Our Class Landfill

Today we talked a bit about what landfills are, how long everyday items take to decompose, made our own class landfill, and started a journal to record what we see in the next few weeks. We added aluminum, paper, plastic, Styrofoam, lemons, material and lettuce to our landfill in class. We will be keeping a log documenting what we see for the rest of the school year. I'm thinking about saving it (that is a horid thought) and digging through it the same time next year with my new class!

The class was SHOCKED and HORRIFIED to find out how long stuff takes to decompose. Did you know it takes 450 years for plastic? 500+ years for glass? 100 years for tin? 350 years for aluminum? 1 year for material? 1 month for paper? Beware...the kids all wanted to make their own landfills for home! Maybe a summer project? :-)

We all wanted to know how long it took Styrofoam to decompose. We looked it up...more than 1 million years! At one point someone made the connection out loud..."OMG, Chick-fil-A uses Styrofoam cups!" SK immediately said, "I will never go there again!" The kids unanimously decided that we needed to take action and write a letter showing our displeasure and concern...

We used part of my coffee cup in our class landfill...apparently, it will be around for the next million years!

Of course, I felt like the biggest earth grinch when the kids pointed out my Styrofaom coffee cup our Junior Achievement volunteer brought me this morning and then the Styrofoam plate and cup from the teacher appreciation lunch PTO provided. Here's a heads up...all the kids said they had important things to discuss with their parents tonight at dinner...just a warning!