What materials can be recycled? o Where can they be recycled?

• Make a poster for your Garbage Group, to share with the class what you discovered. Closure: Ask the students to apply what they have learned. Think about and discuss the following questions:

• Why is it important to recycle? • Is garbage a problem?

Suggested Student Assessment Objectives:

Ask students to write and/or illustrate what they did during this activity and what they learned from their participation in the activity. Students should be able to list several ways they can help reduce and reuse materials.

Extending the Lesson Use the following Web sites to help your students learn how to start a compost pile at your school or home: Guide to Composting, http://www.gardenguides.com/TipsandTechniques/compost.htm Build a Backyard Compost Pile, http://www.mastercomposter.com/pile/bldapile.html Sources of Lesson Garbage Pizza: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, Lisa Darger, Energy Education Manager, MSD of Warren Township, and the City of Lubbock Water Utilities Conservation Education Department 406 Municipal Drive Lubbock, Texas 79403 To learn more, visit the website at www.IndianaExpeditions.org

Recycling Fact Sheet

Plastic With a little bit of care much plastic can be recycled, and collection of plastics for recycling is increasing rapidly. Plastic recycling faces one huge problem: plastic types must not be mixed for recycling, yet it is impossible to tell one type from another by sight or touch. Even a small amount of the wrong type of plastic can ruin the melt. The plastic industry has responded to this problem by developing a series of cryptic markers, commonly seen on the bottom of plastic containers. These markers do not mean the plastic can be recycled, these makers do not mean the container uses recycled plastic. Despite the confusing use of the chasing arrow symbol, these markers only identify the plastic type. Virtually everything made of plastic should be marked with a code. Not all types can actually be recycled. Types 1 and 2 are widely accepted in container form, and type 4 is sometimes accepted in bag form. Code 7 is for mixed or layered plastic with little recycling potential. You should place in your bin only those types of plastic listed by your local recycling agency! Due to fluctuating market conditions, some colors or shapes may be useless to the recycling agency.

Recycling #5 Open Top Containers (Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Strawberry Baskets) For decades, the #5 cups have been the bane of the good home recycler. The cups are hard to avoid buying, and mostly useless for recycling. Many curbside collection programs won't complain if these are placed in a bin, but they won't recycle them either. Other plastic Containers (milk, soap, juice, fresh pasta, water, etc.) All plastic containers you purchase should be marked with a large and clear recycling code. This code must be molded into the plastic and located on the bottom surface of the container. Ideally the entire container should be made of the same plastic to avoid confusion, but often the caps are of a different type. Caps should be separately marked, but few are. Note that most caps are NOT of the same type as the bottle they sit on. Grocery sacks produce bags, and other packaging These are great to reuse. Not only do you save a new bag, but your old bags don't smell like chemicals (the 'plastic bag smell' is mostly plasticizer chemicals that outgas from the bags). Plastic grocery and produce sacks are commonly, but not always, made from plastic types 2 or 4. These bags are often collected in barrels at grocery stores, and usually end up as plastic lumber. Collection is not particularly profitable. Other Plastic Items Any product made of a single plastic type should be marked -- after all product may one day break or be replaced. This includes toys, plastic hangars, trash cans, shelves, baskets, rain ponchos, and many other products. Many products, such as compact discs, video tapes, and computer discs, are made from mixed materials which can't be recycled unless first disassembled. Glass, Steel, Aluminum Cans and Foil Glass, steel (or "tin") and aluminum are easy to recognize and recycle. For clarity, a recycling symbol should be present, but most people have little trouble sorting these materials. Glass bottles must not be mixed with other types of glass such as windows, light bulbs, mirrors, glass tableware, Pyrex or auto glass. Ceramics contaminate glass and are difficult to sort out. Clear glass is the most valuable. Mixed color glass is near worthless, and broken glass is hard to sort. There have been marketing experiments with plastic

