Be Green
at Highland Park Elementary School
Curriculum & Activities
Household Hazardous Waste Reduction &
Disposal
25 August 2008
Summary
The Parent Teacher Association at this St. Paul elementary school led a yearlong effort to bring waste and toxicity reduction practices to over 400 homes
of the teachers and families of the school. Strategies to reduce waste and
toxicity were incorporated in the classroom curriculum in all grades and in
multiple class subjects through hands-on homework assignments. Teachers
plan to continue using activities developed this year in future years.
Information was presented at all-school activities, such as Back-To-School
Night, Earth Fair, and others. The Lorax (a Dr. Suess book with an
environmental theme) was chosen as this year’s all-school book. Materials
were translated for limited English learners and families. Articles on waste
and toxicity reduction regularly appeared in the school newsletter. Leaders
at several other schools are interested in replicating what Highland Park
accomplished.
Be Green: Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Reduction & Disposal
Activities for grades K-2
Grades 3-6 will be doing an activity that involves handling hazardous substances
(with gloves and parental supervision!) at home. An introduction to this activity will
be viewed on Tuesday Newsday. We wanted the younger students to have an ageappropriate activity that has to do with household hazardous waste. Suggested
activities (classroom and homework ideas) follow.
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Discuss/Define “Household Hazardous Waste” – what do the words mean?
Examples of common products containing hazardous substances are: motor oil,
drain cleaners, oven cleaners, toilet cleaners, spot removers, silver polishes,
furniture polishes, cleansers and powdered cleaners, window cleaners, bleach,
liquid cleaners, paint, paint stripper, turpentine, varnish, pesticides. When a
label contains the word: Poison, Danger, Warning, Caution, Flammable, or
Corrosive it is hazardous.
When HHW is not disposed of properly, it pollutes the air, water, and soil.
Read a story that has to do with pollution.
Generate questions, solutions, and actions that could be taken.
Look for signs of pollution on the playground, around the school neighborhood,
on the way to school, and at home.
Draw a picture, make a tally chart, or write about an example of pollution.
Partner with an older class to learn about their results.
Book List:
Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: A Message from Chief Seattle by Susan Jeffers, 1991.
Reinforces the importance of all creatures on the earth. (Ages 3-6)
Caring for Our Air by Carol Greene, 1991.
This book uses simple text and illustrations to describe air pollution and to explain
ways children can help. (Ages 5-8)
Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsberg, 1990.
After dreaming that the Earth was overrun by pollution, a little boy sees the sense
in sorting trash. (Ages 3-6)
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, 1971.
This tale explains how greed and pollution destroys fertile lands despite the
warnings of the Lorax. (Ages 4-8)
The World that Jack Built by Ruth Brown, 1991.
This story is based on the nursery rhyme The House That Jack Built with an
environmental message about the affects of pollution. (Ages 6-8)
Household Hazardous Waste K-2 At Home Activity
Dear Families:
Your child is participating in Highland Park Elementary’s Be Green Program. The
topic this month is Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Reduction. Younger
students are learning about HHW as pollution.
Look for three different examples of pollution. Draw what you see. Talk with a
parent or write about a solution for each example. Try to use the PYP attitudes or
learner profile!
Ideas for using The Lorax in the classroom:
Science
 Observations in schoolyard/journaling – what lives in the trees?
 Go on a litter walk on the school grounds and surrounding area. Upon return
to the classroom, sort out the garbage and determine what type of litter
was found most often – what can be recycled?
