Recycle, Trash, Compost

We're all lovin' our community mural right now. That means it's a perfect time to talk about the data we've been collecting....


For the past 2 weeks, we've been recording each trip to the trash can, recycling bin, and compost bucket. I've kept the reasoning a mystery from the children, but today was the perfect day to talk about the purpose of our data collection.

Students noticed that we threw things in the trash the most, then the recycling, then the composting. They thought it was funny that it was a reverse staircase. "We should be composting the most, then recycling, then throwing stuff in the trash."

How could we make this data come alive?
Well, the 1-2 South House has been saving trash since last week so in the middle of our conversation, I went in the hall and brought in all of the bags of trash.

....they REEKED! There was an immediate reaction from kids about the things in the trash that shouldn't be (and of course the stench).

We talked about how we heard the blasts in the mountain at Grow Compost (from the landfill). We discussed the implications of throwing a lot of stuff in the trash versus sorting it properly. "What will happen to the mountain if we run out of space?" "What will happen to the trash if we run out of space?"


How could we make the idea of landfill locations come to life? 
It all goes back to our pride and joy - our community mural. We all went into the hall and looked at our beautiful town. I had our landfill in hand (a bag of trash) and we discussed where it could go. We went back and forth and couldn't figure out a place to put it so everyone was safe and the town stayed beautiful.

The solution? 
Our class decided to make the landfill smaller by building a recycling center and a compost center. They wanted these centers so some "waste" could be sorted and reused - making less trash.

We went back into the class (relieved that we weren't going to staple a big bag of trash on the mural) and discussed possible solutions to reduce trash.

Interested in more information about this investigation? 
Come to All School Share this Friday - all first and second graders will be presenting some incredible data they've collected and .... well, you'll have to wait for the All School Share to see/hear what else!