America Recycles Day

Nov. 15 marks America Recycles Day!

It was started by the National Recycling Coalition in 1996, and is designed to limit the amount of waste that goes to landfills and turn it into renewable and reusable materials.

There are many items that are recyclable. Items such as:

• Glass
• Metals
• Paper
• Plastic
• Textiles

You may need to check with the city to see what can be put in those blue bins. For something like textiles and metal, you may need to go to nonprofit organizations and drop the items off with people who can rightfully recycle it.

Recycling and Restoration

This video explains how Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest near Louisville, Kentucky used recycled cypress from pickle vats to build its visitor center and then “paid back” nature by creating a cypress-tupelo swamp. Recycled materials conserve water because no water is needed for their production, but to make those original pickle vats, a long-ago cypress-tupelo swamp had to be destroyed. Bernheim replaced that original swamp (a rich habitat for many different plant and animal species) with a new five-acre cypress-tupelo swamp at one end of a lake on the park grounds.

Beyond Recycling

In this video, a teaching artist from Young Audiences New Jersey helps students from two sixth grade classes at Lawrence Intermediate School write skits about sustainability and perform dramatic readings of their original works to fourth grade students. As part of the Beyond Recycling initiative, this program aims to make the students conscious of their actions, encourage behaviors that “protect the earth,” and promote awareness about environmental issues. It also combines the efforts of Sustainable Jersey, a program for municipalities to go green, save money, and sustain quality of life over the long term.

Recycling Center Field Trip

Penny and the KidVision VPK Kids tour a recycling center.  They note the difference among various materials and get to see firsthand the people and machines used to recycle everyday items such as water bottles and soda cans.

Water: The Lifeblood | Recycling Water

The city of Los Angeles, California has run out of sources to gather fresh water from for use in the city. They are now recycling and conserving water, and even though their population has increased by 1 million people they are using the same amount of water they used 20 years ago.

For more resources, visit az.pbslearningmedia.org.