Cycling
So What?
We are the only creatures on Earth that do things that prevent living and nonliving matter from being recycled. The main purpose of a landfill is to do just that: prevent stuff from being part of a cycle. Broken and uncared for toys, torn clothing, broken bulbs, dead batteries, empty paint cans, cereal boxes, packaging, food waste... you name it you can find it inside a landfill. It contains all the stuff we haven’t figured out how to return back into air, land, and water in a way that helps sustain life.
Cycling Research Ideas
There are many ways your school may be preventing materials from being recycled back into the air, land, and water in ways that will help sustain life. Here’s a few ways you can find out:
(1) Do a complete inventory (amounts and types) of all the stuff that is thrown out in classrooms, lunchrooms, offices, bathrooms, maintenance rooms, and other places in your school. Find out which of these materials can be recycled in your town.
(2) Find out all the materials that your school throws out that can’t be recycled and find out if there are other products that can be used to do the same thing that can be recycled or reused. Find out if these substitutes would cost more or less than what your school currently spends.
(3) Research what it would take (rules, costs, administrators’ and teachers’ support, student interest, etc.) to create a school-wide composting program for all the food waste that is created at your school.
(4) Research the ways in which the production process of things your school buys on a regular basis becomes a part or not a part of a cycle.
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