Earth+Day+~+Garbage+Garbage+Everywhere!

Activity 1: Earth Day Scavenger Hunt =**1. When was the first Earth Day celebrated and Why?**=

=**2. What is a landfill? How long does it take for disposable diapers (Pamper) to decompose in an landfill? Why is this important to our Earth?**=

=**3. Why do people use the term "save trees" when they email or send documents electronically? How many tons of paper do Americans use annually?**=

=**4. How do we "get back" animals that have become extinct? Why is this important?**=

=**5. What is the impact of "junk mail" on global warming?**=

=**6. What does "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mean? How did it start?**=

=**7. What is the affect of aluminum can waste on our planet?**=

=**8. Why are efforts to "Save the Planet" important?**=

=**9. What can YOU do to help Save our Planet?**=

=**10. What is the EPA and why is it important?**=

Activity 2: The Great Garbage Sort In the simplest terms “biodegradable” means a material that is able to degrade or break down. Examples of biodegradable materials are apple cores, bones, paper, flowers, plates made of corn products.

“**Non-biodegradable**” refers to materials that are not broken down by organisms. Examples of non-biodegradable materials are plastic, glass, polyester clothing items, and aluminum cans.

//Something is biodegradable when little tiny microorganisms in the earth can break the object apart and turn it into soil. It looks like the thing disappears, but it just becomes part of the soil.//

Things that are biodegradable are often made of organic materials, or things naturally occurring in our environment, not those synthetically produced in a lab. For instance, a banana peel is biodegradable and will take approximately 3 days to degrade, but a plastic bottle will take hundreds of years!

Take a diaper for example… how many years do you think it takes for a disposable diaper to biodegrade?

Answer: 500-600 YEARS!

__//Directions://__ Sort the types of litter given into the two categories "Unacceptable Types of Litter" and "Acceptable Types of Litter"

Add **five (5)** of your own **to each** of the two categories that are not given in the list.

=__//Acceptable Types of Litter//__=

(Things we would not want to throw on the ground) || Acceptable Types of Litter (Things you would think would be okay to throw on the ground) || Activity 3: Garbage ~ It Takes Time DO NOT CHANGE YOUR ESTIMATES 1. Were your estimates close to the actual time taken for some items to degrade? 2. What most surprised you about the results?
 * Types of Litter || Unacceptable Types of Litter
 * * glass bottles
 * cigarette butts
 * doggy mess
 * flammin' hot wrappers
 * McDonald's cup
 * banana peel
 * chicken bones
 * plastic fork
 * styrofoam box
 * diaper (pamper)
 * soda cans
 * plastic bags
 * candy wrappers
 * chip bags
 * lil' jug bottles
 * last bites of sandwich ||  ||   ||
 * === Item === || === Time THOUGHT to Degrade === || === Time ACTUALLY NEEDED to Degrade === ||
 * ====Bones==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Styrofoam Plate==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Apple==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Plastic Cup==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Newspaper==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====CD's==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Dorito's Bag==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Dead Animal==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Laundry Detergent Bottle==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Diaper (Pamper)==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Aluminum Can==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Plastic Shopping Bag==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Tomato==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Folding Plastic Chair==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Plastic Bottle Cap==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Cigarette Butt==== ||  ||   ||
 * ====Battery==== ||  ||   ||

Considering what has been taught so far have students organize the following items in ascending order according to the time it will take them biodegrade. Apple Core, soy sauce bottle, picture frame, chicken bone, water bottle, soda can, tree branch, lamp shade, cracker tin, Doritos bag, diaper, sewing machine, rotten fruit.