Garbage: What’s
the Big Deal?
Together
With
Together
With
1
How Much Do You Throw Away?
Make a list of everything you have thrown
away today and everything you might
throw away later.
Make a list of everything you have
recycled today.
How much do you think the average
American throws away each day?
2
Where Does Garbage Go?
Where does garbage go
when you’re done with it?
Where do recycled
materials go?
3
Which Country Produces the Most
Trash Per Person in the World?
a.
b.
c.
d.
China
Russia
India
United States
Did you know that 195 million tons of garbage
gets tossed out each year by Americans?
That’s enough to fill 108,000 garbage trucks!
4
How Long Does It Take An
Aluminum Can to Decompose?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Three Years
50-100 Years
200-500 Years
1,000 Years
It takes most aluminum cans between 200 and
500 years to decompose. This means that if
George Washington threw away a soda can, it
would still be around today!
5
How Many Aluminum Cans Are
Made in the US Every Minute?
a.
b.
c.
d.
25,000
100,000
250,000
1,000,000
That means that over 131 billion cans are made
per year in the United States each year.
That’s 437 cans per person!
6
How Long Does a Glass Bottle
Take to Decompose?
a.
b.
c.
d.
10 Years
1,000 Years
3,000 Years
It Never Decomposes
That means that if the Egyptians had thrown
away a glass bottle while building the Great
Pyramids, that bottle would still be around
today!
7
How Long Does It Take Americans To
Throw Away Enough Glass To Fill a
Sky Scraper?
a.
b.
c.
d.
1 Month
1 Year
2 Years
6 Months
That means that each month we must find
somewhere to put a pile of glass as big as a
skyscraper!
8
How Long Does It Take a Plastic
Bottle To Decompose?
a.
b.
c.
d.
It never decomposes.
1,000 Years
100,000 Years
1 Million Years
That means that any plastic bottles we throw
away today will pollute the Earth for all of our
ancestors for the next 1 million years!
9
How Many Plastic Bottles Do People In
The United States Throw Away Each
Hour?
a.
b.
c.
d.
10,000
1 Million
2 Million
10 Million
That’s 60 million plastic bottles per day! The
liquid from all of those bottles could fill a
swimming pool 10 feet deep, 24 feet wide, and
one mile long!
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Comparison
Material
Decomposition
Time
Amount
thrown away
per day
Aluminum
200-500 years
130,000,000 cans
Glass
Will not decompose
36,000,000 bottles
Plastic
1 million years
60,000,000 bottles
11
Where It All Ends Up
Click the link below to view a video from the Associated Press
about massive pockets of garbage forming in our oceans.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
12
Recycle, Reduce, Reuse
How can each of these actions help fix
the garbage problem in the United
States?
Think of the last time you recycled. What
other products are you able to recycle?
13
Activity: Today’s Waste
14
Source for Factual Material
•
NDEP. "How Long Does Trash Last." NevadaRecycles.gov. Nevada Division
of Environmental Protection. Web. 12 Sept. 2011.
<http://nevadarecycles.gov>.
15