Recycling for Kids / How Can Kids Help
What is recycling
Recycling means taking materials from old discarded materials and making other new products from them.
If you drink juice or soda from a can make sure you recycle the can, because doing that will save energy and other natural resources. That can will stay in the recycling loop and out of the landfill saving space in the landfill and other resources that are used to produce new cans from entirely new materials.
What is the recycling loop?
Have you ever seen this symbol before? This is the recycling loop. There are other forms of this symbol but this is the most common form.
The three arrows in this symbol stand for the three steps in the recycling process. The first of these steps is the collection of the recyclable materials through curbside or other kinds of collection facilities. The second step is taking the old material and making it into new products. The third step happens when you buy products made from materials taken from products that you would have thrown away.
Why should we recycle?
Recycling or making new things from recycled ones takes a lot less money, much less energy, and saves a lot of the Earth’s natural resources, thereby helping the environment.
Recycling also saves space in landfills. Instead of your garbage being thrown away and taking up space and possibly damaging the environment it’s better to recycle it.
The energy saved by recycling also results in less pollution and we all know how bad pollution is to our environment. When you make new products from old but still useful materials think about the natural resources that are saved because of the material from old products that would otherwise have been thrown away.
How do we recycle?
You begin to recycle when you separate recyclable materials from other your other trash. The segregated materials are collected by different collection programs.
Some programs are instituted by the government while others are run by individuals or organizations that are concerned about the environment. The materials that are collected are first processed then sold to manufacturers as raw materials for new goods.
What kinds of materials can we recycle?
Ever wonder what materials can be recycled?
Paper, glass, cardboard, aluminum cans, steel cans, and other metals can all be recycled. Plastic bottles can also be recycled to make new products. These products can be used to make playground equipment, the steel in skyscrapers, bottles that hold food other household products, and even bottles for drinking water.
Where can you find out more about recycling?
These are some sites where you can find out more about recycling. Most of these sites are government sites and others are set up by private organizations:
- http://www.depweb.state.pa.us
- http://www.ecy.wa.gov
- http://www.upack.com
- http://www.cyclesport.com
- http://www.kidsrecyclingzone.com
Sources
- http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/recycle.htm
- http://www.massrecycle.org/links.html
- http://www.recycle4kids.org/
Continue reading here: Why is Recycling Important?
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