 Speak for the trees: tree research projects
 Research the environmental impact of air and water pollution, students
discover interconnectedness of species
Math
 Number Stories: use characters from the book when writing and solving
number stories
 Identify and graph trees on school grounds
 Tallies: tally the number of times a truffula tree is cut down in the book
Language Arts
 Read non-fiction books and conduct research about trees
 Compare The Lorax with The Giving Tree
 Compare fictional characters (Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans and Humming
Fish) with real animals and effects of pollution
 Find rhyming words
 Look at dialogue in text and use as a model for students’ use of dialogue in
their writing
 Speaking: discussion, debate, taking opposite points of view
 Generate questions and organize them for research
 Write reflections
 Rewrite the end of the story or add a “what happens next” piece
Visual Arts
 Multi-media uses for thneeds
 Students create family trees, school community trees, or promise trees
(promises to make a better world)
 School mural inspired by The Lorax
 Create video with students teaching how to take care of the earth
(rethink/reduce/reuse/recycle)
Social Studies
 Timeline of events in the book; timeline of events in environmental movement
 PYP attitudes and learner profile: find examples of empathy, integrity,
curiosity, creativity, thinking, inquiring
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Explore issues of greed and economic gain, needs and wants, making
responsible choices
Possible Action Steps
 Planting trees on school grounds
 Earth Day Fair showcasing student work
 School-wide campaign: rethink/reduce/reuse/recycle
Additional Books For Use With Elementary Students
Berenstein, Jan and Stan. The Berenstein Bears Don't Pollute (Anymore)
Goodman, Billy. How To Save The Planet
Hallinan, P.K. For The Love Of Our Earth
Jones, Ann. Aardvarks, Disembark!
Peet, Bill. Farewell To Shady Glade
Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree
VanAllsburg, Chris. Just A Dream
Be Green
Composting and Non-Toxic Pest Management with K-2
Background Unit of Inquiry: Seeds – planted and growing
Compost:
Read Books:
DK Eye Know Plant
Summarize Benefits of Plants:
Oxygen
Food for animals
Food for us
Habitat for animals
AND Plants make Nutrients that help other plants
grow & animals live
Trout are Made of Trees
Whenever we eat food, we are actually eating plants too - actual
fruits, vegetables, grains, OR composted plants that help other plants grow,
OR even milk from cows comes from them eating grass. So composting
plants instead of tossing them in the trash helps everything grow!
Vocab Words:
 Decompose: To break down into smaller parts. To disintegrate or
decay.
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Compost: A mixture of decayed organic matter that can be used to
enrich soil and fertilize plants.
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Nutrients: Vitamins and minerals that support the life and growth of
plants and animals.
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Recycle: To use something over again in the same or different form.
Non-Toxic Pest Management
 Visual Aid: Dandelion
 Ask the students what they see.
 Ask the students who think it is a pretty yellow flower to raise their
hands
 Ask the students who think it is a nasty weed that has no business in a
lawn to raise their hands.
 BOTH answers are correct, because a weed is actually too much of a
plant we don’t like in a place we don’t want it to be.
 Instead of using dangerous chemicals that could hurt plants, animals
and us – use a weed digger instead OR simply pluck the yellow heads
off before they seed!
Action Today: Our very own Miniature Compost Experiment
1) What is composting?
Response: Composting is a natural process in which nutrients are cycled
through living organisms back to the soil.
2) Why do we compost?
Response: To do our part to help nature recycle nutrients.
3) Does nature "know" how to compost?
Response: Yes! Every fall plants drop leaves that replenish soils.
Process
 Soil in cups ½ way full
 Add a lettuce leaf or crabapple tree petal
 Soil on top
 LITTLE bit of water
 Wash hands using fingernail brush
 Draw a picture of what the lettuce or flower petal looked like before
you buried it then draw another picture in a week – can you even find
the lettuce or petal? Write down your prediction of what you think the
lettuce leaf will look like in a week.
At Home:
 Your family can compost leftover kitchen scraps (fruit and vegetables)
 Compost – use MPCA handout with a grown up family member
 Dig up Weeds instead of using chemicals to kill them – dig them up
and compost them!! (Pesticide handout from MPCA)
 Weed diggers to bring home!
Junk Mail Classroom Introduction Suggestions
Discussion Questions
 What’s in the mail? Bills? Advertisements? Catalogues?
 Do you think your family needs everything that comes in the mail?
 What happens to the mail after it’s opened?
 Connect to The Lorax and truffula trees – junk mail is paper, made from trees.
 Is junk mail a problem? Let's do the math…
Shipped: 5.56 million tons
Recycled: 1.23 million tons
Garbage: 4.33 million tons
Nearly 32 pounds of paper and plastic going into the garbage
annually for every woman, man and child in America. Nearly 3
billion credit card solicitations are sent to consumers every
year!
Three at-home activities are included will be provided to teach students and families about junk
mail:
1. School-Wide Junk Mail Visual/Data Collection
Students will be asked to collect one day’s worth of junk mail from home. In the classroom,
teachers and students can decide how best to sort and collect data. Then a school-wide visual will
be created (staff brainstorm location and final product – whole-school bar graph by library?
individual classroom junk mail sculptures?)
