ReMA Recycling Collection | Grades K-12
Grades 5-8
Watch this video to learn about how the recycled materials industry provides critical raw material necessary for the everyday items and essential infrastructure we all depend on.
Activities
Activity
People talk about throwing things "away." Did you know there is no "away?" In this exercise you'll classify what your school discards and then find new place for the stuff you no longer want or need.
Activity
Today's fossil fuels and most plastic products were made by ancient sunlight. In this activity students explore the properties of oil and its history.
Activity
Where does a soda can come from and how does it get from ground to table? You'll explore the engineering and design behind this common item and consider its value.
Activity
In this activity you’ll use some great web resources to answer a big question - and save energy as you do.
Activity
Through science and engineering, we can keep valuable resources in circulation.
Activity
Crash! Smash! The recycling truck is seldom quiet. What happens to all of your plastic and glass when it gets mixed in those bins? The answer: science!
Activity
The properties of a material may determine its use. In this activity, you will explore the properties of metals and alloys. You will also explore how properties of matter are useful in recycling different materials.
Activity
Many of the things we use every day are made of many kinds of parts. To recycle them, we must first take them apart and figure out what's inside.
Activity
In this activity you'll use mathematics and geography skills to investigate 5-8 the power of recycling. You’ll practice counting by tens, too.
Activity
It can be confusing to know which items you can recycle. In this activity, you will investigate different types of plastic and some of their properties. Then you will design a new way to sort the plastics from waste so that more plastic gets recycled and can be used to make new products.
Readings
Supporting Material
It's not quite as quick as flipping a top, but aluminum is one of the easiest materials to recycle.
Supporting Material
Do you have a magnetic personality? Your car does, too. More than 2/3 of the mass of most cars is made of iron and steel - metals that are magnetic.
Supporting Material
If you are reading this in school, chances are you are looking at a piece of paper. The average student uses more than 300 pounds of paper a year! If all of that came from new fiber, every three students would use a full grown tree each year.
Supporting Material
Every machine has moving parts that move against one another. Between these parts friction creates heat, wastes energy, and can cause damage. Lubricants reduce the friction when a machine runs, lowering the temperature and maintaining the parts.
Supporting Material
Look in your refrigerator. How many products come in glass bottles or jars? It's likely you will find foods that are very acid, like pickles, tomatoes, and orange juice in them. Because foods don't dissolve glass, it's a great storage material. It also lasts for a long time - and that's part of the problem!
Supporting Material
Here's a quick trivia question: What part of your car might eventually become jewelry? If you answered the catalytic converter, you'd be right. And if you don't already know what that part is, read on.
Supporting Material
Have you ever been asked if you had a latex allergy? Latex is one name for natural rubber. The special properties of latex rubber make it ideal for many purposes, including automobile tires. You can find it in many other everyday products like mats and track surfaces, mouse pads, and elastics.
ChampionsofRecycling
Video
Meet Brandi Harleaux and learn about the work she does and her career pathway.
Video
Meet Jennifer Betts and learn about the work she does and her career pathway.
Video
Meet Barry Wolff and learn about the work he does and his career pathway.
Video
Meet Nidhi Turakia and learn about the work she does and her career pathway.
Article
Some people are most comfortable when things don't change. Their ideal career would involve the same skills and the same work for a very long time. Others thrive with variety. Crawford T. Carpenter is llike that. His career in paper recycling has challenged him every day for decades.
Article
Are you reading this on paper? Or on an eBook, computer or "personal digital assistant?" If you use any electronic device, it's probably new. And like many other people, you have last year's outmoded version of that device in your closet under your bed.
Article
Mike Biddle describes himself as a "garbage man." He says he chose this career because he hates waste. But while most people try to get rid of things they don't use any more, he tries to recapture them. He moved from traditional polymer research to building an innovative company that is far more efficient at recycling for this reason.
Article
The field of electronics recycling is new to Dr. Stephen Jeffery - and to most others on the planet. Your parents probably used land lines and large, desk-top computers most of their lives. Today we move through new, smaller, and more complex forms of technology every few months.
Article
The key to a successful recycling business can be summarized in the phrase "just in time." In Silvana Jones' company, SA Recycling, that means that they need to be ready and able to accept the products - mostly metal scrap and ore - when the seller gets them to all 50 locations througout CA, AZ, and NV via truck or rail. From there, they are processed and exported via ocean container or bulk vessels.
Games
Game
The recycling process is depicted on the ScrapMap™ as a large circle. Each of the circles on this page shows how we can take something old and create a new and useful product. In the United States in 2011, more than 134 million metric tons of scrap metal, paper, plastic, glass, textiles, rubber, and electronics – valued at $100 billion – were manufactured into new products.
Game
In Scrap Titans, you are an entrepreneur competing to form the most profitable recycled materials business.
Posters
