April 29, 2023

Notes by Aarya Mishra

Preview

Today, we had a Prithvi Sevasanga class to learn about the 4 R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Throughout the past classes, we have been spending time getting to know Mother Earth. Through this understanding, we developed love for her because she is always giving. Last class, we had a workshop led by Lavanya Didi. She taught us how to manage our waste.

Video

We watched a video about how we can save waste. Have you ever recycled? Recycling is the process of taking waste and materials that we throw away, and turning them into new products. For example, to recycle metal cans, the cans are melted down, then formed into other products. You can recycle things like metal, some types of plastic, glass bottles, any sort of paper, and more! At school, you might be encouraged to recycle. Recycling means that factories don’t have to make more and more new products, rather using old products, breaking them down, and making new ones. Also, this helps the environment! For example, paper is made out of trees! In fact, millions of trees are cut down every year to produce paper. So, recycling old paper helps save the trees. Also, it helps pollution, because when factories make new products, carbon dioxide is released into the air, and causes global warming.

Some communities have recycling bins. However, there are different types of recycling. For example, paper and metal recycling have to be separated, not together in order to be able to recycle. So, the communities that do recycle have different recycling bins, one for metal, one for paper, one for glass, and one for plastic.

The next thing is Reduce. Reducing means to cut down on how much waste you create. For example, instead of using a new piece of paper every single time you want to draw, instead, use the back of an old paper! This way, you are saving paper, and trees!

The next thing is Reuse! Reuse means, instead of throwing away something, like a shoebox, try to see if you can transform it into something else, like a bird house! This way, you are creating less waste, and creating something useful! 

Here are some other ways to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle:

• Instead of getting rid of old clothes, donate them to a charity!
• Take reusable bags to the grocery store!
• Try to buy less toys and gizmos for yourself!
• Bring reusable water bottles to school, and reusable lunch boxes!

Lesson

Lavanya Didi said that the planet has a huge waste problem! An average family has 700,000 pounds of waste (127,000 tons) per year, contributing to 33% of the world’s waste. Waste is something that cannot be recycled and reused. It has to be thrown away, polluting our environment.

These are the 4 R’s that can help us save our planet:

1: Refuse! Refuse means saying no to stuff that will harm our earth. What is something that you can refuse to help the earth? One example of refusing is when eating out, in a restaurant, don’t order too much, and finish your food every time, don’t throw it away!

2: Reduce! Reduce means to create less waste that will clutter up Mother Earth. How can you create less waste? One example is bringing a reusable bag to the grocery store, so you don’t have to throw away the plastic ones they give you.

3: Reuse! Reuse means to find a way to use old things creatively. How could you remake something into something fun, and useful? For example, if you have any old socks, make them into sock puppets!

4: Recycle! Recycling means throwing away certain things in a way where they can be reused! What things can you recycle at home? For example, if you recycle paper, it gets mashed into bits, mixed with water into a pulp, then rolled out into new sheets!

RAW

The RAW for this week is for you to take away one thing from this workshop. For example, you could start using the other side of a paper, or bring a reusable bag to the grocery store!

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Notes by Mihika Gupta

Households produce 700,000 pounds of waste every day and produce 33% of the world’s solid waste. 

To bring down this number you can use the 4 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Refuse: Say NO to plastic, paper, and other types of waste.

Ways to Refuse:

• Say no to taking extra food at a restaurant
• Don’t take milk with your hot lunch if you don’t want to drink it
• Don’t buy plastic objects like bottles
• Bring home lunch, avoiding the paper and plastic hot lunch comes in
• Don’t buy things you don’t need

Reduce: Use less waste

Ways to Reduce:

• Don’t take extra objects or food that you don’t need
• Use cloth bags and cloth masks instead of paper

Reuse: Use things again instead of throwing them away

Ways to Reuse:

• While drawing, use the back of an old page instead of taking a new one
• Make waste into art, like turn a plastic milk jug into a birdfeeder
• Make sock puppets with old socks
• Make sure a toy can’t be fixed before throwing it away
• Give your old, too small clothes to someone else, like a cousin or friend
• Make cardboard boxes into forts to play in
• Turn old socks into hair ties
• Turn a card into something new

Be creative!

Recycle: To set aside waste material in a certain bin for it to be cleaned and used by others

You might see different recycling bins for different objects. This is because different objects are

turned into things in different ways:

• Plastic jugs are cleaned and used again
• Cardboard is washed, chopped, and heated. This makes it melt so it can turn solid again and be turned into new cardboard.
• Cans are smashed, heated, and melted so they can shape themselves back into solid
• Paper is chopped, turned into pulp, and bleached with chemicals to turn clean again. This saves trees.

Recycling reduces pollution in the water and the air.

Ways to Recycle:

• Donate old toys to a shelter

Things you can Recycle:

• Plastic bottles
• Paper

Make a system to recycle at home! Turn a box into a makeshift recycling bin you can use.