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What is recycling?

How do we recycle?

What can we recycle?

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How does recycle help the environment?

What natural habitats are affected by waste?

What can people do to help natural habitats?

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What is littering? How does it affect the environment?

How can humans cause climate change?

What do humans do to the environment when they do not recycle?

How can humans protect the environment?

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How can we create awareness to recycle?

What can children do to help the environment?

Can a school community help the environment by being green? What can they do?

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Grandpa Comes to First Grade is a fun fiction book that teaches readers what it means to be green. In the story, a girl named Jada takes her grandpa to her green school and teaches him how her school is green. She shows him that they do not waste things and they create things from old materials they recycle.

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Our House Is Round: A Kid's Book About Why Protecting Our Earth Matters

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Our House Is Round: A Kid's Book About Why Protecting Our Earth Matters

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This fiction book is about saving the planet. It helps readers understand the damage that is being done to the earth and the many ways people can fix them. It touches on the topic of pollution, climate change, and recycling all in one. The book also has amazing illustrations, and a plan to help save the earth.

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This book breaks down what recycling is. It takes readers through a journey in each chapter. The author starts the book by allowing readers to understand the reasons why we recycle, then they talk about products that can be recycled, and how those products are recycled. This book also gives readers tips on what they can do in their household to recycle.

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The Soda Bottle School is a story about a Guatemala village that used plastic bottles to create something amazing. The story highlights the idea of recycling plastic to make something new. This book gives readers ideas of how they can recycle old things to make new ones for the community.

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This story follows a group of animals that lived in a garbage lot in the city. A group of people noticed the lot grew and decided to clean it up and turn it into something beautiful, a community garden. This story is good for readers because it not only reminds them of different items that can be recycled but also gives them an idea of what they can do to bring awareness to recycling n their communities.

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This book tells the story of Milly Zantow. A girl whose love for the earth lead her to change the world of recycling. The book follows the story of how Milly created a system to identify different types of plastics and started a movement of recycling in her town. This helps readers understand how one small idea can help bring awareness to recycling and help save the environment.

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Nature Recycles- How About You explores different ways different animals that live in different habitats recycle. This book beautifully illustrates each animal's habitat and the objects they use to protect themselves and their homes. Along the book, it asks the question "How about you?" to the reader to get them to think of what they recycle.

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This nonfiction book takes readers into the process of cleaning up a park. Students and their teacher help their community by cleaning up their nearby park. They pick up garbage, recycle the trash that can be recycled, and throw the rest out. This is a great project that helps readers understand how they can help their community recycle.

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Garbage Galore is a nonfiction book about what happens to the garbage that people make. It walks readers through the process of pollution and the filling of landfills. The book also talks about things people can recycle and how they are recycled. At the end of the book, the author shows readers how they can make their compost to start their recycling journey.

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No More Plastic is a beautifully written story about plastic in the oceans. Plastic is one of the deadliest things for animals at sea but one of the easiest things to recycle. This story follows a girl named Isley who witnessed the pollution of plastic kill a whale. Isley's mission in the story was to eliminate the use of plastic to save the beach in her town.

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Landfills are a big problem in the world. This book follows the process of where garbage goes along with what happens in landfills. The book also gives readers photographs to view how big of a problem landfills are and the things people can do to help it.

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Let's Recycle is a nonfiction book that brings awareness to recycling. This book teaches readers what recycling is along with what things are recycled. This book also shows readers how to recycle using descriptive text and photographs.

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This Brainpop video teaches students the importance of recycling. Follow Annie and Moby and as they show you how to reduce, reuse, and recycle in order to save the environment.

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Video 1: Actsmart Schools, Waste and recycling at your school

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Video 1: Actsmart Schools, Waste and recycling at your school

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In this video, kids from Actsmart Schools show different ways they recycle in their schools. The video shows how the school uses different bins throughout the school, has waste monitors, and makes different changes keep the school green.

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Actsmart Schools, Waste and recycling at your school

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This video follows a robot named Wall-e who lives in a world that has been overcome by trash. This is a great video that shines awareness of what recycling can prevent in the future. It is a fun and humorous way to get the conversation started in the classroom. Wall-e compacts the trash together to try to minimize it but also collects his own.

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Text 1: How Can You Make Earth a Better Place?

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Text 1: How Can You Make Earth a Better Place?

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This is a great article that informs readers of Earth Day and the many ways they can help the earth. This article touches on on the concept of recycling and even tells readers to make a difference in their communities by doing things to help the earth.

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If it's April 22 when you're reading this, then we'd like to wish you a very happy Earth Day! Each year on April 22, people all over the world participate in a wide variety of ways, both big and small, to make Earth a better place to call home.

Earth Day was the brainchild of Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin. After seeing the environmental destruction caused by the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, Nelson wanted to find a way to raise consciousness of the need for greater environmental protections.

Inspired by the anti-war movement activities of college students around the nation, Nelson proposed a "national teach-in on the environment." He enlisted support from a wide variety of demographics: Republicans and Democrats, urban leaders and farmers, and business owners and labor unions.

The result was the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. On that day, over 20 million Americans took part in a wide variety of rallies, meetings, demonstrations, and activities all targeted at highlighting the need for protecting Earth and our environment for generations.

Thousands of colleges and universities also participated. Members of a wide variety of different groups dedicated to different environmental causes learned they shared common values.

Earth Day was a tremendous success. It led eventually to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the passage of environmental legislation , including the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

Earth Day has now become a phenomenon. In 1990, for example, over 200 million people in 141 countries mobilized to bring environmental issues, especially recycling, to the forefront of consciousness . Today, Earth Day campaigns continue to publicize important environmental issues, such as warming, clean energy, and recycling.

If you're WONDERing what you can do to make Earth a better place, participating in Earth Day activities is a great place to start. By attending a , meeting, or demonstration , you can learn about the environmental problems facing our planet.

To really make a difference, though, you need to turn the knowledge you gain into . Volunteering for an environmental group or helping to organize an Earth Day event to educate others is one way to make a difference. More importantly, however, you can make changes in your daily life that have a beneficial impact on the environment. Here are a few suggestions for simple things you can do to make Earth a better place:

energy and natural resources! Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Take shorter showers. Turn down the thermostat in winter and turn it up during the summer. Replace incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent or LED light bulbs.

a ! Earth Day is followed just five days later by Arbor Day on April 27. Trees produce oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the air. Take the time to some trees that will benefit you and generations for many years to come.

