per student, the equivalent of about 38 fifth graders are thrown away each year! Use fractions to discover possible solutions. For example,
if we could recycle 1/3 of the trash that is being thrown away by our school each year, how much would that reduce it by? (3,000 lbs/1364 kilos x 1/3 = 1,000 lbs/454 kilos, so it would reduce the trash by 1,000 lbs/454 kilos) If we could compost another _ of our trash, how much more could we reduce it by? (2,000 lbs/909 kilos left after recycling x _ = 500 lbs/ kilos, so composting would reduce the waste by another 500 lbs/kilos). Recycle the problem. If your classroom already has a
recycling bin in use, weigh the contents of the classroom recycling bin for one week and complete the calculations as before. This time increasing weight will be a good thing, as the class will be hypothetically calculating the amount of recycling generated by the school each day, year, and so on.
Kate Nelson loves to talk trash, and is an environmental educator for Eco-Cycle in Boulder, Colorado.
Notes 1 US EPA
2 Statistics Canada, Human Activity and the Environment, Annual Statistics 2005,
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/16-201-x/16-201-x2005000-eng.pdf
3 Productivity Commission, Waste Management Inquiry Report, 2006, http://
www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/waste/docs/finalreport 4 US EPA
5 Statistics Canada, Waste Management Industry Survey 2006, http://www.
statcan.gc.ca/pub/16f0023x/2006001/5212375-eng.htm
6 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Solid Waste in Australia, Australia’s Envi- ronment: Issues and Trends, 2006
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/ Previousproducts/4613.0Feature%20Article252006?opendocument&tabname= Summary&prodno=4613.0&issue=2006&num=&view=
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