and steel cans that look exactly like aluminum cans. Recycling plants have been damaged by these fakes. The distinctive shape of an aluminum beverage can be reserved for aluminum beverage cans only. It is no longer necessary to remove labels for recycling. To save water, clean only enough to prevent odors. Unlike plastics, the high temperature of glass and metal processing deals easily with contamination. Scrap aluminum is accepted in many places. Other metals are rarely accepted. Aseptic Packaging (Drink boxes, soy-milk containers) The square boxes used for liquids are called "Aseptics", the most common brand of which is "Tetra Pak". Aseptics are made from complex layers of plastic, metal and paper. The aseptic industry has spent millions in public education on the issue of aseptic recycling, including distribution of classroom guides and posters like "Drink Boxes are as Good on the Outside as They are on the Inside" and "A Day in the Life of a Drink Box". The actual recycling process, unfortunately, is very expensive and awkward, and is therefore only available in a very few places. Coca-Cola maintains a list of aseptic recyclers, call 1-800-888-6488 for information. Because of the difficulties, only an insignificant fraction of aseptic packages are currently recycled. Paper Most types of paper can be recycled. Newspapers have been recycled profitably for decades, and recycling of other paper is growing. Virgin paper pulp prices have soared in recent years prompting construction of more plants capable of using waste paper. They key to recycling is collecting large quantities of clean, well-sorted, uncontaminated and dry paper.

50% recycled paper, 35% post-consumer. Soy-based inks.

It is important to know what you are buying in a paper product, for that reason virtually all paper products should be marked with the percentage and type of recycled content, as above. Just saying "recycled paper" is not enough. "Recycled paper" could mean anything from 100% true recycled paper to 1% re-manufactured ends of large paper rolls. "Post-consumer" means the paper that you and I return to recycling centers. From a recycling point of view, the more "post-consumer" paper the better. Soybean-based inks are gaining favor as a renewable alternative to harsh and toxic petrochemical inks.

White Office Paper One of the highest grades of paper is white office paper. Acceptable are clean white sheets from the likes of laser printers and copy machines. Colored, contaminated, or lower grade paper is not acceptable. The wrappers the paper comes in a lower grade, and not acceptable. Staples are OK. White office paper may be downgraded, and recycled with mixed paper. Corrugated Cardboard In areas that don't take cardboard from consumers, one can often drop boxes off at a supermarket or other high volume business. Contaminated cardboard, like greasy pizza boxes, is not acceptable. In some areas cardboard must be free of tape, but staples are always OK. Newspapers Newspaper is widely available and of uniform consistency, which makes it valuable. The entire newspaper including inserts is acceptable, except for things like plastic, product samples and rubber bands. Newspapers may be stuffed in large brown grocery sacks, or tied with natural-fiber twine. Other brown paper bags may be mixed with newspaper.

Phone books Some phone books are made with special glue that breaks down in water, while other phone books use glue that interferes with recycling. Printed in your phone book should be information on the source and type of paper used, the nature of the binding, and where locally phone books can be recycled. Note that many phone companies continue to use virgin rain forest to produce directories. In many communities phone books are only accepted during the time new directories are distributed. Waxed cartons (Milk, juice) Milk cartons are plastic laminated inside, even if they don't have a plastic spout. Mixed Paper Mixed paper is a catch-all for types of paper not specifically mentioned above. Everything you can imagine from magazines to packaging is acceptable. The paper must still be clean, dry, and free of food, most plastic, wax, and other contamination. Staples are OK. Remove plastic wrap, stickers, product samples, and those pointless "membership" cards, and most junk mail can be recycled as mixed paper. Due to new technology, plastic window envelopes and staples are generally OK. Paper that can't be recycled Paper that can't be recycled as normal "mixed paper" includes: food contaminated paper, waxed paper, waxed cardboard milk & juice containers, oil soaked paper, carbon paper, sanitary products or tissues, thermal fax paper, stickers and plastic laminated paper such as fast food wrappers, juice boxes, and pet food bags. Paper with any sort of contamination or plastic layers can't be recycled. Plastic laminated paper is bad for recycling plants; such paper should be clearly marked.