, , and ! We only have one Earth and it has to last us forever. The amount of trash humans produce increases each year. Do your part by reducing the amount of stuff you buy, reusing the stuff you already have, and recycling paper, metal, and plastic as much as possible.

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If it's April 22 when you're reading this, then we'd like to wish you a very happy Earth Day! Each year on April 22, people all over the world participate in a wide variety of ways, both big and small, to make Earth a better place to call home.

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This article talks about how to keep a city clean. It tells readers what different cities around the world do to decrease pollution, littering, and trash, It also encourages readers to keep their cities clean by doing something like picking up litter, recycling, or walking instead of taking a car.

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Today's Wonder of the Day is just good, CLEAN fun!

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This fun and colorfully illustrated fiction book help readers understand why littering is a problem. Trina walks readers through her journey as a pirate who comes across litter on the beaches. She explains what happens to litter, and how it is bad for people, animals, and the earth. She also explains what people can do instead of littering, which helps readers find solutions to littering.

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This nonfiction book talks about animals and their natural habitats. It mentions some habitats that are in danger and the effects it has on the animals that live in those habitats. The book allows readers to understand how humans can hurt habitats, along with how they can help the habitats. This book also gives tips to students that they can use every day to help the habitats that are in danger.

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Video 2: Recycling Plastic, Glass and Paper

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Video 2: Recycling Plastic, Glass and Paper

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This youtube video provides students with information about recycling. Students learn how to clean up and recycle properly when throwing trash away. This video walks students through the process of what happens in recycling plants and how it helps the environment.

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Recycling for Kids | Recycling Plastic, Glass and Paper | Recycle Symbol | Kids Academy

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Text 1: What Types of Things Can You Recycle?

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Text 1: What Types of Things Can You Recycle?

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This article talks about different things to recycle. It tells readers the benefits of recycling along with the economic point of view of recycling. The article also explains the concept of zero waste and how some countries are trying to recycle more things to produce less garbage. Readers will not only get the importance of recycling from this article but, also from the many reasons why people recycle.

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We're confident today's Wonder of the Day won't be a waste of your time!

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This article teaches readers about the many parts of recycling. It provides students with a list of recyclables, along with how to reuse and reduce the use of those products. This article also provides statistics on recycled items and the importance of recycling. Lastly, readers walk away with different crafts they can make using recycled items.

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Recycling is important to preserve the environment and to leave the planet in a better condition than we found it. Did you know that the average American throws away four pounds of trash daily? That is more than 1.5 tons of waste per person per year. Multiply that by 6 billion people and you know we have a major problem with waste.

For example, one of the biggest problems in the world today is the staggering amount of electronic waste (e-waste) that is produced. In 2009, thrown away TVs, computer, printers, monitors, scanners, keyboards etc. made up 2.37 million tons in the US.

This was only 2% of our landfill trash, but 70% of our toxic waste. It poisons our soil, water, trees and other precious resources. E-waste is especially bad for the environment and is something that kids can help to prevent as they learn to recycle many things in their communities: papers, magazines, cans, plastic and glass bottles, electronics and more.

The good news that all of us can do our part to recycle, and it starts the youth of America. If children learn from early on to recycle, they will carry that good habit with them for life. With some easy effort and guidelines, kids can learn how to become part of the solution to recycling for a healthier planet.

This guide will outline the key aspects of recycling, challenges, and what kids can do specifically to help to improve our recycling efforts every day. Use it as a resource to teach your students about the importance of becoming part of the recycling revolution.

What Is Recycling?

Recycling is how we take trash and transform it into new products. There are several types of recycling processes that allow some materials to be used one or more times. Recycling is good for us and the environment because it reduces the use of new raw materials to product new products. It also reduces the energy we use, improves the quality of air and water, and fights climate change.

All sorts of things can be recycled. Some of the most common processes used today recycle:

Plastics

Glass

Metals

Electronics

Computers and accessories

Textiles

Newspapers and magazines

Cardboard

Soda cans, plastic water bottles, plastic milk cartons, newspapers, cereal boxes and old computers are just some of the common items that are recycled every day. If all of us were to recycle just a few items per day that we throw away, we can go a long way to improving the environment for our futures and future generations.

What Is Reusing?

Just as we learn the importance of recycling, we also should learn about reusing. Reusing means combining reusing materials and using items that can be reused. For example, paper plates cannot be reused, and reusable cutlery lowers the energy that is needed to make new products, and it also can be reused to prevent more waste in the landfill. Reusing things that can be reused means less pollution and more of our precious natural resources are left intact.

Think about the possibilities of a product before you throw it away; it could be reused for another purpose. How about that old t-shirt? It could b used as a car rag. Reuse is different from recycling, but it does lead to reduced consumption - always a good thing.

What Is Reducing?

Another important thing to learn, in addition to recycling and reusing, is reducing. Keeping our new purchases to a minimum is a way to reduce our use of natural resources. Reducing consumption of physical objects is important, as is reducing our use of electricity, water and gas to make new products. Reducing means to lower usage from the very start.

Cutting back on purchases you do not really need lowers the use of materials and also lowers energy waste through gas and transportation costs. Reducing also can apply in other areas of life. Carpool, bike or use public transportation when possible. Take shorter showers and ask your parents to replace old appliances with Energy Star ones.

Recycling By The Numbers

Below are some important facts about recycling:
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If you lined up the plastic bottles tossed away each year, they would circle our planet four times.

Energy saved from recycling a glass bottle can light a light bulb as long as four hours.

Recycling saves money for our communities. Did you know that it costs only $30 per ton to recycle most materials? On the other hand, it costs up to $50 per ton to take garbage to the landfill. It takes $60 to $75 to burn it, which pollutes the air.

People have been recycling their trash for thousands of years; ancient civilizations would melt down old metal products such as knives and swords and various metal household items to make coins and other new items.

75% of garbage is recyclable but we only recycle 30% in the US.

