Recycling for Our Community and Our World

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

By: Cordia High School STLP

Global Warming
Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. Global warming can cause: -changes in rainfall patterns -a rise in sea level -a variety of effects on humans, plants, and wildlife Global warming is mainly caused by human activity!
http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/change.html

Greenhouse Effect
The greenhouse effect is the rise in the Earths temperature due to gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. These gases are called greenhouse gases because they trap in the heat and energy from the Sun in order to warm the Earth. Think of an actual greenhouse around the Earth. These gases are the Earths greenhouse. Without these gases, the Earth would be approximately 60F colder, which would make it impossible to live.

http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/greenhouse.html

Greenhouse Effect
Since the Greenhouse Effect is how our Earth is heated, we must try to protect our atmosphere as much as possible. Humans are damaging the atmosphere by burning resources, such as fossil fuels. Fossil fuels: substances found below the Earths surface that can be used as a source of energy. Petroleum, natural gas, and coal are fossil fuels.
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/kids/space/glossary.htm.

When do We Send Greenhouse Gases into the Air?

You may not know it, but you send greenhouse gases into the air every day! You do this when you: -Watch TV -Use the air conditioner -Use a hairdryer -Microwave a meal Most of these actions require electricity, which comes from power plants. Most power plants burn fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, which produces greenhouse gases. These gases are what damages our Earths atmosphere.

How Can we Make a Difference?

You can make a difference if you reduce, reuse, and Recycle! Reduce to use less; Conserve energy, water, and non-renewable resources. Turn lights off when you leave a room. Dont leave cell phone chargers, hair dryers, etc. plugged inthey use electricity even when they are not on. Take cloth grocery bags to the store with you to put your groceries in. Dont leave your television on at night. Take showers instead of baths and turn the water off when you are shampooing your hair. Reuseto clean or repair something old and use it again instead of throwing it away. Example: Make crafts using cans (pencil holders); make quilt pieces out of used clothing; make Halloween costumes out of used clothing. Recycle- to make new products from old ones. This saves energy because it takes a lot less energy to make products out of recycled material than it does to make products out of raw material. Since recycling saves energy, it saves fossil fuels because products are usually made by burning fossil fuels as a source of energy. This also produces less pollution.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Educational Resources. http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/kids/space/glossary.htm.

Seven Items You Didnt Know You Could Recycle!

1. Athletic Shoes-Nike will recycle any brand of athletic shoe through its Reuse-a-Shoe program. You can drop them off at any Niketown store or Nike Factory store. You can also mail them in. The company uses the footwear to make sports surfaces for basketball courts, tennis courts, running tracks, and playgrounds. To date, app. 20 million pairs of shoes have been recycled worldwide through this program. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21642033

2. Techno-trash-VHS tapes, game cartridges, digital

cameras, MP3 players, cords, cables, cassettes, VCRs, and even computer monitors can all be recycled! A company called Greendisk will reprocess this technology in an eco-friendly way. You can mail your techno-trash to the company. The cost is $6.95 for 20 pounds of equipment.

3. Computers-Most major computer manufacturers now

offer some type of recycling program-Dell, Hewlett Packard, Gateway, Apple, and Toshiba. It is important to recycle computers because they contain harmful chemicals that damage the environment. Never just throw a computer or monitor away!

4. Mattresses- In most areas of the country, you cant

recycle mattresses but you can reuse them. The Freecycle network is an internet community with chapters all over the world, in which people offer up items they no longer want and other people take them. You can get on this network and get rid of almost every usable item you could think of.

5. Handheld Devices- You can recycle old cell phones, pagers, and PDAs. Drop them off at staples stores, which has partnered with CollectiveGood, which is a nonprofit organization that reuses the phones or metals inside them.

6. Dry-cleaning Hangers and Plastic- Some dry cleaners will take them back and reuse them, and some tailors and alteration shops will take them also. However, dry-cleaning is harmful to our environment because it uses a chemical called perc, so it would be better to avoid it altogether.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21642033

7. Soiled Glass and Plastic- The recycling plant should be able to remove contaminants from most jars or bottles. However, the cleaner the recyclables are, the less energy it takes to process them.

You should rinse them as you empty them and bag them separately.

Aluminum
Aluminum is a valuable resource. Today, aluminum and aluminum alloys are used to make cans, foil, kitchen utensils, and parts for airplanes, rockets, and other items that require a light material that is strong. Ninety-seven percent of aluminum bauxite ore is imported.

Alloya homogeneous mixture or solid solution of two or more metals Eggland, Dlabay, and Burrow. Intro. To Business. P. 133. 2004. http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/alloy

When you recycle plastic, you save:

Petroleum Petroleum is used to make most plastic.

Recycled milk jugs are used to make plastic lumber, which has proven to be very durable.

By Recycling Paper you save:

Trees, which provide oxygen and animal habitats. Paper is made from wood pulp.

Recycling also saves landfill space; land is a valuable resource. Cities are having to send their trash down rivers on barges. Finding landfill space is getting difficult.

Water Conservation!
Water Conservation refers to reducing the use of freshwater. Earth is 2/3 water, but all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent (0.01%) of that total. Using less energy will help conserve water because it will cause less air pollution, which will cause less acid rain to pollute our streams and rivers.
http://educators.kypride.org/

Vocabulary
Global Warming-the increase in the average temperature of the Earths near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation Greenhouse Effect-phenomenon whereby the earths atmosphere traps solar radiation, caused by the presence of gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane that allow incoming sunlight to pass through but absorb heat radiated back from the earths surface Greenhouse Gases- Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane Conservationusing wisely; avoiding waste Energythe power to do work; making new items from recycled ones takes less energy than making products from brand new materials. Landfilla specially constructed site for safely and effectively disposing of garbage Polymerlong chains of chemicals, that can be twisted and molded into products. Petroleum is heated at very high temperatures to be broken down into polymers and made into plastic. Water Conservation-using less watera valuable natural resource Non-renewable resources-a natural resource that cannot be remade, re-grown, or regenerated on a scale comparative to its consumption.

Lets Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

Its worth the effort to ensure our future and the future of generations to come!