Old refrigerators, Heat Pumps & Air Conditioners

Most older refrigeration equipment contains freon, a chemical know as a Chlorinated Fluorocarbon or "CFC" for short. Each molecule of a CFC can destroy over 100,000 molecules of the earth's

protective ozone coating, leading to increased risk of sunburn, cataracts and skin cancer for the entire population of the planet (human AND animal).

If you are throwing away an old refrigerator, heat pump or air conditioner please be sure the CFC's are drained out and recycled first. Use only a hauler who will perform this important service -- call and ask before you let them take your old equipment away. Before having your car's air conditioner serviced, ask what the shop does with the freon. Never allow a leaking refrigeration system to be recharged. A number of international treaties, federal and state laws govern the use of CFC's. Handlers of refrigeration equipment can get information on laws and recycling equipment from the American Refrigeration Institute Single Use Batteries (Alkaline, Heavy Duty) Once recommended for the trash, increasingly these batteries are collected. Not that they are actually recycled: often they are simply put in a more expensive landfill. The State of California mandates recycling of such batteries. With the invention of "low self discharge" or "precharged" NiMH batteries, single use batteries are all but obsolete. A leading "low discharge" brand is the Sanyo Eneloop, costing less than 3 times that of a typical single use battery. Investing in a "smart" charger is a must for the best battery life. Shop for models with microprocessor control (not a timer), and the ability to charge each battery individually (not two or four at a time). A good comparison and shopping site is www.greenbatteries.com. Rechargeable Batteries (other than car batteries)

Rechargeable batteries are commonly used in portable telephones, computers, power tools, shavers, electric toothbrushes, radios, video tape recorders and other consumer products. There are a variety of different battery types, some of which contain quite toxic materials. The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) is an industry funded group promoting battery recycling. Manufacturers pay a fee to use the logo shown to the right, and to support the costs of the eventual collection of the batteries they sell. Look for (and even insist on seeing) the RBRC logo on rechargeable batteries you buy. For a nearby drop-off location:

• Call 1-800-8BATTERY. • Visit the RBRC drop of location finder. • Try your local Radio Shack store.

Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd), Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium Ion (Li-ion), and Small Sealed Lead (Pb) batteries can all be recycled. Several states now prohibit consumers from dumping rechargeable batteries into the normal trash. Nickel-Cadmium rechargeable batteries ("NiCads") contain cadmium, a metal that causes blood and reproductive damage, among other problems. Most of the Cadmium in our waste stream comes from batteries. These batteries pose little hazard in use (the Cadmium is in a stable form), but are a danger in landfills. Worn-out batteries are often easily replaced. While many batteries are custom shapes (just you so have to buy a special battery) the chemistry inside is identical. A clever repairperson can replace just about any rechargeable battery. Motor Oil, Tires and Car Batteries All three of these products are big environmental problems, but all three are easily recycled. Used motor oil contains heavy metals and other toxic substances, and is considered hazardous waste. Each year do-it-yourself oil changers improperly dump more oil than the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled into Alaska's Prince William Sound. One quart of oil can kill fish in thousands of gallons of water. Motor oil containers should mention the danger of used oil to humans and the environment.

Motor oil must never be dumped in storm drains; storm drains flow *untreated* into rivers, lakes or oceans. Your quart of oil *does* make a difference - don't dump it.

Recycling used motor oil is easy. Typically you used oil into a plastic milk jug and clearly mark it "used motor oil". The following should help you find a location to take the oil. Please drop off oil during regular business hours only:

• Call your local garbage, recycling or toxics agency for a referral. • In California - Call 1-800-CLEAN-UP for locations. • Many quick-lube shops take oil (the industry association encourages it):

o Jiffy Lube - (Contact any Jiffy Lube Station nationwide). o Valvoline Instant Oil Change Centers - (Contact any Valvoline Station)(Valvoline's First

