Activities: biodiversity champions

Hint: the background information that will help you complete this activity is found in the videos and article.

1. Responsible disposal

Background: Every city or municipality has very specific guidelines about which types of items can be recycled and composted, rather than being sent to a landfill as trash. It is important to understand these guidelines because putting trash in with recyclables costs the city and taxpayers money and decreases the efficiency of the recycling programs. Similarly, it defeats the beneficial purpose of these programs to put items that can be recycled or composted into the trash. Every year, tons of recyclables and compostables are thrown into the garbage and end up in landfills. Landfills take up valuable land, can produce hazardous runoff, and require money and resources to maintain. In addition, compostable materials like food scraps and lawn trimmings take significantly longer to break down in a landfill. Knowing what can be recycled and composted and then acting on this knowledge is something that everyone can do to be a biodiversity champion.

Here are some common items and what can be done with them:

Procedure for the activity:

a)    Get three containers and label them “Trash,” “Recycling,” and “Compost.” The containers can be buckets, cardboard boxes, etc.

b)   Find out who provides waste disposal services where you live. Visit their website to learn which items can be recycled and composted or have to be placed in the trash.

c)    Collect 8-10 items from a trash bin in your classroom, your office or home. (Be careful. You might want to wear gloves.) What is the most common item you’ve collected? Is it something that has to go to a landfill or can it be recycled or composted? If you have a friend or family member doing this activity too, discuss your findings with them. Did they have similar results?

d)   Based on what you learned from the waste disposal website, sort the items you collected from the trash bin into the appropriate recycling, compost, or trash bins.

e)    After sorting the items, answer the following questions or discuss them with a friend:

2. Environmental impact of an everyday product

Background: When you buy a t-shirt, it doesn’t come with a list of environmental impacts on the label.  However, that t-shirt has arrived in your hands after having some significant environmental impacts, starting in the field where the cotton was grown, continuing through the processing of the cotton, dyeing and shirt assembly, and then transportation from the factory to where the shirt is sold – which might be halfway around the world!  Continuing with the t-shirt’s life cycle, what are the environmental impacts of washing and drying it?  And what happens to the t-shirt when it is worn out or no longer in fashion?

The simple fact is that every product comes with some environmental impact. To understand the complexity of this story, you can do some research on the life cycle of a t-shirt to see what goes into the process of manufacturing and how this leaves a mark on the environment.

First, consider the origin of the material used to make the shirt. Many t-shirts are made from cotton. Unsustainable cotton farming can involve massive inputs of water and pesticides. During the processing of cotton into clothing, many hazardous materials may be used or added to the product, including silicone waxes, harsh petroleum scours, softeners, heavy metals, flame and soil retardants, ammonia, and formaldehyde – just to name a few. Many processing stages result in large amounts of toxic wastewater that carry residues from chemical cleaning, dyeing, and finishing. This waste can poison local ecosystems and can deplete oxygen in the water, killing aquatic animals and disrupting aquatic ecosystems.

Next, how far did the t-shirt travel to reach you?  It could be tens of thousands of miles for just one t-shirt. Most forms of transportation produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global climate change.

Finally, after years of wear and tear, what happens to this t-shirt when it is no longer in a useable form?  Does it end up in a landfill?  Can it be recycled?

Procedure for the activity:

Look through your clothing and choose 5 t-shirts. Read the garment’s label and answer the following questions:

a)    What materials are in the t-shirt? Is the fabric natural, like cotton, or synthetic, like polyester? What environmental impacts might be associated with the production of those materials?

b)   Where was this piece of clothing made? How far did this piece of clothing travel to reach you? You can use this link to calculate how far the item traveled to your home.

c)    Predict the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that resulted from the transportation of the t-shirt from its place of production to your home. You can use this link to calculate how far the item traveled to your home.

d)   Is the t-shirt made from any recyclable materials? If so, what percentage? Can the t-shirt be recycled? Can it be reused?

e)    If you want to make more sustainable choices to help protect biodiversity, what will you consider the next time you buy a t-shirt or other type of clothing?