Options: Have kids begin to sort it into categories – advertisements, credit card offers, catalogs.
Count number of items in each category. Count total number for classroom. Lots of math here!
Estimate how much junk mail in a week, month, year. Weigh it. How can you use this in your
current math unit? What is the environmental impact of creating and disposing of all that junk?
2. Collecting, Calculating, and Creating
Students will collect junk mail over a longer period of time (a week) so they can really see it pile
up, then sort, count, make calculations, and use it to create a work of art.
3. Junk Mail Reduction – Take Action
Students will be given “How To Reduce Junk Mail” resource sheets (in English, Hmong, Somali,
and Spanish). They will work with their families to try to reduce the amount of junk mail they
are getting and recycle the rest. Then they will reflect on what they did and learned.
Be Green: Junk Mail Reduction At-Home Activities
Hello Families! As part of Highland Park Elementary’s Be Green
Program, your child is learning about the environmental impacts
of junk mail and strategies for reducing it. The whole school is
participating in the following three activities:
1. School-Wide Junk Mail Collection/Visual Representation
Please help your child collect one day’s worth of junk mail. You
may want to cross out any personal information (name, address,
etc.). Send this to school as soon as possible. Students will be
sorting, collecting data, and using the junk mail for a visual
representation in the school.
2. Then help your child collect junk mail for a longer period of
time, a week or a month. See the attached activity sheet,
“Collecting, Calculating, and Creating,” for more information.
3. Take Action. Use the “How to Reduce Junk Mail” resource sheet
with your child. Let your child help you fill out a post card,
listen to a phone call, or watch you register online. Help your
child recycle junk mail along with the rest of your family’s
recycling.
_____________________________
name
Collecting, Calculating, and Creating
Be Green Junk Mail Reduction Activity Sheet
Most junk mail goes from the mailbox to the trash can. Much of
it is never even opened. Talk with your child about junk mail.
Why do you think it is called junk mail?
For this activity, your child will be collecting all of your
junk mail for one week. At the end of the week, your child will
sort it into categories A, B, and C (such as catalogs,
advertisements, credit card offers), count the number in each
category, then use that figure to calculate the number of items
for one month and one year.
Total Number
of Pieces
Category A
Category B
Category C
______________
______________
______________
One Week
One Month (4
weeks)
One Year (52
weeks)
Look at all of the junk mail you collected for one week. Where
did all of that paper come from? What else could that paper have
been used for? Use it now to make something else – be creative!
Bring it to school or draw a picture of your creation below.
_____________________________
name
Reducing Junk Mail at Home
Use this page to reflect on the action steps you took to reduce
junk mail at home, what you learned, and how you felt about
helping the environment. You can draw a picture or write about
your experiences below.
Be Green Suggested Classroom Activities: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and
RETHINK
1. Whole class discussion about trash: what is it and where does it go? See background
info below.
2. Activity: What’s in the Classroom Trash? (What are we throwing away at school?)
AND/OR
3. Activity: What are we Throwing Away at Lunch?
4. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and RETHINK activity: Classroom Creativity
5. Reducing Plastic and Paper Grocery Bag Use/Using Canvas Shopping Bags:
Classroom Activity
1. Introductory Discussion Information: What’s in the trash and where does it go?
Background info for teachers
Have you thought about what happens to garbage once it's burned or buried? Since solid waste
needs oxygen and moisture in order to break down, materials that are buried in a landfill will not
decompose very soon. As a matter of fact, when workers dig up old landfills, they often find
magazines and newspapers that are still readable!
In talking about trash disposal, some people say "we're running out of out." What they mean is
that we're running out of places to bury trash. Nearly half of all U.S. landfills are full or they
have been closed because of groundwater contamination. It's hard to site new solid waste
facilities, because most people don't want to live near landfills, and there's only so much land left
for green spaces, building homes, and growing crops. So the more land we use for landfills, the
less we have for these purposes.
Nevertheless, landfills are a necessary part of life, and they most likely will be with us for a long
time. If we learn to rethink, reduce, reuse, and recycle, however, we can extend their lives, and
save money, energy, precious land, and other natural resources.