Recovery Service, however, was sold to Safety Klean). • Many auto stores take oil, including Grand Auto, R&S Strauss, Pep-Boys and Wal-Mart. Some

states have laws requiring any business that sells oil to take used oil back from consumers. Antifreeze contaminates motor oil - do not mix the two. If your car has blown a gasket and you are draining the oil, mark it clearly as potentially contaminated and treat it as non-recyclable household waste (see below). Never mix anything with used motor oil. Never place used oil in a container that has contained other chemicals. You normally must pay a fee to dispose of a tire (usually $1-$5), but it is worth it. Improperly disposed tires tend to rise to the top of landfills, breed mosquitoes, transit disease when traded globally, and burn when stacked in large piles. Your old car battery might be worth money, but most car parts shop will take it.

Computer Printers Most printer cartridges are easily recycled, refilled or re-built. But printer vendors sell the printer cheap, and make their real money selling supplies. They don't want you be environmental. The "right" environmental solution is to sell new cartridges with a postage paid mailer for returning the old one. Some forward-thinking companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, have been known to do this, especially for laser printers. Sometimes you can find free envelopes for donating cartridges to a refiller, but don't bother with refill kits. They may save money, but they are messy, and you use as much plastic as a new cartridge. To make a difference, buy recycled paper for your printer (because of the fine grain, it can look better than regular sliced trees). Grab piles of "blank on one side" paper from work, and use the other side. And always buy recycled Compost It may seem strange to see the word compost on a recycling page, but compost is just recycled plant matter. Food and yard scraps placed in a special bin are converted into valuable garden soil in a matter of weeks. Compost bins are available at garden stores & nurseries. Composting can easily reduce by half the volume of material a household sends to a landfill. If you don't care about accelerating the processing, just keep adding material at the top. Just try to keep a balance of dry "brown" materials and fresh "green" material. Lots of things you'd otherwise throw away can be composted, including wine bottle corks, cooking oils, certain types of foam packing peanuts, used paper towels, dryer lint, etc. If it is natural, you can probably compost it without trouble!

Household toxics Individuals tend to be very sloppy when it comes to handling toxic materials in the home. Individuals often handle toxic chemicals in ways businesses would be fined for. The heaviest application of agricultural chemicals in the USA comes not from agribusiness, but rather from home gardeners. Indoor air pollution from household products is often found to exceed allowable federal outdoor quality rules. Items such as poisons, paints, oil, solvents, automotive fluids, cleaners, herbicides and many others must not be dumped into the regular garbage. Water seeps through landfills and toxics end up in the water table. In areas that burn garbage, your toxics may end up in the air you breathe. The best thing to do is use what you buy, buy only what you need. If you have accumulated toxics, check with your garbage company or local recycling agency -- almost all areas have household toxics drop-off days or locations. Chemicals must never be dumped in storm drains; such drains typically flow *untreated* into rivers, lakes or oceans.

False claims How can one be sure that stated environmental claims are actually true? Manufacturers have been known to make misleading, trivial, irrelevant and false statements on packaging. Statements like "recycled" or "earth friendly" are so vague as to have no practical meaning. The more specific a claim, the easier it is verify. Several prominent independent certification laboratories exist to verify environmental claims. Only products meeting the standards of the organization may display the logos shown here. For more information click on the logos. For the federal government perspective, try the FTC Environmental Guidelines.

Other things you can do

• Favor products with a high recycled content, even if they cost a little more. • Reduce the volume of packaging you buy, reuse what you can, and recycle the rest. • Tell the clerk "I don't need a bag". • Use your own reusable canvas bag or backpack at the store. • Buy quality products and keep them for a lifetime.

