Recycling Lesson Ideas
Incorporate foam #6 recycling into your classroom with these lesson plan ideas. Encourage your
students through discussion, activities and maybe even a field trip to a recycling facility.
Be a Recycling Role Model. Use a spare foam tray from the lunch room to demonstrate for
students how to recycle their trays. Talk about the importance of cleaning the trays and stacking
them neatly. For younger students, have them practice by forming a line in the classroom. One
at a time, have them “clean” the tray and place it on a desk or table.
Why Should We Recycle? Start by walking students through the benefits of recycling lunch
trays, it: saves money, reduces waste and helps the environment. Then have each student
create a drawing or poster for the classroom that shows why recycling is important. Another
option is to have students write a paragraph or essay on the benefits of recycling.
How Does Recycling Work? Using our worksheet, discuss with students the steps of the
recycling process. Each step of the process requires special guidelines, processes and
equipment. Discuss why cleaning the trays is important (to prevent the recycling machines from
malfunctioning) and the reasons for stacking them instead of just tossing them in a pile.
Recycling Field Trip For older children, a field trip to a recycling facility can be a good way to
learn first-hand what happens to the trays after they leave the cafeteria. Before the field trip,
provide handouts that briefly describe the process so students can follow along during the tour.
Or, use the sheets as a kind of scavenger hunt or quiz for each step of the process. You might
also want to pass around a picture frame or small piece of crown molding to show students the
types of products that are made from recycled trays. If taking a field trip is not feasible, share
videos of the process with your students.
Recycling: By the Numbers. Use the recycling model to apply real-life mathematics skills. In this
exercise, the students are provided with some data and asked to calculate how much money the
school can save through foam #6 recycling. Finish the conversation by asking students how the
school could put the extra savings to use, to reinforce the importance of saving money and
recycling foam trays.
Incorporate recycling into spelling tests. The week you teach about the importance of foam
recycling or visit a recycling facility, use recycling words in your language arts tests and puzzles,
including word jumbles, word search and crossword puzzles.