Now that you know something about waste and landfills, doesn't it seem foolish to bury or burn
solid waste that can be recycled and made into new products? In addition to saving time, money,
natural resources, and landfill space, recycling is more efficient than making things from new or
virgin materials.
What’s in the trash?
General Overview of What’s in America’s Trash, from the EPA website:
Table of Trash Types and Percentages
Trash Type
Percentage
Tonnage
paper
40.4%
71.6 million tons
yard trimmings
17.6%
31.6 million tons
metals
8.5%
15.3 million tons
plastics
8.0%
14.4 million tons
food scraps
7.4%
13.2 million tons
glass
7.0%
12.5 million tons
other
11.6%
20.8 million tons (e.g., rubber, leather, textiles, wood,
miscellaneous inorganic wastes)
On an average day, a typical Minnesotan creates roughly seven pounds of waste. But from
Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25%. Added
food waste, packaging, wrapping paper and decorations - it adds up to one million tons a
week to the nation's garbage piles.
2. Activity: What’s in the Classroom Trash?
At the end of a day have kids guess what’s in the trash can. Come up with some categories you
can put on the board (paper, plastic, food scraps, etc.). Give a student a pair of gloves and have
the others decide which category each piece of trash goes in. See sample chart below.
paper
plastic
food
other
111 (tallies)
Could any of the items have been recycled or reused? How many? Are we throwing away more
than we need to?
3. Activity: What are we Throwing Away at Lunch?
Choose one lunch period, and have each student count the number of items they throw away
from that day’s lunch. Examples: plastic spoon, plastic fork, Styrofoam lunch tray, napkin, milk
carton = 5 items in trash. Don’t count food scraps that go in pig buckets. Tally or record
classroom total. Questions/ideas to ponder:
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Is more trash generated when buying hot lunch or bringing lunch from home? (number of
items or volume?)
How could you waste less?
Challenge kids to get that number as low as possible.
Count items for a week.
Optional Activity: Give each child a bag and have them carry around all of the trash they
generate for one day. They may rethink how much they throw away!
4. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and RETHINK activity: Classroom Creativity
Pick an afternoon before break and have kids reuse materials in classroom recycle/reuse bin to
create a holiday gift for someone (you may want to stock it ahead of time with scrap paper, gift
wrap scraps, grocery bags, paper towel and toilet paper rolls, tissue paper and ribbon scraps, junk
mail, odds and ends left from craft projects). Ideas include:
 holiday card
 holiday ornament
 holiday gift wrap
 collage
 picture
 sculpture
For more ideas go to http://kid-at-art.com/htdoc/previous.html
5. Reducing Plastic and Paper Grocery Bag Use/Using Canvas Shopping Bags: Classroom
Activity
Paper or Plastic? Ask students which is the best choice when packing your groceries at the store.
Both create pollution and use a lot of resources when they are made.
To make all the bags we use each year, it takes 14 million trees for paper and 12 million barrels
of oil for plastic. The production of paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution than plastic,
but plastic bags create four times the solid waste — enough to fill the Empire State Building two
and a half times. And they can last up to a thousand years.
Plastic, because it's cheaper to produce, is the overwhelming choice of grocery stores across the
nation — the average family of four uses almost 1,500 of these a year. San Francisco is limiting
consumers' freedom of choice, allowing only biodegradable plastic bags, which break down over
months rather than hundreds of years.
If choosing between the two, consider this. Plastic bags threaten wildlife along the coasts, so if
that's where you call home, the choice should be paper. In the heartland, it's plastic. The best
choice for the environment is option three, a reusable bag from home.
Activity: Each student will be given a reusable cloth bag to decorate and take home. Please have
them share what they learned about paper, plastic, and reusable bags with their families, and
encourage them to use their new bags when they shop. There is an At-Home Activity that
involves shopping bags.
Be Green At Home Activities: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and RETHINK
Shopping Bags
The next three times you go shopping, please record the number and type of bags used, and bring
this chart back to school when you are finished.