From the Consumer Recycling Guide, www.obviously.com/recycle. Contents Copyright 1996-2006 Obviously Enterprises. Keywords: consumer recycling guide, curbside recycling guide, household recycling, environmental activism. Additional Resources: http://www.cleansweepusa.org/educators.aspx http://www.epa.gov/osw/ www.earth900.org Poster with Pizza Pie Chart: http://illinoisbiz.biz/NR/rdonlyres/6D266100-B8A5-4D3C-8728-AC68480C9450/0/GarbagePizza.pdf

The Trash We Pass Waste Production and Recycling Efforts in the United States

The following chart shows that although Americans are recycling more, we are also producing more waste. As the American population goes up, so does the amount of waste we produce. However, as the percent of waste recycled goes up, tons disposed per person goes down. Data source for above table and below pie chart: BIOCYCLE Questions for discussion based on the above table

• How much larger was the US population in 2001 than in 1990? • How many more tons of waste was generated in 2001 than in 1990? • How many more tons of waste were disposed (actually went to a landfill) in 2001 than in 1990? • Why do you think the increase in the amount of trash generated is so much larger than the

increase in the amount of trash that actually went to landfills? • Contrast how much people recycled in 1990 with how much they recycled in 2001. Describe how

this affected the amount of trash disposed of per person between 1990 and 2001. • How has recycling affected the trash we pass?

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The Trash We Pass

Questions for the pie chart: (to be answered as a class, in small groups, or individually)

• Which of the above categories are commonly recycled? Which can be recycled in your neighborhood?

• The sum of these commonly recyclable categories adds up to how many millions of tons? How much waste would be recycled using the standards in your neighborhood?

• What percent of the total waste can be commonly recycled? What percentage of waste can be recycled using your neighborhood’s standards? Is this close to the same percentage of recyclable garbage that you found in your class during the earlier exercise?

• Which of the above categories can be composted? • The sum of all the compostable categories adds up to how many millions of tons? • What percent of total waste can be composted? • How much of the Net Waste total can be eliminated by recycling and composting? • How does recycling and composting effect the trash we pass?

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The Trash We Pass Answers to table and pie chart questions Table Questions

• The US population increased by 39,525,770 people. • The US population generated 140,029,000 more tons of waste. • The US population disposed of 30,659,720 more tons of waste. • RECYCLING – Although the population generated much more waste per person in 2001 than in

1990, the amount of waste per person that was actually disposed of in landfills actually fell due to the US population’s recycling efforts.

• The percent of waste recycled increased dramatically, and therefore the amount of waste disposed per person decreased (even though the total amount of waste generated increased).

• Between 1990 and 2001, the amount of waste disposed of increased at a smaller rate (12%) than the increase in US population (16%) and at a much smaller rate than the amount of waste generated (52%).

Pie Chart Questions

• Which of the above categories are commonly recycled? Which can be recycled in your neighborhood? All categories mentioned (except for “other”) are recyclable. However, paper, plastics, metal, and glass are commonly recyclable. Answers will vary for what can be recycled in your neighborhood.

• The sum of these commonly recyclable categories adds up to how many millions of tons? How much waste would be recycled using the standards in your neighborhood? 88.5 million tons of commonly recyclable waste. Answers will vary using neighborhood standards.

• What percent of total waste can be commonly recycled? What percentage of waste can be recycled using your neighborhood standards? Is this the same percentage of recyclable garbage as you found in your class during the earlier exercise? Again, all categories can be recycled, but using the answers for question 1, 56.5% of the total waste can be commonly recycled. Answers to the other questions will vary.

• Which of the above categories can be composted? Yard waste, food waste, and some woods. (Use the following Web sites to explain what a compost pile is, Guide to Composting, http://www.gardenguides.com/TipsandTechniques/compost.htm and Build a Backyard Compost Pile, http://www.mastercomposter.com/pile/bldapile.html).

• The sum of all the compostable categories adds up to how many millions of tons? (About 37.5 million tons/48.5 with wood).

• What percent of total waste can be composted? (24% or 31% with wood). • How much of the Net Waste total can be eliminated by recycling and composting? It is possible to

eliminate all the above waste, except possibly for “other.” However, 137 million tons, or 87.7%, can be eliminated through typical recycling and composting methods.

• How does recycling and composting effect the trash we pass? The more trash we pass towards biodegradable compost piles, the less trash finds its way to landfills.