We've been learning in our classroom about garbage and what we do with it after it leaves our houses. We will continue our study by learning even more about landfills, dumps, and recycling. I think it is important for children, as the future caretakers of our planet, to really understand the consequences for all the garbage we make in our throw away society. I want them to know that you can never really get rid of garbage (unless it is recycled into a new product). We either bury it, burn it, or dump it in the ocean but it isn't gone from our planet.

Right now there is a patch of ocean called the North Pacific Gyre where the currents can trap floating debris for years. It is miles and miles of garbage floating and trapping sea animals. It is the result of years of garbage being hauled out by barges from major cities around the world and dumped in the ocean.

The Citarum River, near the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, is so polluted with garbage fishermen can no longer fish there. This short sighted thinking has caused unknown tragedy environmentally and to humans. The river is full of chemicals and human waste which runs down tributaries and seeps into farmland and drinking water.

The World's Most Polluted River

The environmental debate of the day is whether global warming is man-made or a natural cycle. This debate misses the real problem; the world's population is doubling exponentially. There are more and more people sharing less and less natural resources.

The U.S. Census Bureau population projections for mid-next century range from about 393 million to 522 million. In the 55 years between 1940 and 1995, U.S. population doubled and is on schedule to double again by 2050. That is just the United States' population. China and India are doubling with larger amounts of people.

This should be more than enough reason to reduce, reuse, and recycle. 50 years is not long at all. Your children will be 55 with children and perhaps grandchildren of their own. We need to act now for their future.

The little things DO matter!

Will bringing cloth bags to the grocery store really make a difference? It will when the individual creates the tipping point for larger organizations to step up.

Other countries have reached the tipping point with the plastic grocery bag. Just this week, China banned them completely. So did the city of San Francisco. Ireland, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, and Bangladesh tax the totes or banned their use outright.

"Tony Lowes, director of Friends of the Irish Environment in County Cork, said the 15 cent (about 20 cents U.S.) tax on plastic bags introduced there in March 2002 has resulted in a 95 percent reduction in their use. "It's been an extraordinary success," he said.

According to Lowes, just about everyone in Ireland carries around a reusable bag and the plastic bags that once blighted the verdant Irish countryside are now merely an occasional eyesore. Cobb believes a similar tax in the U.S. would have a similar effect on reducing consumption.

The American Plastics Council is wary of such a tax in the U.S. They say it would cost tens of thousands of jobs and result in an increase in energy consumption, pollution, landfill space, and grocery prices as store owners increase reliance on more expensive paper bags as an alternative.

Bateman said the Irish tax of about U.S. 20 cents per bag is too high, but that a tax of 3 to 5 cents could have a positive impact on reducing plastic bag consumption by changing people's behavior.

"Having bags charged has some merits because it gets them used more responsibly," he said. For example, instead of a bagger using six bags to package a person's dinner, the bagger might use just two.

As for Cobb, he hopes people will begin to realize that paper and plastic bags both come at great cost to the environment and instead of scratching their head when asked which type they prefer, they'll pull a tightly packed reusable bag from their pocket.

"We want to make it cool to carry reusable shopping bags," he said."

-From Are Plastic Grocery Bags Sacking the Enivornment?, National Geographic, 2003.

My Kindergarten Class's Recycle Public Service Music Video

We made recycled paper too! Pictures are coming soon.

Watch this to get an idea of how much garbage Americans make!