Little Known Ways to Support Earth Day

Earth Day is around the corner - April 22nd - and every year teachers and students try to come up with new and innovative activities.

Recycling is a popular activity to keep the idea recycling going strong. Classrooms often come up with ideas to recycle paper, ink cartridges, plastic bottles, metal cans, and newspapers.

However, there are other recycling activities that students can get involved in to support Earth Day.

First, lets take a look at some recycling facts related to the United States.

Recycling Facts

The Hershey Company in the US produces about 20 million kisses each day using 133 square miles of aluminum to wrap them in; this material is recyclable and most of it ends up in a landfill.

Statistically the United States recycles just about 28 percent of its waste today, which is doubled from what it was a decade ago.

The United States recycles about 53 percent of the paper consumed.

The United States makes up about 5 percent of the world’s population and produces 1,609 pounds of trash per person, every year. This results in 5 percent of the world’s population producing about 40 percent of the worlds waste.

Considering these facts, there is still need for improvement.

Recyclable Materials Often Overlooked

Crayons

One of the most popular coloring and writing instruments in schools today. Instead of throwing worn, broken, and neglected crayons in the trash - Why not recycle them?

More than 12 Million Crayons are made in the US, EVERY DAY! 100 New Crayons equal about 1 pound, let’s do some math.

12 Million Crayons equals about 120,000 pounds, which equals 60 Tons of Crayons made EVERY DAY with petroleum based wax!

Recycling crayons has made it possible to stop more than 52,000 pounds of unwanted crayons from going into landfills with the help from schools, organization, educators, and kids across this country.

How to recycle these artistic instruments - simply throw unwanted crayons in a sturdy cardboard box (leave paper wrappers on) and when the box is full, mail it to:

CRAYON RECYCLE PROGRAM
721 Village Road
Pelican Lake, Wisconsin 54463

They will take all these unwanted crayons and recycle them to make brand new crayons.

DVDs/CDs/VCR Tapes

The recycling of DVDs/CDs/VCR Tapes saves substantial amounts of energy and prevents significant amounts of both air and water pollution attributed to the manufacturing of these items.

A DVD/CD/VCR Tapes is considered a class 7 recyclable plastic

To manufacture a pound of plastic (approximately 30 DVDs/CDs per pound), it requires 300 cubic feet of natural gas, 2 cups of crude oil, and 24 gallons of water

It is estimated that it will take over 1 million years for a DVD/CD/VCR Tapes to completely decompose in a landfill

Since DVDs/CDs/VCR Tapes a class 7 recyclable plastic - many recycling centers will not take them. If a recycling center cannot be located locally, box them and ship to:

ACT
2200 Burlington
Columbia, MO 65202

Act requests submission of an Online Donor Form prior to shipment.

Alternative Community Training (ACT) has been a nationally accredited, not-for-profit agency providing support and assistance to adults with disabilities.

All DVDs/CDs/VCR Tapes should be separated from packaging materials and cases.

Additional Earth Day Resources

Environmental Uses of Phone Books

Math and Science - Integration with Environmental Science

Bottled Water Versus the Environment - Case Study

Air Pollution a Concern for World