A Kid’s Guide To Recycling

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An Educational Activity Book

Note to Parents and Guardians

Care for the Earth - A Kid’s Guide to Recycling Activity Book has been developed by educators to:

help children understand that Earth is running out of landfill space so it’s important to recycle and reuse materials usually buried in landfills. explain to youngsters how paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic are recycled. encourage children to help protect Earth, and to pass the recy- cling message along to their families.

YOU CAN HELP Ask your youngster how recycling can help Earth (cut down on the amount of garbage; save trees from being cut to make paper; use compost to feed plants) Explain that recycling your papers, glass, cans, and plastics may not seem like a lot, but if every family recycles it will all add up. Have a family discussion about other things to do to cut down on garbage, recycle or reuse. For example, use both sides of a piece of paper; use alu- minum foil more than once for cooking; prepare just enough food for a meal so food isn’t wasted; give used furniture and clothing to the needy and so on.

Put your youngster in charge of the recycling efforts at your house. If your community has recycling curbside pickup, have the youngster post a paper listing pickup days and help you place containers at the pickup point. If you must take materials to the recycling center, let your child go to share a feeling of pride in helping to protect Earth. Explain how special things like motor oil, paint, and other chemicals are disposed of ... and why.

Challenge your child to find clean trash items from which to cre- ate a work of art. For example, glue white paper on an empty tissue box and decorate as a keepsake box; turn a washed-and- dried frozen-dinner tray into a frame in which various-sized pho- tos are glued; invite the whole family to join in the trash-to-art- treasure fun!

Written by Beth Cheyet CQ THE POSITIVE LINE #79930

Consultants: Glen Umland and Josh Reynolds Illustrated by Don Berry Style No. KCB-128

Make Every Day Earth Day

Each year on April 22 we celebrate Earth Day. On this day people across the United States work together to help make the earth a cleaner and healthier place for all of us to live in. But a big job like this can’t be done in one day. That’s why everyone must do their part to care for our earth, not just on Earth Day, but every day.

- - All rights reserved. it is a violation of copyright laws to reproduce any portion of this publication in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

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Too Much Garbage

Almost every time we eat, do a household chore or buy something new, we end up with garbage. In fact, each person makes about 4 1/2 pounds of garbage every day. That’s about 32 pounds of garbage a week or 1,664 pounds of garbage a year.

Soon Earth will run out of space to hold all our garbage. By recycling, or using things again, we can make less garbage.

2 Answers on inside back cover.

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle Plastic bottles, newspapers, cans and glass jars are some things that can be recycled. But before these things go to a recycling center, they have to be cleaned and sorted.

Directions: Help sort this garbage. Draw a line from each item to the recucling box where it belongs.

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B 19.

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Answers on inside back cover. 3

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Recycle Paper More than half of all garbage is made of paper because Americans use over 80 million tons of paper each year. Did you know that 850 million trees have to be cut down to make all that new paper? We can help save 17 trees with every truckload of paper we recycle.

Directions: Help these kids collect all the paper products and take them to the recycling center. First collect the newspapers labeled 1 ,

the sack labeled 2 and so on in order.

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Answers on inside back cover. 4

How Paper Is Recycled At the recycling center, old paper is shredded, washed, and mashed into wet mushy stuff called pulp. Then the pulp is pressed, dried and rolled into sheets of new paper.

Directions: Put a number from 1 to 6 to show which recycling step comes first.

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Answers on inside back cover. 5

Recycle Plastic The containers of many food and cleaning products are made of plastic. So are your toothbrush and videotapes. Each of these products is made of a different kind of plastic, but each kind of plastic can be recycled.

Directions: Circle floe plastic things in this picture that can be recycled.

6 Answers on inside back cover.

I How Plastic I s Recycled

Which plastic item is the hardest to recycle? w

At a recycling center, plastic is broken down and melted. But first the different kinds of plastic must be sorted. To help sorters, each kind of plastic is given a number. Plastic that has a low number is easier to recycle. Plastic with a high number is harder to recycle.

Directions: To find out which items are hard or easy to recycle, look at each pic- ture, then fi l l in the blanks with the plastic products from the word box.

WORD 13o)c CONTAINERS, DETERGENT BOTTLES, MILK BOTTLES,

PLASTIC BAGS, SODA BOTTLES, VIDEOS

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- O---'A - E - 1 Which plastic item is the easiest to recycle?

