THEME: Real World Connections
Lesson: Recycling
Learning Outcomes:
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Students will examine the importance of recycling of investigate some of the recycling
options in Regina.
Essential Question:
 Why is it important to recycle?
Level:
 grades 9-12
Time:
 1 x 15
Materials:
 article attached
Procedures
1. Write the essential question on the board
2. Read the Did you know facts below to the class
Did you know?
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By the age of 6 months, the average Canadian has consumed the same amount of
resources as the average person in the developing world consumes in a lifetime.
(Recycling Council of Ontario)
In a lifetime, the average North American will throw away 600 times his or her adult
weight in garbage. A 68 kg adult will leave a legacy of 40,825 kg of trash.
(Natural Resources Canada)
Across Canada it costs more than $1.5 billion per year to dispose of garbage.
(Destination Conservation)
Presently, 80% of municipal and industrial solid waste in Canada is disposed of by land
filling processes, with the remainder disposed through recycling, resource recovery and
incineration.
(Government of Canada)
There are well over 10,000 landfill sites in Canada.
3. Read the Minus 20 article below to the class and use the bolded information as
springboards for discussion along the way
4. As a class, brainstorm answers to the essential question
Some Research into Recycling in Regina
(By Christine Howell for Minus 20, Regina Leader Post, October 27, 2008)
With recycling being the current hot trend to save our warming Earth, I figured I’d spend some time
researching ways to recycle items in Regina.
The two best places in our city are Sarcan and Crown Shred and Recycling Inc. Let’s start with Sarcan.
First, along with cans and bottles, you can bring your glass bottles, tin cans, milk jugs and cartons, juice
cartons and jugs, and juice boxes to its storefronts around the city. It can also take the cardboard packages
your cans or glass bottles come in so please don’t throw them out! They can still be recycled even it they’re
wet!
It sounds as if Sarcan can take everything, but it can’t. It cannot take household plastics (ice cream pails,
dishwashing or laundry detergent containers, and so on). The key to Sarcan is that it only pays to for drink
containers or, if the contents of the container are supposed to be consumed, you can recycle it. So for
household plastics, lemon or lime juices, vinegar, windshield fluid, a tin can of beans, Sarcan cannot
recycle these. As well, that small Kool-Aid and other squeezable, paper like drinks are as good as garbage.
Ask: Can you guess how many plastic shopping bags Canadians take home every week?
• Canadians take home over 55 million plastic shopping bags every WEEK.
Did you know?
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10 plastic soft drink bottles are required to make the fiberfill for one ski jacket.
(Greater Vancouver Regional District: Just the Facts)
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Energy savings per tonne of finished plastic bottles is enough to fill a 20-gallon gas tank
every week for ten years.
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5 billion drink boxes are thrown away each year in North America.
Also, Sarcan has a $50 limit for each customer per week. If you have a lot of recycling you can still
bring it all if you bring someone else with you so you can claim all the money. If not, it becomes a bit of a
hassle for both the customer and the employees. In most cases, you end up having to take a bag or two of
recycling home.
Sarcan also asks customers to sort their recycling. Sarcan sorts by size color and type. Any container
from one ml to 999 is placed in the small category- 10 cents. One litre and up are considered large for
plastic bottles – 20-40 cents. Also other plastics such as Sunny D or Tropicana jug, glass bottles and tine
are also included in the large category. Cans are either small or medium both paying 10 cents. Non legal
means the can wasn’t made in Canada, but in the USA or elsewhere, so Sarcan can only pay you a penny
for each non-legal can.
Sarcan can also take various electronics, computers, and paint cans. It has posters explaining what it can
and cannot take. Sarcan does not pay for the electronic items-they are just recycled.
Ask: Can you guess how many tones of computer equipement/phones/tv/stereo/appliances
accumulate in our landfills?
 More than 140,000 tonnes of computer equipment, phones, televisions, stereos and small
home appliances accumulate in Canadian landfills each year. That’s equivalent to the weight
of about 28,000 adult African elephants or enough uncrushed electronic waste to fill up the
Rogers Centre every 15 years.
Now onto Crown Shred and Recycling Inc. Crown Shred collects, processes, and markets recyclable
materials. Through its programs, it either picks up or takes in recycling from offices, and homes for
southern Saskatchewan and Prince Albert. Using the information from its new website, here’s a list of
what Crown Shred will take: Aluminum containers and tine cans, milk cartons, milk jugs, plastic beverage
bottles, cereal box bags, plastic grocery and garbage bags, and any household plastic with a number 1 to 7
on the bottom in the recycling logo, brown paper bags, t6issue roll cores, corrugated cardboard, cereal
boxes, magazines, catalogues, telephone books, junk mail, envelops, newspaper, flyers, letter quality paper,
gift wrap and packing paper.
Here are some interesting facts:
 One pound of newspaper can be recycled to make 6 cereal boxes, 6 egg cartons or 2,000
sheets of writing paper.
 Recycling one tone of newspaper saves 19 trees, 3 cubic meters of landfill space, 4,000
kilowatt hours of energy, 29,000 liters of water and 30 kgs of air pollution
 About 1/3 of our waste is paper and paperboard. Another third is yard and kitchen waste.
The rest is divided among glass, metals, plastics, textiles, wood and other materials.
 By recycling one tonne of paper you save:
-17 trees
-6953 gallons of water
-463 gallons of oil
-583 pounds of air pollution
Also using their web site, here’s a list of what Crown shred doesn’t take: Glass bottles and jars, Styrofoam
wrap, household garbage, ceramics, glass light bulbs, motor oil or hazardous chemical containers,
unclassified plastic items such as toys or those that are not properly rinsed or prepared.
Did you know?
 Recycling a glass jar saves enough energy to light a bulb for four hours.
 Making glass from recycled materials cuts related air pollution 20% and water pollution
50%.
Both companies ask that you remember to rinse all of your recycling, especially food cans and tines, and
milk jugs and cartons. Remove all lids and caps because the repetitive motion of taking them off causes
carpal tunnel syndrome to the employees. Flatten all cardboard boxes and paper material. Also keep an
eye out around the city for the big blue bins. Here you can drop off all of your paper recycling like
newspapers. Other bins such as grey and black/white allow you to drop off household tin and all kinds of
milk containers.
I hope this information helps out all who reads. I dare you to recycle. Green is the new black, save our
earth!
Ask: Why is it so important to recycle? (Look for the following)
Brainstorm its importance to the environment:
Recycling is very important as waste has a huge negative impact on the natural environment. Recycling
helps to reduce the pollution caused by waste. Recycling reduces the need for raw materials so that the
rainforests can be preserved. Recycling requires much less energy and therefore helps to preserve natural
resources.
Brainstorm its importance to people: Recycling is essential to cities around the world and to the people
living in them. No space for waste. Our landfill sites are filling up fast, by 2010, almost all landfills in the
UK will be full. Reduce financial expenditure in the economy. Making products from raw materials costs
much more than if they were made from recycled products. Preserve natural resources for future
generations. Recycling reduces the need for raw materials; it also uses less energy, therefore preserving
natural resources for the future.