Solid Waste Management Educational
Resources
Municipal Solid Waste
in the United States: Facts and Figures
Everything you would ever want to know about solid waste from
the US EPA.
Educational
Materials on Solid Waste
The
EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery provides
educational material's for promoting an increased knowledge of
solid waste issues, with emphais on waste reduction, reuse, and
recycling for K-12 students. It also informs teachers about student
award programs and grants, as well as references, tools, and data
students can use in environmental research projects and
reports.
Journey through a
Landfill
Virginia Trekkers Podcast #
42 (Henrico Landfill)
The Virginia Trekkers are
four Henrico County (VA) Public Schools technology educators that
"trek" across Virginia creating hands-on learning and virtual field
trips for students (and adults) on a variety of subjects. Podcast #
42 and its companion Journey Through a Landfill
activity guide is a partnership with CVWMA, Henrico County
Department of Public Utilities/Division of Solid Waste and
Recycling, and Keep Henrico
Beautiful. The Virginia
Trekkers will show viewers what
happens to your trash
after you throw it
in the garbage can/cart. See where all
it goes! Discover how trash is turned into electricity and learn
what you can do to reduce the amount of garbage/trash you send to
the landfill. It's an exciting place with lots to
explore! Don't miss the Trekkers interactive "Building a Landfill" activity as well as
the phethora of
educational links provided at
the top header
of the Podcast.
Contact CVWMA staff
to loan our Journey through a Landfill companion
activity guide and DVD pf Henrico Landfill:Podcast #42.
A Landfill is No Dump!
Landfills are the most common forms
of waste disposal and are an important component of an integrated
waste management system. A landfill is a large
area of land that is specifically designed and built to receive
municipal solid waste. "Where does your trash go?" Find out, if
you don't know by visiting your local landfill or view online a
"virtual tour" of the Henrico County Springfield Road Landfill
Podcast
#42 by the Virginia Trekkers. . What would your family do if
your trash was not picked up every week? What would happen to your
garbage (and the garbage of everyone else in your area) if the
landfill closed? What happens to a landfill when it is full? What
does it mean to recycle and why it
is important to keep recycables out of landfills?
How long does it take for different items to decompose?
Roadside Litter Decomposition Chart
EPA's Waste and Recycling
Resources for Teachers
Trash,
Trash and More Trash- An Overview
In
this lesson students will investigate a bag of trash to find out
how much of the contents of the bag actually needs to go to the
landfill. Students will create two class posters that show which
items are recycable and which ones are not. They will complete a
math activity to determine how many bags of trash their families
generate.
A Trashy Timeline: Where Does
our Garbage Go?
We all make way too
much garbage. According to the US EPA Americans generate about 4.5
pounds of garbage (trash) everyday. Landfills keep filling up and
people/local governments keep looking for more places to dispose of
all of that garbage.
Be sure to view
Podcast#42 by the Virginia
Trekkers. Students can see where
their garbage goes as well as what items could be recycled. No one
really knows if glass takes a million years to decompose. It is an
educated guess. By doing this exercise with relative decompostion
times, students will create a visual representation of the time it
takes for various waste items left in a landfill to breakdown or
decompose. It will get them to start thinking about all of their
"stuff".
Virginia
Trekkers PodCast #17 (Recycling)
PodCast #17
is a partnership with TFC Recycling and CVWMA to
see what happens to recyables that are collected
from our curbside and drop-off programs at the MRF (Materials
Recycling Facility).
One
of the Virginia
Trekkers (Frank) has a podcast/video
on Watersheds, click here to view.
The Quest for
Less: Activities and Resources for Teaching
K-8 This resource provides downloadable
hands-on lessons and activities, enrichment ideas, journal writing
assignments, and other educational tools related to preventing and
reusing waste.
Waste Management Jeopardy
Participants
try to provide questions to the answers that focus on recycling,
litter prevention and more. This game is similair to the
traditional "Jeopardy" game seen on TV, but with a waste management
theme.
Educator's Guide to Planning a Field Day
Event An innovative, easy and fun way to
incorporate environmental learning, creative thinking and physical
education in an SOL-based one-day event. We also have
30 Buddy Style
stations that is easy to
incorporate.
Buy, Use, Toss- A Closer Look at the Things We Buy
Education Curriculum
9-12th
grades (free download)
Buy,
Use, Toss? A Closer Look at the Things We Buy is an
interdisciplinary unit that includes ten fully-planned lessons.
This unit is correlated with national science and social studies
standards and will lead your students through an exploration of the
system of producing and consuming goods that is called the
materials economy. Students will learn about the five major steps
of the materials economy; Extraction, Production, Distribution,
Consumption, and Disposal. They will also be asked to analyze the
sustainability of these steps, determining how consumption can
benefit people, economies, and environments
Curbside Value Partership
Teacher
resource page offers curriculum, games and child friendly website
for teaching the importance of recycling to our future
recyclers.
Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) Educational
Curriculum
You must
register in order to download the curriculum. Great free
educational video: What's One
Can?
-
ABCs of EE for grades 4-6
-
Talkin' Trash with ABCs for grades
6-9
-
Cans: Infinitely Recycable for High School
students
Litterwise
A nice variety of litter
and recycling resources from the VA Association of Soil and Water
Conservation Districts Education Committee.
Preschool Recycling Activity
Keep Henrico
Beautiful (KHB) created this easy recycling
lesson that is perfect for preschool and kindergarden age children.
For instructions and patterns,
click here
Tissue Company
Offers FREE Lessons for Teachers
Marcel
Manufacturing LLC, which makes 100% recycled tissue products, is
offering free lesson plans to help teach students about waste,
recycling, climate change and deforestation.
PlanetPals
Access more
than 350 pages of educational materials. Teachers will find lesson
plans and activities on ecology, recycling, and global warming as
well as ideas for celebrating earth Day.
Students Guide to
Composting Composting in the Classroom:
Scientific Inquiry for High School Students, by Nancy
Trautmann and Marianne Krasny, is a comprehensive guide for
teachers interested in guiding composting research projects by high
school students.
Rigsby
Download this activity
book that teaches about litter and how it impacts animals. Visit
interactive the Rigsby and Friends website by clicking here.
PLT's Exploring Environmental
Issues: Municipal Solid Waste The module uses hands-on
experiences to show
the interrelationships among waste generation, natural resource
use, and disposal. The activities guide students through waste
management strategies and solutions while providing the necessary
tools to make informed decisions and choices on waste management
issues.
Air & Waste Management
Download free lesson
plans from the Air & Waste Management Association.
Topics include air pollution, water pollution and
landfills.
Pollution
Solutions A curriculum supplement about litter
and pollution prevention based on the Standards of Learning for
grades K - 12. It was developed by the Virginia Resource
Use Education Council and funded by the Litter Control and
Recycling Fund.