Store:
Type of
Bag:
Date:
New Paper
Bag
New Plastic
Bag
Reusable
(Cloth, Mesh,
Other)
Used Paper
Bag From
Home
Used Plastic
Bag From
Home
Number of
Each Type:
Store:
Type of
Bag:
Date:
New Paper
Bag
New Plastic
Bag
Reusable
(Cloth, Mesh,
Other)
Used Paper
Bag From
Home
Used Plastic
Bag From
Home
Number of
Each Type:
Store:
Type of
Bag:
Date:
New Paper
Bag
New Plastic
Bag
Reusable
(Cloth, Mesh,
Other)
Used Paper
Bag From
Home
Used Plastic
Bag From
Home
Reusable
(Cloth, Mesh,
Other)
Used Paper
Bag From
Home
Used Plastic
Bag From
Home
Number of
Each Type:
Totals for three shopping trips:
New Paper
Bag
New Plastic
Bag
Totals:
What did you learn from this activity? What action can or did you take to REDUCE or
RETHINK when shopping?
Be Green At Home Activities:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and RETHINK Trash
From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste in the United States
increases by more than 25 percent, according to the Environmental Protection
Agency. Added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and
ribbons add 1 million tons each week to landfills. In fact, 38,000 miles of ribbon
alone is thrown out each year—enough to tie a bow around the Earth. How much
does your family throw away?
1. Keep track of how many bags of garbage are taken out each week. You can use
the chart on this page or make your own.
Date
Number of Bags
2. Go through one garbage bag with your child (you may want to use gloves). Is
there anything in the bag that could be recycled or reused? Have your child write
or draw a picture below of something they were able to RETHINK throwing away.
Be Green At Home Activities: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and
RETHINK
Reuse holiday gift wrap, ribbons, and packaging. Or make gift wrap from a paper
grocery bag – cut open and use the blank side, decorate it with markers, crayon,
trace cookie cutters or your hands!! Make something creative at home and draw a
picture of it below or bring it to school. Ask your teacher to display it. See if other
students can guess what it is and what it was made from.
Be Green: Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Reduction & Disposal
Activities for Grades 3-6
Goals:
 Students will identify household items containing hazardous
substances.
 Graph or chart key words found on labels.
 Families will fill out pledge cards to reduce use of hazardous
substances in the home.
 Families will be provided with information about proper disposal.
Materials:
 Each student will be provided with a pair of purple nitrile gloves
(to prevent skin contact with hazardous substances).
 HHW Tally Chart, or paper to record and organize information.
 Parent or guardian to supervise activity.
Suggested Classroom Introductory Activity:
Questions to guide inquiry:
1. What does hazardous mean?
2. Can you name some substances that might be hazardous?
3. Where, in your home, might you find hazardous substances?
4. What would happen if hazardous substances got into the air, water,
or soil?
5. What is the proper way to dispose of hazardous substances?
Have students look at empty bottles of commonly used household
products. Which words could indicate that ingredients are hazardous?
Find examples of Poison, Danger, Warning, Caution, Corrosive or
Flammable. Please feel free to use the Household Hazardous Waste:
An Environmentally Friendly Disposal Guide from Ramsey County.
Explain that students will look for these words on products in their own
homes. Challenge them to think about how these substances impact the
earth, and what they could use as alternatives. Please reinforce that
they should KEEP THE PRODUCT CLOSED and only OBSERVE the
LABEL.
At Home Activity:
Each student will be provided with a pair of purple nitrile gloves (to
prevent skin contact with hazardous substances). The student can wear
one glove and a parent or guardian can wear the other glove.
1. Student explains to parent/guardian that they will be looking for
products in the home (not in the garage) that contain hazardous
substances. They will look on labels for key words: Poison, Danger,
Warning, Corrosive, Flammable, and Caution.
2. Each time a key word is found, the student will place a tally mark
in the correct category on the HHW Tally Chart.
3. The student will ask the parent or guardian to fill out a pledge
card to reduce the use of hazardous substances in the home.
4. The student will share information about proper disposal of HHW
with the parent or guardian.
5. The student will complete the HHW Tally Chart or decide on
another way to organize and share the results of this activity
with the class.
Suggested Follow Up Classroom Activities:
 Have students compile the data from their tally charts to get
classroom totals.
 Compare with results from other classrooms.
 Share results with younger buddy classes.
 Discuss surprising findings.
 Compile students’ questions for further research.
 Find out which products used by the school contain hazardous
substances.
 Look for non-toxic alternatives.
