Educational Resources
Not only is the Recycle-Bowl competition a great opportunity to show how well your school performs at recycling and reducing waste, it's a great time to educate students on these important topics as well. Look here for lesson plans, games, fact sheets, and activities to use during Recycle-Bowl.
Lesson Plans and Activities
Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Action
Students will be able to identify ways materials can be separated and sorted at material recovery facilities (MRF) such as a) conveyor belts and trommel screens, b) blowers, c) flotation, d) magnetism and e) manual pickers.
A Little R&R
Students will be able to: 1) understand the difference between the words and symbols for “recycled” and “recyclable”; 2) discuss the various raw materials used to create different products and 3) identify types of recycled content products.
Junk Art
Students will be able to understand that discarded materials can be made into beautiful and interesting art, use items to create art, correctly use the terms reuse and repurpose
Participate in America Recycles Day
Go the extra mile in November and celebrate America Recycles Day at your school! Click here to register and view this page to see K-12 America Recycles Day activities.
Scorecards for tracking your recycling and waste rates for Recycle-Bowl
Use these scorecards with your students to practice math and track your progress.
- Mixed Recycling (all materials are mixed)
- Separated (bottles and cans separated from paper)
Waste in Place
Waste in Place is Keep America Beautiful’s educational resource developed for pre-K through sixth grade students and educators that offers an integrated approach to solid waste management. To find out more, or to order a copy, please visit the Waste In Place page.
Leader Learning Guide
This guide for secondary school education was created to promote youth-led action for change with students from diverse backgrounds. To learn more about the lessons and activities for your classroom, please visit kab.org to learn more.
Recycling and Waste Reduction Fact Sheets
Source Reduction
Students will explore the need for packaging and the economics of managing packaging material.
Recycling
Students will identify recyclable materials available for collection in their community.
Composting
Students will increase their understanding of proper composting.
Aerosol Can Recycling
Use this fact sheet to learn why to recycle empty aerosol cans.
Recycling Stats and Facts
Using facts and figures is a great way to teach your community about the importance and impact of recycling.
Technology Activities
How does a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) work?
A common recycling myth is that commingled recyclables are not separated but instead disposed. Check out this cool virtual MRF from ReCommunity to better understand a single-stream MRF.
Play the Super Sorter game to see what it's like to run your own material recovery facility and see if you can get the top score!