Page 6 of Environmental Management Lesson Plan by Indiana Department of Environmental Management

IDEM Lesson Plan: Recycling Page 6 of 24 Once it is determined to what degree the recyclables must be sorted, one should follow a few small steps to complete the proper recycling process: 1. Rinse out containers to avoid attracting pests. 2. Don't put unacceptable materials into the recycling bin, including food. 3. Don't throw everything into the same bin! Instead, separate your recyclables into the proper categories required by your recycling hauler. F. Other Recycling Methods There are many other ways in which we recycle, but we may not have thought about these activities as recycling. Composting our yard waste and food scraps (except for meat and bones) is an excellent way of reducing the amount of garbage we make. Composted material is really good for gardens, flower beds, or starting a worm bed. Another good way to recycle things is to give unwanted items to charity, friends and neighbors, or to hold a garage sale to promote the reuse of your used materials instead of disposing of them. There are many great things that one can make out of reused materials. Jewelry, clothing, accessories, and household decorations can be made from things that would otherwise be discarded. G. Final Step: Buy Recycled In order to complete the recycling process, not only is it important to reduce, reuse, and recycle but also to "BUY recycled". This means buying products that are packaged in or made of materials that are easily recycled. This is important because it reduces the amount of material that ends up in the landfills or incinerators. The easier it is for a material to be recycled, the more likely it will be recycled. Another way to buy recycled is to purchase items that contain materials that have already been recycled. This is called "Post Consumer." Try to look for products containing the highest amount of post-consumer material. Even products that say "100% recycled material" on them are not always made of post-consumer materials, so be careful to look for the post-consumer content label. Why Buy Recycled? 1. It encourages companies to use recycled materials in their products. 2. It conserves out resources. 3. It is cost-efficient, because the price reflects the price of the product rather than the package. When we recycle, the materials we put in the bins are collected and then stored away where they will sit until there is a demand for the materials to be used again and then turned into new products. Unless we create a demand by buying items made of recycled material, these huge bins will stay in warehouses. Only buying recycled materials can make all of our hard work recycling our own products worthwhile! H. IDEM Careers in Recycling There are thousands of people that work in recycling in Indiana.

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