Solid Waste Management
by Bao Quach
The First "R": Reduce!
(6th grade L.E.P. students. Duration: 40 Min.)
Objectives: The students will understand one can reduce and encourage themanufacturers to reduce packing materials as well as save the consumers'money by buying "bigger".
Materials: Milk cartons, one-gallon plastic container, plastic bags of 8-poundand 40-pound top-soil.
Activities:
-You are so familiar with these cartons. But, do you know how much eachone costs?
-40 cents at least. And how much is one gallon?
-Two dollars or the cost of 5 cartons. How many cartons can one gallon fillout? If you don't know, just try with tap water, then check with the valuesin the table of measures.
-True, by buying one gallon instead of 16 separate cartons, you can save(16-5)
.40 cents = $4.40.
-Do you think you also reduce the waste at the same time "for the sakeof our environment"?
-If your parents are doing some gardening, they'll probably know the costof these top-soils. One 8-lb. Bag cost $1.30 while one 40-lb. Bag is just$1.99. Can you calculate how much you'll save?
-From these simple calculations can you infer how much you have to pay foryour packaging, not counting the cost for waste disposal?
-You may find at the department stores many items besides their prices alsobearing their prices per unit of measure for the convenience of smart consumers.
Evaluation:
-Go to a department store and find an item for daily use you believe tobe a best buy in terms of saving both your money and the environment atthe same time. Explain orally why to your class.
Extension:
-By groups of 4, observe how trash is generated in your school lunch room.Discuss different ways to reduce the amount of waste. Then write a letterto your principal, the school kitchen manager, and your local school council.
Let's Reuse and Recycle!
(6th grade L.E.P. students. Duration: 40 Min.)
Objectives: The students will understand:
-A great majority of man-made waste can be recycled or reused.
-What is useful and nonreuseable waste, landfill, hazardous waste.
Materials:
Aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic pop bottles, newspaper, tin cans,cigarette butts, rope, bug spray cans, orange peels, art supplies.
Precautions: Be careful with sharp edges and glass.
Activities:
-Divide the class into groups of 5. Give each group a bag containing thematerials listed above.
-Ask the students to remove the items from the bag, make observations, andrate or arrange the items in order from the most usable to the least usable.
-Record the students' reasoning behind their rating scheme.
-Why did you put as the most (or the least) usable?
-Man-made refuse is often regarded as useless waste and ends up in landfillsand pollutes our environment. Many man-made materials can be reused in anumber of ways not originally intended.
-Why is it important for us to recycle and reuse?
-What is the difference between recycling and reusing?
-What can you do to see that materials such as those found in your bags?
-Think of some ways to reuse your materials in your bags.
-Hold up the bug spray can and introduce hazardous wastes that are foundin the home. Do you know why these items cannot be dumped in regular landfills?
-Learn how to recycle paper: cut paper scraps into very small pieces usinga blender. Make a pulp mixture with water. Pour on a screen and roll flat.Absorb excess water with a towel. Allow the new piece of paper to dry beforeuse.
Evaluation:
-Identify and collect from home one clean waste item, one clean recyclableitem, and one clean reusable item.
-Rank a pile of items according to which are the most to least recyclableand which are the most to least reusable.
Extension: Start a recycling project for the entire school.
Composting Yard Waste
(7th Grade L.E.P. students. Duration: 40 Min.)
Objective: The students will understand the principles of composting.
Materials: 3 two-liter plastic soda bottles: one with top removed, two withbottoms removed, bearing each 3 windows covered with nylon stocking heldin place by duct tape. The middle bottle opening is garden soil, food scraps(potato, carrot, fruit peeling), yard waste, plastic, and newspaper.
Enough bottles, scissors, razor blade knife, nylon stocking, duct tape,and rubber bands for the students to create their own compost columns.
Precautions: Be careful of sharp edges and scissors.
Activities:
-In how many ways can organic waste be disposed?
-By burning (chemical means), by landfilling (physical means), by composting(biological means).
-Anyone of you who had spent some time in rural Vietnam must have probablyknown the traditional way of making fertilizer there.
-Can you describe the process?
-Why did they cover the waste with soil?
-In the soil there are two kinds of bacteria: aerobic and anaerobic.
-Why did they add some water and aerate the mound once in a while?
-True, the decomposition by bacteria needs water and oxygen.
-Did you feel the heat when standing near the mound?
-Heat release is over when the decomposition process is finished.
-The final product is then ready to return plant material to the soil.
-Do you think composting is reducing and recycling organic waste?
-Compare and contrast compost and artificial fertilizers.
-How does temperature influence the decomposition process?
-Is that an advantage for a tropical country like Vietnam to compost organicwaste?
-You are now going to create your own compost column by copying the model.You'll observe it daily with mention to t , odor (if any), color, amountof water in column bottom.
Evaluation: Describe the process of composting.
-What are the advantages of composting?
Solid Waste in Our Waterways
(6th grade L.E.P. students. Duration: 40 Min.)