The average person in the US throws out almost five pounds of garbage daily - that is 251 tons per year - per person!

The typical American uses 17 trees each year in wood and paper products. Many of those products can be recycled.

We toss away enough paper and wood annually to heat 50,000 homes for two decades.

The typical American gets 500 pieces of junk mail annually. Most of this is simply thrown away. It takes millions of trees to produce all that junk mail.

Recycle plastic bags by reusing them when you are at the grocery store or bring reusable cloth bags with you.

Glass can be recycled many times.

A single aluminum can will sit in a landfill for at least 500 years. All aluminum cans may be recycled.

17 million barrels of oil are used to produce the plastic water bottles consumed in the United States each year.

So Why Recycle?
Recycling is vital for many reasons that affect the future of all children. Today, more than 100 million Americans recycle. It is an easy way to protect the environment and stimulate the national economy. When you finish a bottle of water or a box of cereal, it is important to remember to recycle for these reasons:

Save our natural resources and wildlife. Recycling helps to reduce the garbage in landfills that can take hundreds of years to break down. It also helps to preserve trees by reducing the need for new paper. If we do more to preserve natural resources, we also help to support wildlife for us to enjoy throughout our lives.

Saves money. Selling materials that are recycled offsets the additional costs of processing and collecting the recycled materials. This makes it a cheaper option for most American communities.

Reduces pollution. Using recycled materials rather than taking virgin materials for new products avoids environmental harm. It avoids new mining for metals, drilling for oil and the mass harvesting of trees. Using recycled white paper creates 75% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution than making new paper. Using recycled cans produces 95% less air and 97% less water pollution.

Save energy. The US recycles approximately 30% of its waste every year. This saves 12 billion gallons of gasoline and reduces greenhouse gases equal to removing 25 million cars from our roads. Recycling helps companies to reduce energy consumption because they do not have to produce new products from raw materials. They can repurpose all types of recycled goods, including newspapers, magazines, plastic bottles, cans, milk jugs, boxes and much more.

Reduce landfill waste. When the garbage truck comes to your neighborhood to pick up the garbage, they take it to the landfill. Landfills over time fill up and can harm the environment.

Creates jobs. For every one job at a landfill or incinerator, there are 10 jobs in recycling and 25 in manufacturing based upon recycling. Did you know that the recycling industry has more works than the US auto industry?

How Are Things Recycled?

There are many processes used today to recycle all types of waste. Below is more information about how specific types are recycled every day.

E-Waste (Electronics and Computers)

One of the most commonly recycled electronics is old computers. Charities such as Goodwill accept things such as used hard drives, computers, monitors and printers. Equipment that is no longer functional is taken apart, and the glass, metal and plastic are recycled at local recycling facilities.

But equipment that can be reused is refurbished and resold at various Goodwill stores around the country.
Fun fact about recycling electronics: Electronic waste, called e-waste, is only 2% of American trash, but it is 70% of our toxic waste! Recycling computers and other electronics is great for the planet!
Paper (Magazines and Newspapers)

Used magazines and newspapers are collected at paper recycling points and are taken to the paper mill. White paper, such as from offices, also is collected but this is a different type of paper and is recycled separately.

At the paper mill, big conveyor belts feed used paper into the fiber preparation plant where it is fed into giant pulpers. Water and chemicals are mixed with the old paper and made into pulp. This washes out the ink and other contaminants from the paper. The result is a soggy, mushy paper called pulp.

The pulp is injected between wire mesh sheets to form a wet sheet of paper. This is dried and new paper is made out of recycled paper. After it is dry, the paper is polished and rolled into big reels. Some of these are 30 feet wide and weigh up to 30 tons! The paper reels are cut into small sizes and sold to companies that need paper for their products.
Fun facts about paper recycling: It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper! Some paper grades can be recycled seven times.
Plastic (Bottles & Bags)

Plastic bottles to be recycled are collected from recycling points and from the recycling bins in your neighborhood. The bottles are taken away in big trucks to be sorted and smashed into big plastic blocks.

The blocks can be many feet across and are taken to a recycling factor. They are chopped into small plastic flakes - think small, colorful corn flakes. The flakes are washed and dried and taken to be melted and made into new plastic items.
Fun facts about plastic recycling: A plastic bottle recycled can save as much energy as it takes to light a 60 watt bulb for six hours! Also, old plastic bottles can be turned into new products such as car parts, carpeting and clothes.
Glass (Bottles)

Glass is especially important to recycle because it will never decompose in landfills. Here's how it can be recycled:

Glass bottles are thrown into recycling bins, and the glass is picked up in trucks and taken to a glass treatment facility. The glass is hand sorted by color and washed to get rid of contaminants. The glass bottles are crushed and melted and molded into new jars and bottles.

The glass is sent back to stores in new products to be used again.
Fun facts about glass recycling: Glass does not degrade through recycling, so it can be used endlessly. Also, old glass bottles can be used for new products such as bricks and for many decorative uses.
Aluminum Cans

Consumers throw aluminum cans into recycling bins. The aluminum is collected in trucks and taken to a special aluminum treatment plant. The aluminum cans and other items are sorted and cleaned. It is remelted and turned into liquid aluminum. This removes the colorings and coatings.

The aluminum is made into giant blocks called ingots. Each ingot has about 1.6 million aluminum drink cans in it. The ingots are shipped to mills where they are rolled out; this provides the aluminum with more strength and flexibility. The recycled aluminum sheets are then fashioned into new contains, such as cans, food packaging and chocolate wrappers.

In just a few weeks the recycled aluminum products are back in stores and ready to be sold again.
Fun fact about aluminum recycling: Most of the bauxite used to make aluminum cans is mined in tropical forests. So recycling aluminum saves our precious rainforests!
Cardboard (Packaging)

Used cardboard is picked up from community recycling centers, offices, stores and factories. All cardboard is sent to a waste cardboard company that puts it into large bails to transport it to the paper mill. At the mill, a forklift picks up the bales and puts them onto a conveyor. It is sent to the pulping machine.

In the pulper, water anc chemicals are added to make a mushy, soggy pulp. The pulp is purified and cleaned, ink removed and dried into flat rolls of paper.

