ST. PAUL PAPER PILEUP

After we decided to use recycling as our topic for CyberFair we thought it would be a good idea to teach our school about recycling. First, we wrote up a play and presented it to the other classes. After presenting our play we gave a cardboard box to each class. We told the class to put all of their paper waste in the box. After one week we collected 18 small/medium boxes of paper just in the classrooms. In a year that would be almost 650 boxes of paper.

Another activity we did with the Paper Pile-Up was collected the paper items during lunch for one week. During the lunch hours we waited at the trash cans for the students to bring up their lunch trays. We then took all of their paper products off of their trays, such as milk and juice cartons. We then emptied out the contents of the cartons and placed them in a separate trash bag. At the end of the week we collected 5 large trash bags of milk and juice cartons. In a whole school year that would be almost 180 large trash bags full of milk and juice cartons.

Paper Pileup Photos

Paper Pileup Skit

Even with all of this paper it does not include custodial waste or shipping boxes and packages. All of the paper we collected was taken to the transfer station in a nearby town. The script that we used when presenting our play is featured below:

Script: "Recycling Paper and Joining the Movement!"

Characters:

Taylor - (the guy that throws away a lot of paper and doesn’t recycle)

Heidi - (his friend who wants him to recycle)

Stevi - Narrator

Abbi - (a girl that recycles everything)

Chandler - (a tree)

Taylor : (wadding up a lot of paper and just throwing them into the trash can) (evil laugh) Ha, ha, ha!

Abbi : ( putting all of her recyclables into the correct bins)

Stevi: Look at these two…can you tell the difference between the ways that they dispose of their paper?

Heidi : Hey! Why are you not recycling all of that paper? Did you know you could be saving trees all around the world?

Abbi: Yeah!

Taylor : Oh yea big deal...trees!

Heidi: Well, did you know that without trees on the earth we will not be able to breathe?!

Abbi: Yeah!

Taylor : Really?

Heidi: Yeah!

Chandler : ( stands there and says…) Save me…just recycle your paper!

Abbi: Yea…don’t you get it? If just one person starts to recycle paper that saves a lot of trees and helps our environment!

Stevi: Contributions to air pollution are reduced by 95% when making paper from recycled paper. For each newspaper that you recycle per month that same amount of trees are saved that year. So if you recycle 10 newspapers in one month you will be saving 10 trees that year! Recycling a stack of newspaper three feet high saves a tree!

Abbi: Did you know that each year Americans throw away enough office paper to build a 12 foot high wall of paper from Seattle to New York!

Taylor : Wow! I didn’t know all of that!

Abbi: So now that you know all of that are you are going to start recycling and join the movement?!

Taylor : Well….

Heidi: Come on, we need you!

Everyone: Come on! Yeah, just do it! It’s easy!

Taylor : I guess so!

Chandler : WOHOO!!! You are going to help save me and all of my friends!

Stevi: Isn’t it amazing how a few facts about recycling can help change a person’s mind about it? Talk to your friends who don’t recycle and help keep the world safe for our generation!!

Everyone: JOIN THE MOVEMENT!!

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Recycling Skit Introduction for Paper Pileup

Recycling Skit

Photos