Today’s post comes from Sarah, a student at Barnett Elementary School in Ramona. Sarah shares what she learned this year at the County of San Diego and I Love A Clean San Diego’s America Recycles Day.
At school, we learned just about HOW important recycling is. There are many benefits to recycling, some being that it prevents pollution, saves energy, conserves natural resources, helps create new well-paying jobs in the recycling and manufacturing industries in the United States, and many more.
Anyways, first we went into a really cool presentation which they called, The Splash Lab. During The Splash Lab, we were sent into individual groups, and MY group was outside learning about our environment. We talked about a kind of stream or river called an estuary. One really cool fact they taught our station was that there was a kind of water that was saltier than fresh water, but not as salty as seawater. It’s called Brackish Water. Did you know that? After that station, my group went into a different section where we learned how much our ocean is getting polluted. For example: People throw their trash on the ground and in the water after finishing what they had instead of putting it in the garbage or recycling bin. Once thrown on the ground, animals try to eat the trash filled with food or whatever was in it because they are hungry. The garbage can either make them sick or cause them to die. Factories give off burning fossil fuels that make the air taste disgusting. If these gases are inhaled, the living being can become very sick or even get cancer in the lungs. That’s why I think that recycling should be mandatory and there should be recycling cans in various locations at school and everywhere else. Good thing we have a recycling bin at school now!
Afterwards, they demonstrated to us what the garbage man does during his job. I got to admit it was pretty awesome to see that. You could imagine how much recycled objects they collected in a day or in a YEAR.
After we left the Splash Lab, we went into an assembly to the related topic, recycling. We learned that recycling is the process of collecting recyclable materials such as used bottles, cans, and old newspapers that would otherwise be considered waste and turning them into potentially useful materials. There are three steps to the recycling process. The first is collecting and processing materials, the second is to manufacture raw materials into new products, and third to purchase recycled goods. This process completes the recycling loop.
Recycling isn’t just something we do at home. At school we can reduce, reuse and recycle too. Kids can bring lunches in plastic containers that can be washed and reused. In class, we can reuse paper and buy paper that is made from recycled materials. Our school could raise money with a recycling drive. All the papers we could collect could be sold and the money used to buy things we need, it would also save trees.
That’s where WE come in. We can help our environment if we encourage people to make a commitment about actually collecting any recyclable materials. One important thing I learned is that recycling isn’t really that hard and it takes a little effort to help clean up our country. So come on, Help Make a Difference.
Thank you Sarah for showing that you love a clean San Diego too!