Why Should I Recycle?

Yesterday we were at the library checking out DVDs, I mean books.  Vince was playing at the train table with some other little kids and I just about had as much as my bag would carry, when the display for non-fiction paperbacks caught my eye.  I spied this Usborne book and snatched it up.  I originally intended to have Caden read it, but when I started to skim, I found that it's a pretty good book!  If you click here, you can flip through it.

I love children's books for research purposes.  They're so concise and they usually have pretty good information.  Did YOU know what to the trash once the garbage men toss it in the truck?  Do you know HOW glass is recycled or why it's important to follow recycling rules (not throwing a brown bottle in with the clear glass, for example).  It talked about how and why we and other countries recycle as well as some interesting stats about recycling.

As you noticed in Caden's Post, the first thing kids always say when you ask them how to help save the planet is to pick up trash.  This is something I noticed all the time when I taught.  I understand this, it's very black and white and it's very easily solved.  I try (obviously not too successfully because litter was the first thing Caden thought of) to help my kids understand why we do the green things we do.  I want to have Caden read this book too.  I had one a few weeks ago that was a little more simplistic for Ellie, but she didn't ask me to read it to her and I never made her sit down with me and read it.  I need to.  I can do all the "green" things I want, but the truth is, I'm only going to be here for another 50 years or so.  After that, my kids are the generation that will be responsible for protecting our natural resources.

"In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."
--Iroquois Quote