The big rolls of new paper are cut into smaller rolls and sold to customers that will make them into all kinds of cardboard for packaging, containers and boxes.
Fun fact about cardboard recycling: Paper and cardboard comprise 30% of the household trash we throw out, so recycling it is very important!
Children's Tips for Recycling, Reducing and Reusing

Recycling does not have to be difficult. With the tips below, anyone can recycle and help our environment for current and future generations:

Reduce the amount of products you buy, use and throw away

Set up a recycling bin. Your home should be equipped with recycling bins throughout the house. Make it easy to separate recyclables from other trash.

Recycle as many cans, bottles, books, metal, aluminum, glass, newspapers and electronics you can

Reuse things as much as you can - turn that old t-shirt into a car rag!

Shut off the water when brushing your teeth

Instead of paper napkins, use a washcloth for each member of the family. Keep the washcloths in a drawer for the week and use them at each meal. Wash them as needed. This can encourage the whole family to stop buying disposable paper products altogether.

Unplug chargers for your cell phone when not using it

Put your PC to sleep instead of leaving it running with the screen on

Turn off lights you are not using

Do's and Don'ts of Recycling

It is important to know what we should and should not do in recycling. Here are some simple tips:
Do's

Check local recycling requirements. Not every plant is set up the same way to handle the same items.

Separate your items. Most cities today require that trash and recyclables be separated into different containers.

Recycle paper containing staples or envelopes with plastic. The metal and plastic is eventually sorted out.

Separate lids and jars, cartons and bottles so the containers can be crushes easily during the recycling.

Recycle junk mail. Most adults get large quantities each week and most of it can be recycled. Glossy and matte paper is okay too.

Remove caps from all glass bottles. Also verify if your community takes glass from curbside recycling containers.

Rinse aluminum and steel cans to make them easier to process.

Recycle empty aerosol cans and metal coat hangers.

Separate e-waste. Most of it can be recycled but it generally needs to be taken to a recycling center and not placed in curbside containers.

Don'ts

Try to recycle broken glasses and bottles. These should be thrown away.

Throw yard waste into recycling bins. Grass clippings and leaves should be hauled away at the next brush pick up date or placed in a green yard waste container that some cities have.

Try to recycle waxed cardboard or styrofoam.

Recycle pizza boxes.

Recycle auto parts, plumbing parts or any combination of metal and paper

Put trash in the recycling bin. This can make the entire load into trash. Some cities will even charge you an extra fee if they catch you doing this.

Recycle mirrors, fluorescent tubes, light bulbs or safety glass

Recycle food. Food can be composted but it cannot be recycled. Also, all food cans, bottles and containers should be free of food waste before being recycled.

Recycling Activities & Crafts

Here are some neat crafts students and teachers can enjoy with recycled materials:
#1 Make a hanging garden
Large plastic bottles can be used as hanging planters. They can go home with students or be hung in the school as a lovely hanging garden to promote recycling in your school.
#2 Fashion a Popup Bracelet
Aluminum beverage pop tops become wearable jewelry, thanks to some ribbon ninja work. Put this video onto your interactive whiteboard to give your students the full 411 and then get crafting.
#3 Feed the birds
Get into the swing of spring by making plastic bottle birdfeeders. Talk to local nature stores about getting bird seed donated. Students can bring in bottles and build their own feeders.
#4 Aluminum Recycling Center
Students can work together create an aluminum can recycling center for the cafeteria or other school common area (like the teacher lounge!). Watch the video below to get the simple instructions, and learn how your classroom and school can make recycling fun and rewarding with Recycle Rally.

Fun Recycling Fundraisers for Your School

Want to recycle, raise money for your school or program, and have fun at the same time?

Try these recycling fundraisers at your school today:

Collect used inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges, laptops, small electronics and cell phones to exchange for cash. Fundingfactory.com will accept most of these items for cash; for example, the website will accept used toner cartridge for between $1.25 and $2.00 each.

Plant sale. Whether you offer veggie starter kits or flowers, small plants can be great to sell for a fundraiser in the spring. Home gardeners and green thumbs in your school district will be happy to buy young plants from you for a good cause.

Trail mix fundraiser. Food fundraisers are very popular. But it is not necessary to sell only candy and cookies. You also can sell snack and trail mix to your community and earn money for doing it.

Set up a clothing drive fundraiser for your school. You can get paid by the weight of the donated clothes by Goodthrift.com.

Watershed cleanup. Help the area around your school and community by doing a cleanup project. The idea is to solicit pledges from cleanup attendees to the tune of 10-25 cents per pound of garbage collected. You could end up with heavier items such as used tires and appliances, so set a cap on pledges from your participants - $20 is a good number.

Donate second hand clothes and textiles that can be exchanged for cash based upon the weight of the items from Bags2School.com. Many used clothes and textiles can be repurposed into rags and other useful items.

Reusable bag fundraiser. Reusable shopping bags are green-friendly, colorful, and of course, reusable. Encourage your community to forgo plastic shopping bags and to purchase printed custom reusable bags from your school fundraiser.

Collect old shoes in exchange for money for your school or organization using the website ShoeRecyclingFundraiser.com.

Recycling Around the World

To find inspiration for our recycling efforts, it is a good idea to look outside the United States. Here are some cool recycling efforts going on in other countries today:

Sweden: The Swedes are known for their passion for recycling. They are currently powering 250,000 homes with burned up waste. The garbage for many major Swedish cities is used to create electricity and heat.

Italy: Rome is strict about recycling. If you do not separate your garbage and recyclables, you can be fined up to $800.

Switzerland: This country has one of the highest recycling rates in the world. The reason for this is the country charges for disposing of junk. You must buy a bag for several dollars to dispose of trash. There also is a landfill ban in the country.

Canada: Used tires are re-used on playgrounds and also are cut up and used to resurface roads.

Germany: Germans are known to even recycle dead animals on the side of the road. They are taken to processing facilities and are rendered for their fat. The fat can be used for a variety of cosmetic products.

Austria: It has the highest recycling rate in the world, with 63% of waste not going to landfills. By comparison, the US only recycles approximately 34% of its waste.

Brazil: Has recently broken records with its high levels of recycling consumable packaging - 98.4%. It is especially effective in recycling aluminum, which is more expensive to produce new than recycle.

