Be a Westchester County Board of Legislator's Recycling Ranger

The laws of Westchester County require that all schools and homes have recycling programs. You can help your school start or improve its recycling program or improve how you and your family recycle. The activities on this sheet will help you learn about recycling and can provide helpful recycling information to your classroom, school and home.

Awards will be presented by your county legislator, on April 5 to third grade students who participate in the Westchester County Board of Legislators’ Recycling Ranger program. Complete three of the projects below and turn in the Report sheet signed by a parent or guardian to your teacher by March 31 to qualify for a Recycling Ranger certificate and other awards.

Projects

1. Develop a recycling plan for your classroom. Include a map of the room showing where the recycling bins should go. Also suggest anything that will encourage your classmates to recycle.
2. Make a list of items made from recycled plastic. There are things all around you at school and home made from plastics that had other uses before. Check these or other websites: www.plasticsresource.com (click “Recycled Products” and then “Directory”) and www.solidwaste.org/recplstc.htm. You will be surprised by these answers.
3. Keep a recycling log of how you have recycled for a week and how you have helped your family and school recycle.
4. Create a TV commercial for a product (real or make believe) that is environmentally “friendly” (good for the environment). Explain how it protects the environment and why people should buy your product.
5. Write a song or rap about recycling.
6. Plan a “no trash” lunch you can take to school. Neither the food nor the drink container should become trash at the end of the meal. Be creative!!
7. List 4 ways people could conserve (use less) paper. Two of these should be ones that could be used at school by students or teachers.
8. Prepare a list or draw pictures of items you use at school (office supplies) made from “recovered content” or recycled materials. (Use the websites from project 2 or see the helpful websites on the 2nd page.)
9. What are some practical and fun ways we could reuse glass, plastic or metal containers? You may also draw pictures of how your ideas would look.
10. Prepare a poster that shows the use of too much packaging and ways to reduce packaging, such as using materials that can be recycled or are biodegradable.
11. Write some rules for your school recycling program. These rules should include how to recycle, what to recycle, when and where to recycle. This can also be done as a poster.
12. Plan a display to start the recycling program in your school. This display should be colorful, have lots of information and encourage the children and adults to participate.
13. During a trip to the grocery store look at the packaging of several products. Describe the variety of ways in which one type of product is packaged by different companies (for example, apple juice, laundry detergent and snack foods). Is one method of packaging better for the environment than another?
14. Look around the grocery store to find items that say they are made from recycled materials. Make a drawing or a list of these items to share with people interested in buying such products. Hint: paper goods aisle is a good place to start.
15. Make a list of the kinds of things your community recycles. Describe how each of these is recycled in your home.
16. Prepare a design that could be pasted to the outside of a recycling bin that shows what should be recycled, that attracts attention to the bin and promotes the use of the bin in your classroom and school.
17. Look on the bottom of a plastic container to find a number in the middle of a triangle formed by arrows. Draw this symbol and describe why you think this was chosen as a symbol for recycling.
18. Talk with a public official such as your county legislator Bill Ryan (995-2827) about the need for recycling and how your community recycles.

Resources

www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving Click on Recycling topics at the bottom of the page
www.epa.gov/kids Click on Garbage & Recycling in the center
or at the bottom
www.epa.gov Click on “recycling” in Quick Finder
www.rirrc.org Click Kids Corner in lower right for links, games and great illustration of recycling sorting
www.mcswmd.org Click on Environmental Trivia or Earth Care on the left
www.state.me.us/spo/recycle/education Click students page for recycling facts
www.paperrecycles.org Click recycling
www.conservatree.org Click on “Learn More”