Criteria and Constraints:
- You must use a household kitchen trash can or other similar trash container which can be measured for volume.
- For the purpose of this activity, if your family already recycles all possible trash material, please place the recycled material in with the regular trash as you use it and complete the activity before putting the recyclable material into the recycling bin.
Background Information: People deposit millions of tons of trash into landfills each year. In communities around the country the landfills are getting filled up with items that could be recycled. Recycling saves landfill space and can reduce the need for additional natural resources.
EPA Statistics for 2005
- The number of landfills has steadily declined over the years.
- Recycling and composting recovered 79 million tons of solid waste in 2005.
- While the amount of solid waste deposited into landfills by people remains about the same, the amount of recycled waste has steadily increased over the last 5 years, more than doubling the 1990 amount.
- Because of recycling, the amount of solid waste going to landfills decreased 9 million tons from 1990 to 2005.
Citation: United States. Environmental Protection Agency.Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005. Washington, DC: GPO, 2005.
Materials
- Kitchen trash can or similar trash container.
- Ruler or measuring tape.
- Bathroom Scale.
Presentation: When you have completed your Garbage Survey Worksheet, (Word doc) or  (rtf) upload the data to the discussion topic, "Garbage Survey" and in the message body type the amount of landfill space saved per day in your house as well as the amount of landfill space your house will save in one year. Also include the weight of the trashed
Assignment: Complete the Garbage Survey Worksheet and post the results to the Garbage Survey Discussion Board. Include the following information in your post.
- Type "My Landfill Savings Calculations" in the subject field
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The total amount of landfill space saved per day and year by your family.
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The total weight of trash saved each day and each year by your family..
When everyone from the class has posted their results, calculate how much a difference the entire class could make buy adding together the numbers posted by your classmates. Record your results by replying to your original post.
- Type "Class Landfill Savings Calculations" in the subject field
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Type the total amount of landfill space saved per year by the class
- Type the total amount of trash weight saved per year by the entire class. |
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