Japan: This country has a home appliance law. If you need to throw away a large appliance, you have to pay a fee and buy a ticket. The fee depends upon how large the unit is.

Singapore: Sends 60% of its trash to be recycled and reused.

Belgium: Belgium is able to recycle 91% of its scrap cars, thanks to their highly evolved shredding technologies.

Recycling and Green Terms You Should Know

Below are some important recycling and green terms to know.

Biodegradable: When a material is able to be broken down by microorganisms into essential elements such as water and carbon dioxide.

Conserve: Protect something from being overused or being completely lost. Conservation is using natural resources wisely to avoid wasting them or entirely using them up.

Decompose: Break down into its component parts or essential elements; to rot. Decomposition is a vital organic process needed to continue life as it creates nutrients that plants and animals need to live.

Ecosystem: Self sufficient environment made of biological and physical characteristics.

E-waste: Electronic components including computers, monitors, keyboards, mice, TVs, etc that contain harmful substances. Usually they can be disassembled to be recycled.

Fossil fuels: Deposits of natural gas, coal and oil that take a long time to develop in the environment.

Garbage: Waste food that is thrown away; does not include dry trash.

Going green: Taking steps to recycle, conserve energy and reduce pollution in our communities.

Groundwater: Water under the surface of the earth that flows between the soil and underlying rock. Groundwater is what is found in springs and wells. Toxic substances in some landfills can contaminate our groundwater.

Hazardous waste: Poisonous waste, such as e-waste, that can cause an unhealthy or hazardous condition for living things or the environment.

Humus: Organic matter from decayed vegetable materials. Provides essential nutrients for plants.

Landfill: A place where solid waste is buried, controlled and managed. Some solid waste takes decades or centuries to degrade, so recycling these items as much as possible is important.

Natural resource: A material that occurs naturally in the world, such as air, water, oil, minerals and trees.

Nonrenewable resource: Natural resources that are considered finite, such as copper, coal and petroleum.

Organic: Created from living organisms

Pollution: Harmful substances that lead to unhealthy air, water or soil.

Recycle: Collecting and reprocessing manufactured materials to be remanufactured either as the same product or as a different product.

Reduce: Lessen the amount in quantity or number

Renewable energy: Alternative forms of energy using natural resources such as wind, water (hydropower) and sun.

Reuse: Extend the life of a product by using it again

Sanitary landfill: A new type of landfill made to dispose of solid waste on land safely.

Solid waste: This can include trash, garbage, industrial waste, construction waste and household items thrown away, such as furniture and appliances

Textiles: Fabrics that make up clothes.

Summary

We hope you find this guide useful to build a successful recycling program for your home, school and community. By all of us working together, we can continue to grow our recycling efforts so that we make a better world for all of us to enjoy.
Resources

About the Author

Douglas Lober Chief Product Specialist

Doug Lober is Co-Founder and Chief Product Specialist for ReuseThisBag.com. Lober is a passionate environmentalist with roots in the Southern California surf culture. Over the last 15 years, Lober has launched and supported a number of environmental initiatives around the land, sea, and air. Today, he continues to provide and support the use of eco-friendly promotional products for small, medium, and Fortune 500 companies. You can learn more about his extensive background in the industry on Linkedin.com, Quora.com, Instagram.com, Twitter and Alignable.com

View all posts by Douglas Lober

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Recycling is important to preserve the environment and to leave the planet in a better condition than we found it. Did you know that the average American throws

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This fiction book illustrates the pollution people have caused to the environment. The author uses the "mess that we made" on every page to emphasize that humans caused all the garbage and pollution on earth. The book also talks about humans being able to fix the mess made by cleaning up, rescuing animals, and recycling.

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This book is about an old man who liked to be neat and hated trash. The old man started cleaning all the trash he saw that people made but it was too much. The book gets silly when the old man gets magical powers and starts making all the litter stick to people who threw it on the ground. This book is a great story that helps students understand that humans affect the environment when they litter.

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Miss Sofie's Story Time - Kids Books Read Aloud

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THE WARTVILLE WIZARD | BOOK READ ALOUD FOR KIDS | BED TIME STORY FOR CHILDREN | READING DON MADDEN

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This is an informative book about the Great Barrier Reef which is a natural habitat for many animals. This book walks readers through the history of the coral barrier, along with the dangers that the barrier is in due to many aspects such as pollution, increased water temperature, etc. This is a. great book for readers to see what not recycling can do to different habitats and how recycling can stop some of the damage already done.

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Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg's Call to Save the Planet

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Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg's Call to Save the Planet

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This book follows the story of Greta Thunberg as she learns and fights climate change. In the story, Greta came up with a plan on going on strike for climate change. She wanted to make a difference and stood by what she believed in. This book teaches readers what effects climate change has on the environment and what humans can do to help.

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How Can We Reduce Manufacturing Pollution?

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How Can We Reduce Manufacturing Pollution?

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One of the effects humans have on the environment is pollution. This book walks through the different types of pollution humans make and what people can do to decrease it. It walks through the soil, water, air, and manufacturing pollution.

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Human Environmental Impact: How We Affect Earth (Humans and Our Planet)

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Human Environmental Impact: How We Affect Earth (Humans and Our Planet)

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This book walks readers through all the effects humans have had on the environment. It talks about how humans have affected the air with factories and garbage landfills among other effects. This book also talks about how humans can help the environment using different things such as solar panels, conserving water, and recycling.

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This video touches base on all the impacts that humans have on the environment. It mentions things such as climate change and its effects on animals and even shows what the world could look like if the pollution doesn't slow down.

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Human Impact | Environment | Biology | FuseSchool

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Video 2: How to Take Care of the Environment - 10 Ways to Take Care of the Environment

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Video 2: How to Take Care of the Environment - 10 Ways to Take Care of the Environment

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This video mentions 10 ways that people can help take care of the environment.  It talked about how as the environment suffers due to pollution and lack of recycling, damages are caused, and by doing the simple 10 things mentioned in the video, people can have a better chance of saving the environment before it's too late.

