By: Jennie Malonek @Alhambra High School, LAUSD & Sylvia Kliever @ Kentwood Elementary, LAUSD

Objective:

Students will increase their awareness of exactly what is thrown away at school by establishing a profile of the trash thrown away by a typical student in one day. They will predict the total weight of trash produced by the class in one day - in one week. Students will measure and chart the mass of the waste produced and disposed of during a one day and one week period using grams per student for data analysis. Students, at the end of the week, will sort the trash into three categories:

Non-recyclable, recyclable, and reusable.

Materials:

• Plastic gloves
• Twist tops
• Student activity sheets
• Kitchen trash bags 2' x 2' x 5 3/8"
• Scale
• Masking tape and permanent marker

Background:

Discuss with students the big problem of trash disposal. Reinforce the concept that many landfills have already reached their capacity and new sites are hard to find. Americans produce a lot of trash (ave. 3.5 lbs per day/ 1.59 kg) and Californians lead the United States in the amount of trash produced per person at a rate of .5 lbs/ 3.4 kg per day. Only 10% of the nation's population lives in California but California produces 20% of the nation's garbage.

***To convert pounds into kilograms multiply the number of pounds by .454... To convert kilograms into grams multiply by 1000

ITEM	WEIGHT IN GRAMS
a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper	4g
penical shavings	6g
paper clip	1g
plastic marker	8g
broken pencil	4g
small paper bag	7g
gum	1g
gum wrapper	1g
candy wrapper	1g

Procedure:

PART ONE -Collecting and weighing

1. Pass out a plastic garbage bag to each student.
2. Place a strip of masking tape on each bag. Have students label a bag with their name.
3. Have students weigh the empty, labeled bag in grams.
4. Explain that the students will collect and deposit into their bag their school trash for the entire day.
5. At the beginning of each day have the students step on the scale and weigh themselves while they are holding their trash bag.
6. Now have students weigh themselves without the trash bag.
7. Add the weight of the empty trash bag to the student's weight that day. Subtract this sum from the total weight of the student and the trash bag to determine the weight of the trash alone.
8. Convert the weight of the trash into grams. (see previous page for conversion factor.)
9. Have students record their data on the data sheet.

PART TWO- Sorting

1. Have students carry their trash to an appropriate sorting area (i.e. lunch tables, quad, grassy area etc.).
2. Have students put on their plastic gloves and sort the trash into the following categories: paper, metal, glass, plastic, food, and misc.
3. Weigh an appropriate container (i.e. a tray, or box, or cat littler pan).
4. Place each pile into the container and weigh each category separately. ***Remember to subtract the starting weight of the empty container from the combined weight of the container and the trash to determine the weight of the trash alone.
5. Convert your weight into grams.
6. Total each category of trash for the class.
7. Add up the total trash for the entire class in all categories for one day.
8. Record.
9. OPTIONAL: Have students calculate their percentage of the class's trash by dividing their individual total by the class's total and multiplying the quotient by 100.

PART THREE- Classification

1. Have the students sort their categories of trash into reusable/recyclable and non- recyclable piles.
2. Discuss if there are some ways to further reduce the non-recyclable pile (i.e. composting).
3. Discard the non-recyclable items and decide how to recycle the remainder of the items.
4. After returning to class divide the class into six groups of approximately five students.
5. Give each group a different "New Uses" activity sheet.
6. Give each group twenty minutes to brainstorm and come up with as many different new uses for their item as possible.
7. Give the groups 5-10 minutes more to select their best idea for reusing the product. On the back of the sheet have each group illustrate this idea, clearly labeling all the parts.

Concluding Questions:

1. How much trash do you produce each day, each week, each month?

2. Where does that trash go?

3. What materials did you discover could be reused or recycled?

4. How many grams/kilograms of trash were recyclable within a one week period? of non-recyclable?

5. How many grams/kilograms of non-recyclable trash would be produced by the class in one year?

6. How many grams/kilograms of recyclable trash would be produced by the class in one year?

Extensions:

1. Have students collect and weigh their trash at home for a week using the bathroom scale. Remember to have them convert the pounds to kilograms by multiplying the pounds by .454 and to convert the kilograms to grams by multiplying by 1000.

2. Have students write a paper and draw an illustration answering the following question: If there were no more landfills anywhere and everyone had to keep their own trash, what would you do with yours?

3. Calculate the volume of your classroom by multiplying the height by the width, by the depth in centimeters. Assuming a density of 1 g=1 cubic cm, calculate the number of days it would take before the entire class would be filled with trash, if the trash were never emptied.

4. Conduct a Clean-Up Treasure Hunt on the school grounds. Divide the group into teams of two or more. Give each team two trash bags, plastic gloves and a copy of the Most Wanted List. Set a time limit and spread out and search for items on the list. (See Activity Sheet.) Place Most Wanted items in one bag and other litter in the other bag. When time expires determine which team is the winner. Return, reuse, and/or recycle whatever possible from what has been collected before discarding the remainder.

5. Make your own paper from recycled paper.

6. Sort a specific category of trash, i.e. plastic. (See Informational and Activity Sheets re: types of plastics.)

Plastic Container Code System:

The Plastic Bottle Institute, in cooperation with its member companies, established a nationally recognized voluntary separators of plastic bottles and created a higher value for recycled material.

The Plastic Container Code System is beneficial largely because of the uniformity it offers to bottle manufacturers and recyclers alike. Several states, as well as many bottle and product manufacturers, have adopted the code system. Full use gradually phased in, with most bottles coded by mid-1991. Bottles are coded by the most widely used resins. At present, the code applies to plastic bottles 16-oz capacity and larger, and to other rigid plastic containers, such as tubs and trays, 8 oz and up. The code is located on the bottom of the bottle or container.

Students cut small pieces from containers or bottles and fill in the data chart below:
			Will it Float In Sugar Water?		Will It Float In Alcohol Water?
sample	What It Looks Like	Will It Bend?	Prediction	Actual	Prediction	Actual	Kind Of Plastic
A
B
C
D
E

Plastic container code system for plastic bottles
Code	Material
	Polyethlene terepthalate(PET)
	High-density polyethylene
	chloride (PVC)
	Low-density polyethylene
	Polypropylene
	Polystyrene
other	All other resins and layered multimaterial
Stand alone bottle code is different from standard industry identification to avoid confusion with registered trademarks.

Refer to the following chart to determine what type of plastic it is:
What It Looks Like	Will It Bend?	Will It Float In Sugar Water?	Will It Float In Alcohol Water?	Kind Of Plastic
Opaque; Waxy	Stiff, but will bend a little	Yes	Yes	HDPE High Density Polyethylene
White; Shiny or Hard Waxy	Yes, it bends back to original position	Yes	Yes	PP Polypropylene
Clear Waxy	Bends	No	No	PET Polyethylene Terephthalate
Like Leather	Curls and bends back	No	No	PVC Polyvinylchloride
Crystalline; Like Glass	Bends but cracks	Yes	Yes	PS Polystyrene