Designing Environmental Solutions

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    Chapter 1

    Garbage In, Garbage Out Chapter Overview

    • Doing Technology
    • Module Overview
    • Chapter 1
    • Chapter 2
    • Chapter 3
    • Chapter 4
    Figure 1-1: Do you know what type of place this is? It appears to have a lot of junk, plastic bags, leftover food, and other items that people have thrown away.

    Do you know what type of place is shown in figure 1-1? What kinds of patterns do you think you can uncover by looking at this place? Do you see a lot of plastic? Maybe you notice a lot of paper. Can you see a lot of food products in the garbage, too?

    Getting rid of garbage might not be something that you think about very often. When you have something that you consider trash, you might just want to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Have you ever thought about what happens to your trash once you put it in a trash can? Where do you think trash goes once it leaves your home or school?

    Goals for the Chapter

    By the end of this chapter, you will

    • be able to explain how patterns of trash disposal have changed over time
    • describe costs and benefits of current methods of trash disposal
    • identify patterns that have led to people seeking other methods of trash disposal
    • explain how patterns in garbage disposal might be expected to change in the future
    • describe a technology solution for a problem associated with garbage disposal.

    Most of that trash eventually ends up at a landfill, like the one in figure 1-1. A landfill is an area where waste is spread on the ground, then buried. A major challenge in many parts of the United States is deciding where to put the trash. Landfills are filling up fast, with trash taking up all of the land that is allotted to the landfill. Many communities do not want landfills near houses. People also have concerns about how landfills can affect the environment.

    In this chapter, you will learn about people’s patterns of garbage disposal. You will also learn about some patterns and habits that people are beginning to change.

    Chapter Overview

    This chapter focuses on an environmental issue that many communities struggle with—garbage. Many students may not know what happens to garbage once they put the container out at the curb by their house or drop bags off at the local dump. Although many schools now have recycling programs, students may not realize why recycling is beneficial for the environment. In this chapter, students learn about some of the challenges associated with the disposal of waste.

    In the Engage activity, students keep track of the items they throw away. They look for patterns in what they throw away and consider what they might do to throw away less.

    The Explore activity has students learning more about how much people throw away and the history of garbage. The students study a graph to learn more about how much people have thrown away in the last few decades. Then they read scenarios about trash during different time periods and consider what, and how much, people throw away.

    As students work through the Explain activity, they learn more about landfills and incinerators. They complete an activity that illustrates one of the concerns about landfills, then read more about it. They consider the advantages and disadvantages to both landfills and incinerators.

    In the Elaborate activity, students learn more about the choices they can make about their waste. Students work in teams to determine how much they think different actions are worth. Many of these actions are related to reducing, reusing, and recycling. They then play a game that helps them think about the impact of the actions. Finally, they read more about these options, as well as composting.

    The Evaluate activity has students consider a scenario in which a community is trying to decide how to handle both garbage and hazardous waste. They learn about the different options the community is considering, then students consider the costs and benefits of the different options. They use their ideas to write a letter to Congress explaining which choice they think is best.

    Goals for the Chapter

    By the end of this chapter, students should

    • be able to explain how patterns of trash disposal have changed over time
    • describe costs and benefits of current methods of trash disposal
    • identify patterns that have led to people seeking other methods of trash disposal
    • explain how patterns in garbage disposal might be expected to change in the future
    • describe a technology solution for a problem associated with garbage disposal.

    Prerequisite Knowledge

    Students should complete the “Doing Technology” chapter before beginning this chapter. In addition, they should have some understanding of costs and benefits. If students do not have this experience, you may need to help them understand those concepts at the beginning of the Explain activity. One of the modules in this program titled Responding to Patterns of Change covers costs and benefits. If you have that module you can bookmark it for easy reference.

    Commonly Held Misconceptions

    Students may harbor misconceptions about the materials they will be studying in this chapter. Some of these misconceptions are listed in this section. Do not take the time to go through them as a list of lecture topics, but rather use them to inform your teaching. Many activities included in this chapter work to expose misconceptions and help students develop better mental models.

    • Landfills are the solution to waste problems. Landfills will continue to be an important part of waste disposal. However, there are concerns about landfills, such as leaking and the amount of land they use. Some hazardous wastes are disposed of in landfills, which can create health or environmental issues. Furthermore, by disposing of items in landfills, people are permanently disposing of these items. This means that natural resources must be used to create new items.

    • Recycling is the solution to waste problems. Recycling can help alleviate some of the dependence on landfills and natural resources. However, recycling is not completely efficient. In addition, some materials are not manufactured to be recyclable, so the cost to try to reprocess them is high.

    • Environmental problems are limited to areas such as rainforests. Students often think that environmental issues only happen in places like rainforests that are being cut down or when oil is spilled in a major body of water. In fact, many environmental concerns are found in every ecosystem on Earth.

    • Individuals have little power to change environmental problems. Students may easily become disheartened by the wide range of bad news about the environment. Individuals can make a difference, however, especially when acting on an issue in the local community.

    • Changing one factor usually solves environmental problems. Students tend to simplify problems. For example, when reading about issues with landfills, they may feel that recycling is the action that will eliminate the problems humans are facing. Most issues have many factors that play into them and require solutions that balance constraints and criteria or costs and benefits. It may take several solutions to reduce the impact of the problem, but it will likely not be solved completely.