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How to Take Care of the Environment - 10 Ways to Take Care of the Environment

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Light Pollution is one of the many ways humans affect the environment. This article it takes about the negative ways light is impacting animals and the air. As more lights are on throughout the night all around the world, more resources are used, and more damage is done to the earth. Is having lights all the time necessary?

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Most environmental pollution on Earth comes from humans and their inventions. Take, for example, the automobile or that miraculous human-made material, plastic. Today, automobile emissions are a major source of air pollution contributing to climate change, and plastics fill our ocean, creating a significant health hazard to marine animals.

And what about the electric lightbulb, thought to be one of the greatest human inventions of all time? Electric light can be a beautiful thing, guiding us home when the sun goes down, keeping us safe and making our homes cozy and bright. However, like carbon dioxide emissions and plastic, too much of a good thing has started to negatively impact the environment. Light pollution, the excessive or inappropriate use of outdoor artificial light, is affecting human health, wildlife behavior, and our ability to observe stars and other celestial objects.
That Earthly Sky Glow
Light pollution is a global issue. This became glaringly obvious when the World Atlas of Night Sky Brightness, a computer-generated map based on thousands of satellite photos, was published in 2016. Available online for viewing, the atlas shows how and where our globe is lit up at night. Vast areas of North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia are glowing with light, while only the most remote regions on Earth (Siberia, the Sahara, and the Amazon) are in total darkness. Some of the most light-polluted countries in the world are Singapore, Qatar, and Kuwait.

Sky glow is the brightening of the night sky, mostly over urban areas, due to the electric lights of cars, streetlamps, offices, factories, outdoor advertising, and buildings, turning night into day for people who work and play long after sunset.

People living in cities with high levels of sky glow have a hard time seeing more than a handful of stars at night. Astronomers are particularly concerned with sky glow pollution as it reduces their ability to view celestial objects.

More than 80 percent of the world's population, and 99 percent of Americans and Europeans, live under sky glow. It sounds pretty, but sky glow caused by anthropogenic activities is one of the most pervasive forms of light pollution.
Is it Time to Get Up?
Artificial light can wreak havoc on natural body rhythms in both humans and animals. Nocturnal light interrupts sleep and confuses the circadian rhythm-the internal, twenty-four-hour clock that guides day and night activities and affects physiological processes in nearly all living organisms. One of these processes is the production of the hormone melatonin, which is released when it is dark and is inhibited when there is light present. An increased amount of light at night lowers melatonin production, which results in sleep deprivation, fatigue, headaches, stress, anxiety, and other health problems. Recent studies also show a connection between reduced melatonin levels and cancer. In fact, new scientific discoveries about the health effects of artificial light have convinced the American Medical Association (AMA) to support efforts to control light pollution and conduct research on the potential risks of exposure to light at night. Blue light, in particular, has been shown to reduce levels of melatonin in humans. Blue light is found in cell phones and other computer devices, as well as in light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the kinds of bulbs that have become popular at home and in industrial and city lighting due to their low cost and energy efficiency.
Animals are Lost and Confused, Too
Studies show that light pollution is also impacting animal behaviors, such as migration patterns, wake-sleep habits, and habitat formation. Because of light pollution, sea turtles and birds guided by moonlight during migration get confused, lose their way, and often die. Large numbers of insects, a primary food source for birds and other animals, are drawn to artificial lights and are instantly killed upon contact with light sources. Birds are also affected by this, and many cities have adopted a "Lights Out" program to turn off building lights during bird migration.

A study of blackbirds ( Turdus merula) in Germany found that traffic noise and artificial night lighting causes birds in the city to become active earlier than birds in natural areas-waking and singing as much as five hours sooner than their country cousins. Even animals living under the sea may be affected by underwater artificial lighting. One study looked at how marine animals responded to brightly lit panels submerged under water off the coast of Wales. Fewer filter feeding animals, such as the sea squirt and sea bristle, made their homes near the lighted panels. This could mean that the light from oil rigs, passing ships, and harbors is altering marine ecosystems.

Even in places meant to provide protected natural habitats for wildlife, light pollution is making an impact. The National Park Service (NPS) has made maintaining a dark night sky a priority. The NPS Night Skies Team has been monitoring night sky brightness in some one hundred parks, and nearly every park showed at least some light pollution.
You Shouldn't Need Sunglasses at Night
There are three other kinds of light pollution: glare, clutter, and light trespass. Glare is excessive brightness that can cause visual discomfort (for example, when driving). Clutter is bright, confusing, and excessive groupings of light sources (for example, Times Square in New York City, New York). Light trespass is when light extends into an area where it is not wanted or needed (like a streetlight illuminating a nearby bedroom window). Most outdoor lighting is poorly positioned, sending wasted electricity up into the sky.
Bring Back the Dark Sky
There are several organizations working to reduce light pollution. One of these is the U.S.-based International Dark Sky Association (IDA), formed in 1988 to preserve the natural night sky. IDA educates the public and certifies parks and other places that have worked to reduce their light emissions. In 2017, the IDA approved the first U.S. dark sky reserve. The massive Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve, which clocks in at 3,667 square kilometers (1,416 square miles), joined eleven other dark sky reserves established around the world. As of December of 2018, IDA lists thirteen dark sky reserves on their site.
Stop Wasting Energy: Things We Can All Do
More people are taking action to reduce light pollution and bring back the natural night sky. Many states have adopted legislation to control outdoor lighting, and manufacturers have designed and produced high-efficiency light sources that save energy and reduce light pollution.

Individuals are urged to use outdoor lighting only when and where it is needed, to make sure outdoor lights are properly shielded and directing light down instead of up into the sky, and to close window blinds, shades, and curtains at night to keep light inside.

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Most environmental pollution on Earth comes from humans and their inventions. Take, for example, the automobile or that miraculous human-made material, plastic. Today, automobile emissions are a major source of air pollution contributing to climate change, and plastics fill our ocean, creating a significant health hazard to marine animals.

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This article helps answer the question of what humans can do to help the environment. This article talks about the negative impacts things that humans use to have on the environment, along with what humans can do to reduce it. It speaks about carbon pollution to water and gives many tips people can use every day.

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Can I help nature to help us?

