Materials
Scale Classroom trash
Chart paper and marker
Instructions
This is a good project to help launch a study of recycling.1. Throw all your classroom waste into a trash can lined with plastic bags, but before you take it out to be picked up by the trash collectors, weigh each bag on the scale. Do this for about one week.2. Write the weight of the bags on a chart.3. The second week, recycle as many things as you can, such as newspapers, aluminum and plastic bottles, and weigh only the trash you put out for the trash collectors.4. Compare the weight of the bags this week with the week before. How much trash weight did you save? Congratulate the children on their recycling efforts.5. Now that the children see how much is normally put into the trash that can actually be recycled, let them help to devise a system for recycling materials on a regular basis.
