5th – 8th Grade
5th – 8th Grade
Don’t Be a Beach Bum
Wet or Dry Magic Fork Experiment
Little Stuff Wins Over Gravity Experiment
Spinning Yo-Yo Experiment
Island Survival
Where Does the Trash Go?
Student Handout
True Facts About Waste
Waste Disposal Chart

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Waste Disposal Chart

Download the Waste Disposal Chart (37KB PDF) to allow students to chart methods of disposal for a variety of items, and to chart how these methods impact energy use and pollution.

Download the Waste Disposal Chart Answer Key (65KB PDF).

Teacher's Notes:
The answers to this chart may surprise you and your students. Here’s why:

  1. With the exception of home composting, all waste disposal methods (recycling, community composting, landfilling and incineration) use energy. Recycling is a process that requires transportation, sorting and manufacturing. Large-scale composting requires transportation and mechanical “turning” of materials. Incineration requires energy to transport material and then begin the burning process. Landfilling requires energy to transport materials to the site, and then to keep the site properly filled, drained, etc.
  2. Landfilling is the only method that does not directly create useful by-products. Recycling creates new products, as does composting. Via burning, incineration can create energy by producing steam and electricity. (Indirectly, the methane gas in landfills can also be captured and turned into energy.)
  3. All methods create some pollution. Composting gives off methane gas. Transporting materials burns fuel, creating air pollutants. Recycling processes also pollute, as do all manufacturing processes. Incineration creates some pollution as well, along with small quantities of hazardous waste, which must be properly handled, stored and/or landfilled.
  4. Note that while batteries are listed as recyclable, recycling is not really economical. (That’s expected to change in five to ten years.) Meanwhile, putting batteries into landfills can allow toxic acids and heavy metals to leach into soil and ground water.
  5. Rubber tubing or tires can be ground up and used as filler in asphalt.
  6. Wood scraps can be recycled into pressed-board or ground up for use in fireplace logs.
  7. Fabric scraps are of limited recycling value. They can be reused, however, as rags or replacements for paper towels.
  8. Foam cups can be recycled, although facilities for this are limited.

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