PITCH-IN CANADA
Resource Centre

REDUCE - REUSE - RECYCLE
Activity Suggestions

Recycling can help reduce the one ton of garbage each Canadian produces each year!

Even if your community does not operate a recycling program (blue bag/box or otherwise), you can still participate and become part of the solution to our garbage problem.

The following are suggested activities to start you thinking about our solid waste problems, and some solutions. Your group, club or class may also wish to carry out further research and activities.

Before Viewing the Video

Discuss the following questions. Write or illustrate your answers, individually or in groups, or do further research to provide more detailed answers.

• How much garbage do you think our families produce in a year? To find out, total the number of cans/bags put out by the students' families each week, multiply that by the number of classrooms, and then by 52. was this more or less than you predicted?
• How do we get rid of the garbage we produce in our homes? Where does our garbage go after it is collected? What happens to it there? In communities without regular pick-up discuss how household garbage is disposed of.
• Can we recycle any of our garbage in our community? Can we recycle glass, paper, plastic, metal, aluminum etc...? If so, how?
• Can you think of ways we can reduce the amount of garbage we produce? Make a list of these ideas to refer back to after viewing the video.

While Viewing the Video

Stop the video to discuss the following questions. Provide written, verbal or illustrated answers. The answers given in the video are in brackets.

• Our Garbage
  
  • A community's garbage comes from many sources. Name some of those sources. (homes, stores, businesses, construction sites, farms, industries)
  • Where does most of a community's garbage go after it has been collected? (to a landfill or dump)
    
• Reusing and Recycling
  
  • Why do many communities recycle some of their garbage? (because our landfills are filling up and it's hard to find new sites; to help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill; to reduce our consumption of our natural resources)
  • Name at least three materials that are being recycled at the recycling facility shown in the video. (phone books, magazines, newspapers, glass, cans, plastic milk jugs)
  • Select one of the materials being recycled and describe what it is recycled into. (newspapers into newspapers; glass into glass products such as bedding for hydro lines, glasscrete and glassphalt; cans into cans; plastic into fuel and plastic "wood")
    
• Composting
  
  • How much of your household waste is usually compostable? (about one-third)
    
  • What are the benefits of compost for your garden? (a soil conditioner; provides nutrients to the soil; reduces the need for pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer; holds water)
    
  • What shouldn't be put into the compost and why not? (cooked food, pastas, meat and oily foods because these attract rodents and can cause odours in the compost; diseased leaves, weeds, and seeds because they may spread the disease when the compost is spread on the soil)
    
  • How can you insulate your compost over winter? (use leaves or straw; insulate the box)
    
  • How can people who live in apartments have a compost? (vermiculture, or a worm compost, can be used inside) For more information about composting click here
    
• Consumers
  
  • How does buying in bulk help reduce the amount of garbage we produce? (uses less packaging, therefore less to throw away into the garbage)

For More Activities......

For more activities on solid waste management, recycling and litter for elementary school students (primary to intermediate) please click here.

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