Yes! We can all take notice of our environment. We can learn how our planet works. We can learn how to live on it without making a mess of it. We can help to keep it magnificent for ourselves, our children and grandchildren, and other living things besides us.

Some of the ways you can help may have to wait until you are a little older-like choosing an energy-efficient car, installing solar panels on the roof of your house, or choosing a "green career."

But there are many important ways you can help right now.

You can help by growing your own vegetables and fruits. You can help by planting a tree. Your new plants and trees will help to remove the greenhouse gas CO ₂ from the air. If you grow some of your own food, you will also help to prevent more CO ₂ from entering the air from the fossil-fuel-burning trucks, planes, and ships that transport your food to you from far away.

How can I reduce my "carbon footprint"?

Your carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air because of your own energy needs. You need transportation, electricity, food, clothing, and other goods. Your choices can make a difference.

Swap old incandescent light bulbs for the new compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). They use only 25% as much electricity to give the same light. They last ten times longer.

Turn off lights, TVs, computers, when you do not need them.

Unplug! Any electronic gadget you can turn on with a remote (TV, DVD player, Nintendo, Xbox) uses power even when it is "off." Appliances with a digital clock (like a coffee maker) or a power adapter (like a laptop computer) also suck power like a sneaky vampire. Plug these kinds of things into a surge protector or power strip that has an on/off switch. Then you can shut off all the power without unplugging each gadget.

There are even power strips that glow to show you how much power is going through them, and power strips you can control from your computer or iPhone.

Turn up the thermostat on the air conditioning when it's hot. Use fans if you're still hot. They use much less power.

Turn down the thermostat on the heating when it's cold. Sweaters, blankets, and socks are good for you and better for the planet.

Walk or ride your bike instead of taking a car everywhere. Even a 2-mile car trip puts 2 pounds of CO ₂ into the atmosphere!

If you must ride, carpool.

Stay out of the drive thru! When you go to a fast-food place, ask your driver to park the car and let you walk inside, rather than sitting in a line of cars with the engine running and polluting.

How can I reduce my trash pile?

Ask your parents to buy reusable grocery bags. Help them to remember to get them out of the car and take them into the store.

Recycle everything you can. If your city does not pick up recycled materials, find out who you can talk to about starting this service. You should be recycling paper, aluminum cans, cardboard, food cans, plastic, glass, newspapers, magazines, junk mail, phone books, and anything else made of paper.

Shop thrift stores. "BYOM." Bring your own mug. That's what you can tell your parents when they stop to buy their morning coffee. Use less paper whenever possible. Save the trees.

Drink tap water-filtered, if you like-instead of bottled water. Carry your drinking water in a reusable bottle. Plastic water bottles are an environmental disaster!

Use fewer containers. Buy the product that uses less packaging material. Even if you recycle packaging materials, it takes energy to create them in the first place and energy to remake them into something else.

Practice by playing "Recycle This!."

Do I need to save water too?

People and animals in many parts of the world do not have clean, safe water to drink. As many more regions are hit by drought, this problem will become even more serious. The sooner we start conserving water, the better off we all will be. Be aware of how much water you use.

Imagine you live in a recreational vehicle (RV), and your water tank holds only 50 gallons. Every time you turn on the water, the noisy electric water pump has to turn on too, sucking up your RV's battery power. Would you keep the water running while you brush your teeth? Would you spend 15 minutes in the shower using up all the water in the tank and depleting the battery? Would you plant a thirsty lawn in front of your RV if you were parked in the desert? Of course not!

How can I make a real difference?

You can choose a "green career." You can help to solve climate change problems and challenges. These are the exciting careers of the future. They range from designing satellites for NASA to fixing wind-energy generators to planning drought-tolerant landscapes for homes and parks. Many of the possible careers haven't even been thought of yet. You could invent your own career! Check out some Green Careers.

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We can do a lot, including planning for a green career.

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This text informs readers about some of the earth's natural resources and the ways people can recycle them. Readers learn that the earth makes natural resources slowly and that humans are using them faster than the earth is making them. Readers also learn ways that they recycle to reuse the resources instead of using them more.

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S is for Save the Planet: A How-To-Be Green Alphabet

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S is for Save the Planet: A How-To-Be Green Alphabet

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This is a great book for the overall topic of recycling. This book shines a light on many things and one of them has to do with the natural habitats of animals and the natural resources on earth. The book informs readers why animals are becoming endangered and why resources are decreasing, along with how to help save them by being green and recycling.

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This nonfiction book is about the natural resources that the earth has. This book takes readers on the journey of what resources are and why they're important. Then it talks about nonrenewable and renewable resources and how people can save the resource by recycling and conserving it. This is great for the reader to learn about natural resources and tips that can help them save those resources.

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This is an incredible book that talks about different habitats and different ways to help each habitat. The book is very detailed and is good for readers that love learning about different types of places. This book also has sections on how to save some habitats.

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This video is an animated kid's video about a whale who helps collect plastic in the ocean. This video touches on the waste people have put in the ocean and beaches and how it affects the animals that live in the habitat. Viewers learn that cleaning up plastic waste makes the animals happier.

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Video 2: Natural Resources - Issues | Environment 101 | CSEN

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Video 2: Natural Resources - Issues | Environment 101 | CSEN

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This video walks viewers through the natural resources the earth has, along with how humans are affecting those resources through pollution, not recycling, and over use.

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Natural Resources - Issues | Environment 101 | CSEN

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This article states the many effects that not recycling has on the environment. Some of the effects dealt with the natural resource of fossil fuels along with other natural resources diminishing. This article also gives specific numbers to show the increase of pollution and decrease in natural resources throughout the years.

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Not recycling increases the amount of garbage going to landfills, requires cities to open new landfills and depletes natural resources.

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Text 2: Endangered Elements: How Recycling Protects Animals and Humans

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Text 2: Endangered Elements: How Recycling Protects Animals and Humans

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This article touches on how recycling can help protect animals and their natural habitats. This article gives the negative side of not recycling and how it kills animals because their habitats are filled with garbage. Then it moves to the benefits of recycling and how to recycle in areas like the beach and the forest. This is a great article for readers to understand the negatives and positives when it comes to recycling and not recycling.

