What should and should not be put in the blue bin for recycling is much more complicated than most think. Create a set of information sheets and put a slide presentation together on optimizing blue bin Recycling. This can not only this endeavor far more effective, but can actually prevent worker injuries and lower tax burden for you town. Please see our page on blue bin recycling and consider the following for a presentation.
Benefits to the Student:
public speaking skills
research skills
Environmental Science, Material science and chemistry knowledge
journalism, environmental policy
Goals:
Improve community education on what should and should not be recycled. Attempting to lower the costs per ton of recycling, and improve the overall effectiveness blue bin recycling in your town.
Reduce number of citizens that do not blue bin recycle.
Improve your knowledge, or environmental and material science.
Improve your writing, research, and speaking skills.
Ideas:
Research the pros and cons of Blue Bin Recycling. Lookup the common objections to recycling. Gather statistics on the overall success of recycling. Gather percentages of plastic, metal, paper/cardboard, and glass. You will find the latter 3 are highly recycled and a boost to the economy, and environment. Research high level reasons that plastic is not recycled at such a high rate. There are more than 1600 types of plastic and digging into this too far is an entirely different project. Build a compelling argument to recycle vs not.
Familiarize yourself with the site: https://recyclesmartma.org/results-materials/#. This allows you to type almost any item in and see if it is truly recycled in Massachusetts, where NH sends all of its recyclables. Ask at least 5 adults what items they have questions on. Then look it up for them on the spot and share the site with them. The presentation should include details about this site. Your findings and a q and a session where you look up items that the audience is confused about.
Come up with general guidelines of what can be recycled in Massachusetts specifically. In general only food and household product containers are recycled. Not all plastic, glass, or aluminum items are recycled, primarily only consumer product containers. For instance, plastic storage bins are not recycled.
Plastic film, wires, and cables, wrap around and clog up the recycling machinery. Workers are required to cut these materials out of the machines and serious injuries can occur. On top of this they will not be recycled.
Styrofoam is technically plastic, but not recycled in blue bins. There are companies that recycle Styrofoam, but community and company programs are usualy required to get these materials to the recycler.
There is a lot of confusion about whether or not recycles should be rinsed. On one hand most recycling companies list food as one of their major contaminants. However, water requires electricity therefore fossil fuels primarily to pump, hot water requires significantly more. We recommend passively rinsing, which is just to put the containers in your sink to passively rinse underneath items you are already rinsing. Research the current recommendations by environmental groups and recycling centers on this subject and report.
Wish-cycling: This is the term for putting items in the blue bin that you wish, or assume are recylced but are not. Mixed material products like an umbrella might contain aluminum but won't be recycled. List the most common and strangest items that are wish-cycled.
Consider creating a quiz using survey monkey or a similar product. A printed form can be administered or it can be sent out to the student body or members of a community organization. The content would be what you should and shouldn't recycle. Design you questions to test for the most common mis-conceptions that you find with blue-bin recycling. Provide the correct results to the quiz takers to improve their knowledge on the subject. A small change in habit for hundreds or thousands of people can truly impact the effectiveness of recycling and likely lower the cost to the town.
Familiarize yourself with https://recyclesmartma.org/beyond-the-bin-search/ . This allows you to type almost any item in and see if there are alternative drop off locations for materials that are not blue bin recyclable. Look up some items like plastic storage bins or Styrofoam. Share the information in your presentation and have a q and a to look up items your audience is curious about.
Write an article on your findings, have an advisor proof it, and publish in the school paper, the bow times or another publication. The more people who learn more about this process the more effective it will be.