I have really enjoyed creating this blog and I have learned useful information about Global Warming and OUR environment. My family has discussed recycling for many years now and for some reason we just never got around to it, some of the reasons include(not good reasons, but Im trying to be honest)
-- No time
--Didnt know where to get those cool looking Blue recycling bins
--After finding out where to get them, didnt want to pay the Town of Swampscott $14 for them.
-- Didnt think my "little" contribution would matter
-- Its easier to just throw everything in the trash(who has time to sort through plastic, paper, cardboard?
Then I started noticing my youngest daughter Brooklyn had an interest in recycling, she would bring her yougurt containers home from school, and she would take about "littering". Well I contemplated on my service learning project for a really long time and then I realized I could begin my Service Learning right at home(what better way to provide for the greater good, then to teach your children how to care for the earth. It is a lesson they can carry on to their friends, and believe me, its pretty powerful when a 4 year old looks at you with big blue eyes and says " are we going to kill the earth?"
So Service Learning Project went like this:
What: Teaching my children and myself "HOW" to recycle
Where: Right in the comfort of my home on a quiet Cul de Sac
Why: Because I love OUR children and I want them to have this earth for a really long time!
My lovely husband had a day off last week, and decided to help out by going to Swampscott town hall and purchasing 2 large recycling containers for $14(my cheapness wanted to purchase 2 plastic containers at big lots for $3 but thats a different blog)
I figured, great all done!
Boy, I was wrong. Those pretty blue bins came with a booklet explaining "how" to recycle.. Wait a minute. I thought we just threw the trash in the blue bin instead of the plastic trash bag. Well like everything else that is "good" its not " easy". I learned
The correct way to recycle
-- plastic needed to be seperated and the container must be labeled 1-7 with a cute little triangle
--Cardboard needed to be cut into 2'x2' squares and flattened and tied into a bundle
-- paper, glossy paper, newspaper, soft cover books,etc needed to be placed in a paper bag
-- green, brown, and clear glass can be recycled if not broken
--CEREAL BOX LINERS ARE A NONO AS ARE PLASTIC BAGS...now I see why plastic bags are frowned upon.
So after learning the recycling 101 tips, we began this journey. Let me inform you that our family use to go through about 3 trash bags(13 gallon) a day of trash and since we bagan this 1 week ago, we are only on our 2nd trashbag and the two blue bins are almost full, along with a paperbag full of cardboard and another full of paper. I then realized that recycling is a great thing to do but the best thing is to try and purchase things that you can use over and over so you dont have to fill up 2 bins a week(our bins are filled with dunkin donut cups and yougurt containers and the paper bag is full of paper with one scriblle on it)
We decided as a family NO MORE:
-- Plastic bags(I purchased snack containers)
-- no more water bottles(kids each received a BPA free waterbottle :) and they love it)
and I am going to try my hardest to purchase a coffee container and make coffee at home(Im attending Dunkin Donut Coffee Anonymos)
I also want to try and buy less single serving yougurts and buy in bigger bulk to cut back on packaging.
I wondered how all of this was going to tie into Global Warming, How can recycling help the Global Warming crisis?
Well, come to find out our landfills our full of garbage and this produces a dangerous greenhouse gas called Methane. Recycling can cut back on the garbage that is in landfills and in return reduce the risk of continued Global Warming.
Here are some really cool statistics I found on the effects of Recycling:
Aluminum
--Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to runa tv for three hours or the equivalent of a half of a gallon of gasoline.
--It takes 95 % less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw material.
Steel Tin cans
-- a 60 watt lightbulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling one pound of steel,
--In one year in the United States, the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18,000,000 homes.
--It takes 60% less energy to recycle steel than it does to make it new from raw materials.
Paper
--Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees. 370 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 killowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water.
--Thats a 60% energy savings, 58% water savings, and 60 pounds of less air pollution.
-- The 17 trees saved can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year.
--Burning that some ton of paper would create 1500 Pounds of carbon dioxide.
--It takes 40% less energy to recycle newspaper than it does to make it from raw materials.
Platic
-- recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incenerator does.
-- It takes 70% less energy to recycle plastic than it does to make it from raw materials.
These statistics made me sick to my stomach, if everyone just chipped in a little and spen $14 on a few recycling bins, we could possible help save the Earth. I mean we arent talking about clipping coupons and saving money we are talking about SAVING OUR EARTH. This is a big deal!
I know that by starting this in my home it will have an overall impact on the greater good, my daughters will tell their friends and their friends will tell their moms and even if one other person reads this blog and starts to recycle, then I would have created something, a change~ a change for the better. I know from experience how easy it is to put off starting but once you start it becomes a routine. Give it a try! Its actually a GREAT habit to pick up :)
After doing this I realized how easy it was to have do something like this. I would absolutely without a doubt do something like this again, actually I WILL do something like this again. I think service learning and making an impact on the greater good can be small scaled and still have a large impact. I plan on posting this to my facebook page and if one person says they began recycling because of my blog than I can say my plan of action worked!
As a future educator, I will teach my students to be not only good students, but great PEOPLE! Students need to learn how to help and how to create change. I will make it a habit of doing at least one service learning project a year . I will allow the students to choose what type of service learning project they want to create, because when you do something you believe in, it isnt work its passion and its fun. I began this journey upset because it was one more thing I needed to do and I am now unable to stop thinking about other things I can do to help this cause. Thank Annelise Worster for making us think about OUR world and what we can do as 1 person to change it!
http://http://www.help-stop-global-warming.com/global-warming-recycling.html
