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| Recycling Challenge
The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide, www.obviously.com/recycle/, provides a detailed list of recyclable materials and where to send them. Before you look at this website, take five minutes and write down at least 25 different types of items in the room around you. These items can be small (paper clips, hair clips, books, food packaging, etc.) or large (carpets, furniture, computers, light fixtures, plumbing, etc.). Once you have made the list, mark all those that are recyclable and note how you would recycle them.
Now look at the Recycling Guide web page. Look at all three "guide" pages—The World's Shortest Comprehensive Recycling Guide, the Guide to Recycling Common Materials, and Guide to Hard-to-Recycle Materials. How many additional items on your list can be recycled, according to these guides? How many could be recycled in principle but would be hard to recycle in your community? Why? What recycled products could be made by recycling the materials on your list? How many of the items on your list might be available with recycled content? How many of them could you have avoided acquiring in the first place? Mapping Superfund Sites The National Priority List (NPL) is a list of contaminated sites scheduled for cleanup using money from the so-called Superfund. To be placed on this list, sites must be nominated and studied. A final decision can take years. Remediation can take many years more. How many "Superfund" sites are in your state (or any state you choose)? Go to www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/npl.htm, where you’ll find a map of the United States. Click on a state to see a state map. How many sites are there in your state, or in the one you chose? As you look at the state map, can you identify whether sites are clustered on a river, on a coastline, or on some other natural features? Can you think of any reasons why sites are placed as they are? Click on the site nearest you, and you'll see a list of sites in that state. Click on the name of the site, and you should go to a description of the facility, its dates, and the types of contamination. Have you heard of this site? What type of site is it? Has it been cleaned up? Click on several of the sites in your state. What is the approximate range of ages of these sites? How many were polluted before you were born? Do you think you should be responsible for cleaning them up? If not you, then who? |