Wednesday

Taking Recycling Into the Classroom

By: Terry Shannon

     Now that school is back in session across the city and state, it’s time not only to educate the students, but teachers as well about the merits of recycling.  If you’re a teacher, did you know there is an entire downloadable curriculum on recycling?  It makes no difference what age your students are – elementary, middle school or high school – each syllabus is designed to fit your students’ ages.
     There is a startling list of how long it takes various products to breakdown.  For example, did you know it takes 1,000,000 years for a glass bottle to completely breakdown?  500 years for an aluminum can.  And 500 years for a disposable diaper.  All these statistics are available to any teacher interested in recycling by going online to:  http://www.eastman.com/GSAR/Pages/Education.aspx.
     There’s even a class on the myths/facts about recycling.  For example, many people think paper bags at the grocery store are a better environmental choice than plastic bags.  The facts are plastic bags use 40% less energy to produce and they generate 80% less solid waste than paper.  Plastic bags are also 100% recyclable for all environmental impacts related to air emissions, water emissions and solid waste.
     Take a look at the company behind the website – Eastman Chemical Company, which also happens to be a huge sponsor of “Good Sports Always Recycle,” the country’s largest sports stadium recycling program.

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