 Celebrate action! Did anyone take HHW to a disposal site? Move
things out of reach of a younger sibling? Teach parents something
new? Use alternative products?
 Make a poster to teach people about hazardous substances: which
products contain them, what they look like, what to do with the
leftovers, how to avoid using them. Clipart can be found on the
following website: http://www.pca.state.mn.us/waste/hhw/hhwlearningtrunk.html#downloads
Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) At Home Activity:
Each student has been provided with a pair of purple nitrile gloves (to prevent skin
contact with hazardous substances). The student can wear one glove and a parent
or guardian can wear the other glove when handling potentially hazardous
substances. KEEP THE PRODUCT CLOSED and only OBSERVE the LABEL.
6. Student explains to parent/guardian that they will be looking for products in
the home that contain hazardous substances. They will look on labels for key
words: Poison, Danger, Warning, Corrosive, Flammable, and Caution.
7. Each time a key word is found, the student will place a tally mark in the
correct category on the HHW Tally Chart.
8. The student will ask the parent or guardian to fill out a pledge card
(attached below) to reduce the use of hazardous substances in the home.
9. The student will share information about proper disposal of HHW with the
parent or guardian – feel free to use the Household Hazardous Waste: An
Environmentally Friendly Disposal Guide from Ramsey County included in your
child’s packet.
10. The student will complete the HHW Tally Chart and talk with a parent or
guardian about taking HHW to a disposal site.
Cut Here and Return to School
Household Hazardous Waste Reduction Pledge
The
family hereby pledges to:
 safely dispose of existing household hazardous waste
 to use safer, less toxic alternatives for cleaning, pests, and painting
Signatures:
Thank you for Being Green!
Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Tally Chart
Key Word
Tallies
Total
Poison
Danger
Warning
Caution
Corrosive
Flammable
Draw and label the products you found that contain hazardous
substances:
Which was most surprising? Why?
Which products will be taken to a County Household
Hazardous Waste disposal site?
What is Household Hazardous Waste?
Household Products are Hazardous if they are:
 Ignitable: Capable of burning or causing a fire
 Corrosive: Capable of eating away materials and destroying living tissue when contact occurs
 Toxic: Poisonous either immediately (acutely toxic) or over a long period of time (chronically toxic)
 Explosive and/or Reactive: Can casue an explosion or release poisonous fumes when exposed to air,
water or other chemicals.
The Federal Hazardous Substance Act of 1960 established labeling requirements for consumer products containing hazardous
substances. If a product has a hazardous substance, the front label must indicate a warning and description of the hazard.
Source: http://www.healthgoods.com/Education/Healthy_Home_Information/Home_Health_Hazards/household_hazardous_products.htm
THINK BEFORE
YOU BUY IT.
To avoid disposal problems, consider
buying less hazardous products. Household
products are hazardous if they are
flammable, combustible, corrosive, toxic
or reactive. A product's label provides a
quick and easy way to judge the product's
hazard level or the type of hazard it poses.
www.greenguardian.com/throw_hhw.asp
MN Pollution Control Agency: www.pca.state.mn.us/waste/hhw/index.html
When certain household chemicals are not used up, they can become household
hazardous waste (HHW). Many household products contain the same chemicals as
strictly regulated industrial wastes and pose similar environmental and health
problems. Although the quantities of chemicals disposed of by individual households
may be small, the number of households in Minnesota are many, and the amount of
waste adds up.
ReThink Recycling: www.rethinkrecycling.com/throw_hhw.asp
Some Trash is Trouble for your Garbage. Open a cupboard in your kitchen, basement,
or garage. Read a few labels. If they contain any of these words: CAUTION, WARNING,
DANGER, POISON, the products may contain hazardous materials. Hazardous to you,
hazardous to your family and hazardous to our environment if not used up or disposed
of properly.
 Don’t throw them in the Garbage.
 Don’t Pour them in the Sewer.
 Don’t Pour them on the Ground.
Toxic (Merriam Webster On-line Dictionary)
Etymology: Late Latin toxicus, from Latin toxicum poison, from Greek toxikon arrow poison,
from neuter of toxikos of a bow, from toxon bow, arrow
1 : containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death or serious
debilitation <toxic waste> <a toxic radioactive gas> <an insecticide highly toxic to birds>