Our Work With Glenside & Research on Environmental Waste

Team CEAChristine Kievit, Emily Hartzell, Alysia Wakefield

Overview of Glenside & Reading• Glenside is located on Lackawanna Street in Reading

• Glenside has about 430 students and about 50 staff members

• School’s mission: To create a challenging learning environment while also encouraging students to strive for their goals.

• The teachers and other staff members work hard to help students learn and grow.

Overview of Glenside & Reading continued• Reading is one of the poorest cities in America• The city of Reading is one of the largest cities in the U.S. and more than 87,000

people live there. • The income for the average household is around $25,000 which is a significantly

low amount. • The unemployment rate is at a 7.3 percent.

Our Work with Glenside• To begin our work we met up with Mrs. Houck at Glenside to see the area in the

cafeteria where we would be working to create our murals and also started brainstorming ideas for the murals.

• Mrs. Houck wanted the cafeteria to have an outdoor environment feel for the children

• We, as well as the Green Team, worked together to create the murals on the 8 poles in the cafeteria

• We used the poles to create murals of different trees in Pennsylvania. Each side of the pole was painted to show how the tree would look throughout Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer.

Our WorkFirst we needed to start priming the 8 poles, so that we could have a fresh surface to begin the sketches on for each tree!

Then, with the help of the Green Team’s sketches, we worked together to paint the rest of the tree murals

More Pictures at Glenside

Videoclip of Landfillhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA608GJ-EzM

Video created by Pearson Biology, 2010

Issue: What is Waste?

Waste are the items that one throws away when there is no use for it anymore

The Problems with Waste• The problem is that we produce too much waste

• United States produces 230 million tons of trash per year• A small portion of the waste is recycled and the remainder is either

burned or buried in landfills • Even though we bury trash in landfills, some landfills have been shutting

down because there is not enough space to bury the trash in and it was starting to affect our drinking water

Waste in Pennsylvania • Accepts payment for taking in other places waste

• New York sends their waste to Pa because they have no place for it

• 35 counties have at least one landfill

• Accepts trash from places as far as California and Puerto Rico

United States Waste • American citizens produce 1600 pounds of trash per year

• 30% of households waste are compostable,but it still ends up in a landfill

• The average American uses 18 tons of paper in a lifetime

• ⅓ of the world's waste is produced in the U.S

Burning Waste ● Burning waste harms our air because the toxins from the smoke and

particles are being released into the air ● Dioxin is one of the toxins that is being released ● This would cause air pollution and it is able to harm our bodies● Forms of cancer can even be formed● Can result to death

Recycling• Able to reuse items instead of throwing them away

• Less trash would be in landfills once we recycle more

• Energy would be saved because there would be no need for a large amount of new products to be made

• Able to save money

Leachate • A liquid formed when waste breaks down• Highly toxic• Can pollute waterways, ground water

Other Problems• Water Contamination

• Soil Contamination

• Air Quality

• Loss of Habitat

• Smell from Landfill & people not wanting to live near the landfills

Possible Solutions to Prevent Future Damage• Reduce: Donating items that are still useable, reduce the amount of plastic

we are using, wasting less food.

• Reuse: buy items that you can continually use instead of items that are constantly thrown away, companies can use recycled material to package their products, consumers can buy items made from recycled material

• Recycle: paper, especially plastic, glass, and aluminum cans

• Composting: instead of throwing away organic waste into landfills where it can release methane gas, compost into fertilizer

• Awareness