Answers on inside back cover. 7

I Recycle Cans

It takes an empty soda can up to 500 years to break apart. When you recycle cans you can help control litter. At the recycling center, empty cans are crushed, shredded, cleaned and melted. Then they are molded into new cans.

Directions: Use the code to discover another metal product that can be recycled.

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Recycle Glass At the recycling center, glass bottles and jars are sorted by color: clear, brown, or green. Then the glass is crushed and the tiny pieces melted down to make new glass containers.

Directions: Follow the Color Key and color each piece of glass to find out what was made from the recycled pieces of glass.

I Color Key 1: leave blank 2: color brown 3: color green

9 Answers on inside back cover.

I Look for the Recycle symbol means that something is made from recycled materials. Look for it when you go shopping. You may be surprised to learn what kinds of things are

made from recycled materials. For example, tennis balls, surfboards, benches and even playgrounds have been made with recycled plastic!

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Directions: Draw a line from the kind of material (paper, glass, metal or plas- tic) to something it can be recycled into. . .

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Answers on inside back cover. 10

h P Reuse Another way to recycle is to find new ways to use old things. Instead of throwing it out, a shoe box can be used to hold your sticker collection. Or a coffee can makes a great paintbrush or pencil holder.

And be sure to recycle used clothes, toys and books by giving them to some- one who can use them.

Directions: Think of an item your family throws awag. Now draw a pic- ture to show how the item could be reused. I

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Make L e s s Garbage Think about what you’re going to toss away after lunch. Now think what everyone in the lunchroom will toss away. Is all that garbage necessary?

Directions: Repack this lunch so there won’t be as much garbage. Draw a line from each item in column 1 to the picture in column 2 that shows a

better way to pack it.

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Answers on inside back cover. 12

Recycle Food Food and plant waste can be recycled. It's called composting. Food scraps, grass, leaves, and other plant parts are piled between soil and water. The decaying materials change into fertilizer or plant food. The compost feeds new plants and helps them grow.

Directions: Unscramble each word to find out which foods and plants these compost scraps come from. I f you need help with spelling

refer to the Word Box below.

13 Anawers on inside back cover.

I How Can YOU Help. 3 Solving Earth’s garbage problems could take a very long time. That’s why it’s important for everyone to help make less garbage and recycle more. Each of us can make a difference.

Directions: Check the box by each recycling tip to show if it’s something gou already do or something you’ll try to do. Are you doing your part to care for Planet Earth?

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Set up a place at home or in school to separate materials to be recycled.

Look for product8 that are made from recycled materials.

Buy products that use less packaging.

Drink out of plastic or glass cups instead of paper cups.

Share your magazines with a friend.

Give old toys to a local school.

Bring your lunch to school in a reusable lunch box instead of a paper bag.

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~~q*l I Design a poster to let people know why

\ it's important to recycle. 111 11

I pledge to do my best to recycle the things I use and to make less garbage.

Write your name here

Answers

Page 2: 84 baseballs.

Page3: A-4, 10, 18, 19; B -1,5, 9,16; C-2, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 17; D -3, 8,11,12, 20.

Page 5: 1 -Shredded, 2-Washed, 3-Mashed, 4-Pressed, 5-Dried, 6-Rolled.

Page 6: Detergents, juice cups, toothbrush, video- tapes, trash can.

Page 7: 1 -Soda Bottles, 2-Milk Bottles, 3-Detergent Bottles, 4-Plastic Bags, 5-Containers, 6-Videos. Soda bottles are the easiest to recycle; Videos are the hardest.

Page 8.- Aluminum Foil.

Page 9: Cookie Jar with cookies.

Page 10: 1-F; 2-B, E; 3-A, D, G; 4-C.

Page 12: Paper bag - lunch box, wrapped sandwich and cookies - reusable containers; boxed juice - thermos; paper cups - thermos cup; canned fruit - fresh fruit.

Page 13: Grass, Carrots, Apples, Leaves, Lettuce, Eggshells, Weeds, Oranges.

A Kid's Guide To Recycling

An Educational Activity Book TO THE PARENT

This educational activity book has been developed by professional educators to teach your child information that is important to his or her safety and well-being. Please take the time to review each page carefully to make sure your child has mastered the concepts presented.

@ PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER KCB-128