This semester has mainly focused on the implementation of a Precious Plastic recycling workspace. Precious Plastic is a nonprofit project which provides a community of people setting up their own recycling workshops or helping out in other ways like providing machinery. Over the summer a Precious Plastic workshop will be added to DePauw’s campus, so we divided the class into teams to split up the responsibilities. The teams consist of Media, Policy, Education, Recycling, and Health and safety. I am part of Health and Safety. The education team put on a plastic recycling education workshop with the fourth graders at Tzouanakis Intermediate School, which was very well done and impactful for both us and the fourth graders. The group discussion portion went as one might expect from a bunch of fourth graders. When questioned on how they could reduce plastic consumption in their lives, two responses I received were “we kill all the humans so no more plastic is produced” (which is actually not entirely incorrect), and “why don't we eat all the plastic and solve world hunger?” At first, I was a little bit irritated, but then I realized I probably would have said something very similar as a fourth grader. The two most important things I learned from interacting with the fourth graders was that many of them sadly don't have a recycling bin at home, but many of them also are a lot more educated about recycling than I was at their age. The main discussion was about Republic Recycling Service (service the town of Greencastle uses) and what they will accept as recycling. We gained all of our information from the Republic Services website (https://www.republicservices.com/recycling-guide?tab=local ), where we found that some recyclable items vary from area to area. For example, glass is able to be recycled in Indianapolis but not in Greencastle. There were a couple of kids in my group who knew exactly what can and cannot be recycled, and why it is recyclable or not. I’m glad we spent the semester studying plastic recycling so I could best educate the fourth graders. A lot of them were much more advanced in their knowledge than I expected. This gives me hope that the education system is on the right path of teaching children how and what to recycle.
My group and I watch as Shelby checks the recycling bin for any items that don't belong.
As the final week of our seminar is wrapping up, we are narrowing down the topics our teams researched throughout the semester to write a final paper. One topic I’m diving into is whether having a readily available recycling system encourages or justifies the consumption of more plastic. From conversations I’ve had or overheard, a lot of people don't really know how the recycling system works. I mostly hear things like “It all gets recycled anyway, so there's no waste.” What they don't know is that only 9% of the plastic ever created has been recycled, and eventually the recycled plastics can no longer be recycled (https://www.unenvironment.org/interactive/beat-plastic-pollution/) . According to National Geographic, “The same piece of plastic can only be recycled about 2-3 times before its quality decreases to the point where it can no longer be used.” (https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/ ). This means the plastic will inevitably end up in the landfill, even if it is recycled multiple times. Misinformation that recycling equals no waste is harmful for the effort and offers false justifications for increasing plastic consumption. For the precious plastic workshop being implemented we will need to make sure we educate people on the truths about plastic recycling, so the project does not allow people to gain these common misconceptions.
Citations:
"Our Planet Is Drowning in Plastic Pollution. This World Environment Day, It's Time for a Change." #BeatPlasticPollution This World Environment Day. Accessed May 09, 2019. https://www.unenvironment.org/interactive/beat-plastic-pollution/.
"Republic Services." Republic Services. Accessed May 09, 2019. https://www.republicservices.com/recycling-guide?tab=local.
Sedaghat, Lilly. "7 Things You Didn't Know About Plastic (and Recycling)." National Geographic Society Newsroom. April 13, 2018. Accessed May 09, 2019. https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/.
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