Objectives: The students will:
-Understand that irresponsible actions by man are causing the earth's waterwaysto become littered. This upsets the ecological balance of the water.
-Develop concepts that are important to expansion: beaches, floating, lakes,litter, oceans, recycling, rivers.
Materials: aquarium, plastic 6-pack holder, water to fill aquarium full,empty aluminum pop can, empty tin can, empty plastic 2-liter pop bottle,metal bottle cap, glass bottle, metal can opener.
Precautions: Be careful of the sharp edges and glass.
Activities: Display the items listed above next to the aquarium.
-Can you predict which item will sink when placed in water? Place each itemin the water and compare with predictions.
-Do you think any item that floated could sink eventually?
-Can you make a list of litter you think may be underwater in lakes andrivers? How do you think they got there?
-What do you think will happen to the litter after it sinks?
-How do you think this affects water life, such as aquatic plants and animals?
-What eventually happens if a sea turtle mistakes plastic bags for jellyfishand eats them, or if ducks and some fish get their beaks or bodies tangledin 6-pack rings? Litter that sinks is not always considered a nuisance:sunken ships for coral reefs to grow upon.
Questions for expansion: Does litter affect your everyday life? If so, how?
-What could you do to cut down on litter?
-Why should someone who lives far from a major waterway be concerned withlitter in our waters?
-Do you and your family recycle? If so, what and how?
-Who in our community should be responsible for cleaning up our waters?
-Are people in danger if they place on beaches near polluted water? Whyor why not?
Evaluation:
-Explain how plastic bags could cause the death of a sea turtle.
-Give an example of a piece of plastic litter that can be harmful to aquaticlife and propose a solution about how this product could be eliminated fromthe environment without harming wildlife.
-Write a letter of concern to a product manufacturer that you believe usestoo much plastic packaging on their products.
Oil Spills and Sea Otter's Life
(6th grade L.E.P. students. Duration: 40 Min.)
Objectives: The students will:
-Understand how sea otter may die because of oil spills.
-Be able to practice their skills in listening, learning by doing, takingnotes in order to write a science report.
Materials: Square of fur-like material, pan of water, cooking oil, dishsoap, toothbrush, comb, stopwatch, 100 gm. of peanuts in the shell per student,lots of paper towels, graph paper, bubble-pack packaging material, ice cubes,thermometers.
Activities:
-Hi, class! Sea otter has a very thick fur, around 350,000 hairs per squareinch to keep itself insulated against icy temperatures. Yet, even this plushcovering is effective only when kept clean. Grooming is essential and constant.With each lick of the tongue, air is trapped between skin and water, actingas a natural insulation. The outer hairs and natural oils provide the finalsealant.
-What happens when an otter's fur has been dirtied with crude oil? The twofollowing activities will help you find the answers. Then, you will haveto write a group report about the activities to share with your class.
A - Clean fur vs. Enough to eat
-Float oil on the surface of the water in the pan.
-Push your piece of fur all the way to the bottom of the pan.
-Wring it out over the pan to remove excess water.
-Now set the stopwatch for 5 minutes. Each group will use the cleaning materialsto try to remove all of the oil from the fur while shelling and eating thepeanuts.
-Time out! What do you predict happens to the otter if:
a.- all of the peanuts are eaten and the fur is clean? Heat loss = caloriegain :: the otter has survived.
b.- all the peanuts are gone, but the fur is still oily? The animal triedto eat more to keep up body heat, but died of hypothermia.
c.- the fur is clean, but there are peanuts left? The otter spent much ofits time grooming rather than eating. It didn't have enough food to turninto energy and still died of hypothermia.
-How many student otters in our class survived? How many dies?
-Make a bar graph.
-Could the oil have been removed from the fur without using the cleaningsupplies? Was it difficult for student otters to eat all that was neededwhile trying to clean the fur?
-Why is oil such a life-threatening problem for sea otters?
B.- Why do oiled otters get cold?
-Place ice cubes in a layer in the tray.
-Place a single layer of bubble-pack material on top of the ice cubes.
-Place your hands on the packaging material and note and record when youfeel the cold through the bubble pack.
-Now, pop the bubbles with a pin and then rest your hands on the flattenedbubble pack and ice, again noting and recording the time needed to feelthe cold.
-With the thermometers, you can note the time and temperature periodically,first with the bubble pack intact and again when the bubbles have been broken.
-Make a table of results.
-How important is it that the otter's insulating layer of air remain intact?
-When otters are rescued from oil spills and cleaned with detergents, theymust be kept in a rehabilitation center for several weeks until their naturaloils return. Why?
-You have finished the two activities. By groups of 4 you are going to writea report about your experiments including description, results and conclusions.
Evaluation:
-How accurate are the descriptions, results and conclusions?
-How well organized are the reports?
-How can motor oil contaminate bodies of water? Is it recyclable? What isits proper disposal?
Extension:
-Research on the damages and rescue efforts following the 1989 Exxon-Valdezoil spill.
-What are the endangered species? What are the laws for the protection ofendangered species?