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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2007  > February  >
Chemical Education Today
Report
Sorting Recycled Trash: An Activity for Earth Day 2007
Mary E. Harris
John Burroughs School, St. Louis, MO 63124-1899

Harold H. Harris
Department of Chemistry and Education, University of Missouri—St. Louis, MO 63121
Cover
February 2007
Vol. 84 No. 2
p. 207
Abstract
Students are usually oblivious to the fate of discarded materials, and particularly to how recyclables must be processed in order to re-enter the manufacturing stream. In this activity, middle or high school students separate commingled recyclable trash to simulate sorting in a recycling center. Like many such real centers, this imaginary "solid waste recycle and reuse center" accepts newspaper, steel cans, aluminum, glass, LDPE bags, PETE bottles, and HDPE containers. Sorting is the first step in this process. Students design a recycle plant system that constitutes an "automated" process of sorting recycables. Knowledge of physical properties of the components of "trash" must be applied. This is an open inquiry activity that requires students to apply concepts they have learned previously. There is no one "right" answer. A flow chart and conveyor belt are designed by a team of students that show how they separated their components in the waste stream of their factory.
Supplement
An Adobe Acrobat PDF containing the photographic presentation, "Where does Recycled Trash Go?" is in this issue of JCE Online.
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 Download
Contents
  JCE2007p0207W.pdf
 
More Information
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Citation
Harris, Mary E.; Harris, Harold H. J. Chem. Educ. 2007 84 207.
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Keywords
Environmental Chemistry; High School / Introductory Chemistry; Inquiry-Based / Discovery Learning; Physical Properties
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History
Created:
Last Updated:
1/9/2007
1/19/2007
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