Recycling

Our Plan

By Harper

Our plans for the recycling committee is to start a recycling education club for Sierra View, adding recycling bins to are classroom(Room 12 Mrs. Akimoto). Then we will teach the older kids (Fifth grade) and the younger kids (kinder garden to third grade) about how to recycle. Once they all know how to recycle we will add recycling bins to the courtyard.

Info

We would talk about Do’s and Don’ts in the program.” It’s important to know what to recycle and what not to recycle”,(kid’s guide to recycling.) Some do’s are recycling junk mail,separating your items,and separating your e-waste.Some don’ts are trying to recycle broken glass or plastic, recycling pizza boxes,and recycling food.

In the program we would talk about carbon footprint.Over 16,000 plastic bottles get thrown away in a minute .Over 14,000 aluminum cans get thrown away in a minute.”Are carbon footprint will change if we change.”(Kids guide to recycling.)

If we don't have a recycling program at our school we would have a lot higher carbon footprint and big change in pollution.

Recycling Program

By, Mia, Caitlyn, Olivia

First we researched what could be recycled so we could make posters.

Next we made posters for the intermediate kids and then we are working on ones for primary kids with pictures.

We had some questions so Mia called Recology because it is our recycling company at Sierra View.

Recology gave us the name of someone to talk to, so we emailed her with questions.

Dear Becky,

We are 4^th grade students trying to start a recycling program during lunch at our school. We have a few questions. Could you help us answer them please?

1. Do we need to sort our recycling into metals, plastic, paper or can we throw them into one bin?

2. Where do we get recycling bins for students to use in our courtyards

3. Kids don’t recycle anything at lunchtime. What are some things that we can recycle at lunchtime that don’t’ get recycled? What are some things that can’t be recycled that people think can be?

4. Do we have to rinse things out before we recycle them, or can kids throw them out if they are empty?

5. Can our cardboard lunch trays be recycled?

6. If there isn’t the recycling symbol on the bottom of Styrofoam, does it go in the trash?

7. Which recycling numbers can be recycled? Are there any numbers that can’t be recycled?

Thank you for your help and thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

Mia, Olivia, Caitlyn, Zoey, Meredith, Violet, and Dean

Answers We Got

By Meredith

Becky told us that Recology separatists there recycling into seven different piles. She told us that most of the piles are separated by the different types of plastic that make them up. Number one is PET or Polyethylene terephthalate, which is commonly used for plastic water bottles, soda bottles, and plastic peanut butter containers. Number is HDPE or High-density polyethylene is Milk jugs are made from are made from this and so are some plastic kinds of shampoo bottles. Next is three PVC (polyvinyl chloride) which is Clear saran wrap is made from polyvinyl chloride, along with some detergent bottles, and many toys. Four is LDPE or low density polyethylene is many plastic bags are made from number four like grocery bags, and dry cleaning plastic bags. Number five is polypropylene which is ketchup and syrup bottles, bottle caps, and straws are made from polypropylene. Six is PS (polystyrene) when six is not expanded with air, plastic is what makes solo cups, and lots of clear to-go clamshells. They often have a loud crunchy sound. When it is expanded with air, number six is often called Styrofoam, like the to-go clamshells, hot beverage cups, and packing ‘peanuts’. Last but not least number seven which is usually other and some times poly lactic acid which is made from plants instead of crude oil, it is a miscellaneous category. We also learned that there is a food wast recycling and our lunch trays are not recyclable if they have food or greece stains on them.

By:Mia and Harper

This is are speech that we used to educate the kids about recycling:

Hi, We are fourth graders from Miss Akimoto’s class and we are here to tell you all about recycling so you can help save the planet!

First we are going to tell you what can be recycled and what can be thrown away

Here are some things that can be recycled. (have one person to hold up the check mark of the things that can be recycled. Then have someone who holds up a big red X to show the things that can not be recycled. Lastly other people hold up the stuff that can be recycled and the stuff that can not.)

What you see on these pictures are things that have to be put into the green recycling bin, NOT the regular trash bin. So make sure when you have these items in your lunch you put them in the right bin.

Thank you for your time! Bye!!!

Our Sierra View Recycling Program

By Harper

Eco Audit

In the indeterminate courtyard the trash weight was 26.3 and in the primary courtyard the trash weight was 23.6 the cafeteria trash weight was 20.8. We weighed the amount of trash that was thrown away, and it weighed about 20 lb! A few days later we had students at our school recycle, and we filled about a whole 32- gallon trash bin with recycling! All the recycling weighed about 2 lb, so we felt discouraged until we remembered that in the trash bins there was food, and that food weighs a lot. We weighed the recycling and trash in groups. The primary students in the courtyard recycled just under 1 lb of things from their lunch. The intermediate students in the courtyard recycled also just under 1 lb of stuff. All the students in the school in the cafeteria recycled also just under 1 lb of items.

Making Our Recycling Cans

What we did for the recycling bins is we spray painted the lids green and writing recycling.We also laminated pictures on the bins of recyclable items.

Teaching and Recycling

For the teaching part we split up into groups and we went to (kinder garden and 1st),2nd and 3rd), and(4th and 5th),We teach about whats recyclable and whats not recyclable by using flash cards. We also went out at lunchtime and stood by the cans and told kids what could be recycled for a week.