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Have you ever watched an animal attempt to eat something out of the trash that wasn't food? (Bonus points if it was your pet). Far too many of us have witnessed wildlife trying successfully, or unsuccessfully to consume garbage thinking it was food. It can be distressing! But what if there was a way to prevent that from happening altogether?

Recycling is the easiest answer. How does recycling affect wildlife? Well, that's what we'll be covering in this week's blog. Read on to see why recycling is important to wildlife (and human) preservation and how recycling can help endangered species.

How Does Recycling Help Wildlife

Eco-friendly packaging helps to reduce the harmful effects of waste on wildlife, but the majority of waste is dangerous to animals (and humans!) if it isn't disposed of properly. If you're not sure what can be recycled, we've recently outlined the top 10 items you can recycle to save the environment .

On a small scale, recycling helps wildlife by eliminating the risk of animals consuming recyclable waste or getting trapped and injured by garbage. When recyclables are sorted into outdoor commercial recycling bins it also helps to preserve their habitats. Spending the time to pick up after less considerate people to properly dispose of and recycle trash that has been left around is as beneficial as it gets. Especially if you're near a water source. We all know the damage garbage can do to marine life, birds, and even surfers and swimmers.

On a large scale, trash removal and recycling helps wildlife by reducing the need to expand landfills, mining, and drilling operations. One of the primary benefits of recycling is the preservation of natural resources. Harvesting virgin materials encroaches on wildlife habitats and involves heavy energy use. Recycling also indirectly helps to preserve animal habitats by lowering greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. (That brings a whole new perspective to the term "green recycling").

How Recycling Can Help Endangered Species

If you've ever been to a national park, you may have seen fancy outdoor commercial recycling bins with elaborate operating mechanisms. The reason why it's necessary to have such a complicated design is to protect wildlife from the recyclable waste and other trash inside. ( Bears can be as smart as tourists when it comes to opening these commercial recycling bins). Some conservation areas are home to endangered species that are at a higher risk of being negatively affected by litter.

Plastic discards remain a serious problem for endangered species, especially in the ocean. Recycling is a simple solution by keeping these hazardous substances away from wildlife. Humans also benefit from recycling too! Going to the beach, cycling, and other leisure activities such as hiking are much more enjoyable without having to deal with litter.

How Recycling Protects Animals and Humans

Recycling offers numerous human health and environmental benefits. The rate of waste recovery increases every year as people become more educated about recycling solutions via:

This has led to a decrease in landfill content, and the amount of waste generated per person.

You could argue that recycling isn't always necessary to protect the environment and you can just throw everything in the trash. but that's not true. Recycling e-waste and used engine oil is basically a necessity to protect humans and wildlife from water contamination. Discarded electronic waste contains hazardous substances such as mercury and cadmium that can leach into soil and water. Engine oil from a single oil change can negatively affect up to 4 million liters of freshwater.
CleanRiver has over 30 years of sustainability experience providing recycling solutions for indoor and outdoor spaces, designing custom commercial recycling bins, and much more. (Such as helping companies implement an office recycling program, or working with the visually impaired to develop accessible ways for blind people to recycle ). Despite all of the experience, there is still a lot of work to be done to protect animals and humans.

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Looking for more recycling tips and tricks? Check out these other blogs: CleanRiver Recycling provides a variety of innovative, flexible, and customizable recycling solutions. To determine the right solution to meet your needs, use the If you have additional questions that weren't answered in this blog post please call us at 1-866-479-4038 or email solutions@cleanriver.com. CleanRiver product selector.

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Endangered Elements: How Recycling Protects Animals and Humans

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Have you ever watched an animal attempt to eat something out of the trash that wasn't food? (Bonus points if it was your pet). Far too many of us have witnessed wildlife trying successfully, or unsuccessfully to consume garbage thinking it was food. It can be distressing!

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After reading Filling the Earth with Trash, students will play a game where they have to move and record their answers. The teacher will ask a question from the book. Students will record their answers on paper and then go to the right corner (a,b,c,d) in the classroom. Students will have a group discussion about the question then the teacher will go on to the next question.

After reading No More Plastic students will change the ending to the story. Students will be able to share the ending they created with the class.

Students will work in small groups and go around the room and collect what can be recycled and organize it in the right basket (paper, plastic, and glass). Students will have real pictures of objects they will have to find. Once done, they will write the reasons they put the iteams in the basket and why it's important using the book Green Plant Recycling or Let's Recycle

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Students will fill out a problem and solution graphic organizer. They will state the problem and how the characters in the stories they heard solved the problem.

Students will talk about the concept of how littering is affecting the environment and what people can do.

Students will then go to their seats and make a poster of one way humans are affecting the environment based on what they heard from the books (can be littering, pollution, or climate change). Students will then share with the class their posters. Students can draw the poster or create a digital poster using PowerPoint.

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Students will choose a book or text and video of their choice. Students will gather information from their sources and make a song with one verse about the topic. For example, they can choose Recycling Earth Resource and choose the natural resources video to make it connect. After doing the research by reading the book and watching the video they will come up with a song about natural resources based on what they learned. Choices: Some students can create a poem or illustrate what natural resource means to them and write a detailed paragraph explaining their drawing.

Students can create their own comic strip or storybook using one of the texts and videos. Students will explain what they are talking about and what they will do to help the problem in their comic strip or storybook.

Students will use Nearpod to test their knowledge of how humans affect natural habitats and resources and how recycling helps. Students will be shown questions, asked to record videos, and write and vote on each other responses.

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Students will read the books, and text, and watch the videos. Students will then discuss how can a school community help the environment. Students will write a list as a class based on the discussion and do one thing a day to help the environment from the list. Students will be able to cross the thing off the list. For example, if it was recycled paper every day and students were recycling paper in the classroom then it will be crossed off.

Students will read  How We Clean Up a Park. Students will then go outside on their playground or street and help clean up. The teacher will provide students with gloves and bags. Students will pick up some trash and recycle it. Students will write down what they earned from the experience when they get back to school.

Students will create a brochure with things they can do to help people recycle and help the environment. They will be given a guide and told what does on each page. They will create a cover with a title, and inside will be 2-3 things they can do to help people recycle or help the environment. Then they will have to draw a picture of themselves in the back.