Hi everyone
I'm looking for an effective presentation on waste minimisation (or specifically recycling) to present to High School Students, ages 11-18 at their school assembly to encourage them to recycle.
Regards,
Donna Peterson
Waste Minimisation Officer
Invercargill City Council
Ph: 03 211-1706
Fx: 03 211-1433
Wanted: Effective Presentation on Recycling for High School Students
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Hi Donna
My coworker has done several successful assemblies at middle school and high school levels. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] and I can forward to Shelly. We go out to classrooms - all grade levels and have been very effective.
Pat
Pat Rossi
Education Specialist
Summit/Akron
Solid Waste Management Authority
PH: 330-374-0383, ext. 203
FAX: 330-374-1819
Hi Donna,
I've had good results with (all ages, using a simplified version of) the life-cycle of an aluminum can. For older groups I ask for more information from them .... "what happens when the eagle dies..." "Where does aluminum come from...." and talk more of the philosophic underpinnings.... "Are we exempt from nature's ways?" Drawing lots of pictures on the board... I start talking about the food chain in nature - I show trees loosing leaves - bunny eating the greens that grow from decomposing leaves - eagle eats the bunny - eagle dies, decomposes and microbes have their feast - and so on... EVERYTHING is in cycles (lots of circles appear on the drwg) in nature EVERYTHING is food for something else... Then I talk about an aluminum can: (TWO versions) First it is mined from Bauxite - I draw the Mountain with a huge chunk taken out - a big truck hauls away the stone - takes it to a processing plant that grinds it up and melts it down the sheets of aluminum are then hauled in another truck [NOTE THIS POINT of the linear progression a bit later] - to the canning facility - where it is filled with soda hauled by another truck - to the store where you buy it you consume it - and throw in the trash It gets hauled by another truck - taken to the landfill and this ENTIRE progression happens in a long line of events across the board THEN - I say "what happens?" if we put it in a recycling container INSTEAD? [this part is drawn in a circle below the linear process] a ----> b ------> c --------> d----------->e ---------> f ----------> g / \ g e \ / f [THE POINT earlier noted is the point you start the circle] hauled by another truck - to the store where you buy it you consume it - and throw in the recycling bin It gets hauled by another truck - taken to the reprocessing facility It gets hauled by another truck - to the reprocessed alum. is taken to the canning facility - where it is filled with soda and taken by another truck - to the store where you buy it ENDLESS CIRCLE of continued processing is possible closing the loop matches the cycles of nature.... I then also lay out the tidbit that - approx. 1/3 of a can of gasoline is the equivalent energy savings from recycling ONE can -- saving the energy needed to convert the bauxite. (sorry I don't have the citation of that source). That's an eye popper.... Just an idea, but it has worked from K-12 for me, I just adjust the level of talk around the concept ... but at least they "get" that recycling mirrors how nature works. AND that we too are part of nature / not separate from it... so it makes sense that we should work the same way. There you have it. Let me know how it goes...
All the best,
Mary Romano
Denver, CO