Kindergarten to Grade 2
Help the Earth!
(A Rap)
Help the earth stay alive!
Keep the water clean so we can dive!
You can help to work on having clean air,
Ride your bike everywhere!
Please help the bears by sharing and caring,
Rethink – Don’t shoot!
Reduce, Reuse don’t throw away!
If the paint is not at use, don’t throw away – keep it for another day!
We want to live on a cleaner earth,
Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, and Rethink!
Submitted by:
The Grade 2 Class (Mrs. Richter and Mrs. Pellizzaro)
Deerwood School, Thompson, Manitoba
Grades 3 and 4
It Starts With Me
I tried to write a poem
About recycling today.
I’d start and stop, crumple it up
And throw the paper away.
No matter what I tried to write,
I couldn’t make it rhyme.
The crumpled paper mountain,
Got bigger every time.
It covered my bedroom floor,
From my desk into my closet.
Then it blocked my bedroom door,
I couldn’t leave it if I wanted.
But that didn’t stop me
I wanted to get it right.
I kept throwing crumpled paper
Until my room was out of sight.
I lost track of all my garbage,
Until it was all that I could see.
I guess to change the world
It has to start with me.
Submitted by:
Alyssa Marks
Riverton E.M. School, Riverton, Manitoba
Grades 3 and 4 French
Pourquoi on doit recycler?
Fais-tu le recyclage?
Quoi!?
Tu as dis NON!
Alors, tu dois commencer MAINTENANT!
Recycler est très facile.
Tu dois juste mettre les items dans la boite bleue.
Mettre la boite de recyclage dehors, et tu attends.
Après un petit peu de temps, le camion vient et prend ton recyclage!
Tu peux seulement recycler le papier, le carton, quelques plastiques, les cannettes et le verre de quelques sortes.
MERCI BEAUCOUP!
PS. N’oublie pas de recycler, c’est bon pour la terre.
Submitted by:
Chloë Mathers et Regan Mersereau
École Robert Browning, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Grades 5 and 6
All the R’s
Reduce, reuse and recycle words that we all know
We have to save our planet so we can live and grow
We might be only children but we will try you’ll see
And we will save this planet
It starts with
You and me.
Submitted by:
Markus and Lorne
Frontenac School, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Grades 5 and 6 French
Recyclons à tout prix!
Depuis que je suis toute petite, on me dit qu’il faut recycler. “Mets ça dans la boite bleue! Pourquoi cette bouteille est-elle dans la poubelle? Utilise le verso de cette feuille! Mets ta pelure de banane dans le compost! Pourquoi ces sacs de vidange sont-ils remplis? Pourquoi ces sacs bleus sont-ils vides?” Le recyclage fait partie de ma vie, tout comme il fait partie de la vôtre. Mais parfois je me demande si tout cela en vaut vraiment la peine… Et parfois, tout comme vous, je fais des mauvais choix. Alors, pour s’encourager à continuer, voici cinq bonnes raisons pourquoi il faut recycler à tout prix.
Commençons avec le papier. Saviez-vous que lorsqu’on recycle le papier, on utilise ce papier pour faire d’autres papiers, au lieu d’abattre des arbres? Oui, c’est vrai! Et ceci est beaucoup mieux, parce qu’à ce rythme, bientôt il ne restera plus d’arbres!!! Donc, raison numéro 1, if faut sauver les arbres…
Deuxièmement, il faut habituellement moins d’énergie pour fabriquer des produits avec des matériaux recyclés que si on utilisait des nouveaux matériaux.
Troisièmement, le recyclage sauve l’air et l’eau fraîche parce que la plupart du temps, quand on fabrique des produits à partir des matériaux recyclés, on crée moins de pollution de l’air et moins de pollution de l’eau que quand on fabrique des produits a partir de matériaux neufs.
Quatrièmement, on sauve de l’espace d’enfouissement parce que les matériaux recyclés ne se retrouvent pas avec les montagnes de vidanges dans les dépotoirs.
Cinquièmement, le recyclage crée des emplois parce que c’est plus de travail quand on recycle de que quand on jette tout simplement les choses aux vidanges. Alors on a besoin d’embaucher des gens, ce qui est toujours une bonne chose pour les gens qui cherchent un emploi, n’est-ce pas?
Alors, voila cinq bonnes raisons pour recycler. Mais même avec tout ce que l’on sait, on continue à jeter! Saviez-vous que les États-Unis jettent deux millions et demi de bouteilles en plastique par heure? Deux million et demi…par heure! Pensez à ce que cela fait a notre planète! Saviez-vous que ces bouteilles en plastique sont presque recyclables à 100% et qu’elles sont aussi assez simples à recycler? Si on continue comme cela, notre terre va bientôt devenir un grand dépotoir. Fermez vos yeux et imaginez que vous vivez parmi des tonnes de déchets. C’est horrible, non? Imaginez que votre chambre est remplie de déchets et que même votre lit est couvert de déchets…dégoutant! Maintenant, fermez vos yeux, et imaginez que la terre est propre comme un jardin. Dont, on prend bien soin. Respirez l’air frais et sautez dans l’eau claire d’un lac ou d’une rivière…un rêve? À vous de décider. Recyclons à tout prix!
Submitted by:
St. Avila School, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Grades 7, 8 and 9
Michael loves to recycle
There once was a guy named Michael
Who didn’t know how to recycle.
He tried to recycle plastic
And realized it was fantastic
So he tried recycling a tire
He now knows not to light them on fire
He experimented with metal
And turned scraps into a kettle
He even recycles electronics
And uses the cash to buy comics
Michael decided to recycle rubber
And became an environmental scrubber
Now that Michael’s recycling paper
He’s getting rid of harmful vapour
He turned an old egg carton
Into a home for his hamster Martin
He decided to recycle glass
And found out it had a lot of mass
When Michael went to recycle his bottles
He met a lot of really hot models
When Michael started to recycle cans
The models became his biggest fans
By cutting down his electricity use
Michael has now learned to reduce
It’s important to protect the ozone layer
So he stopped driving his car to become a team player
By making a shed of recycled wood
He’s helping the world more than he thought he could
Michael says, “Don’t throw out the cardboard
The Earth’s troubles can’t be ignored!”
It’s time to start to reduce
By cutting down the water use
And if we all cut down on our water use
We’ll have more time to drink apple juice
If we all would take time to re-use
We’d stop getting bad pollution reviews
Michael realized he could recycle more
And it wasn’t at all a tedious chore
By rethinking how we treat our waste
We can show the world we have good taste
Submitted by:
Grade 7 and 8 Class
Pierson School, Pierson Manitoba
Honourable Mention
Recycling is cool and blue
In the distance we saw a great big lump,
And decided it must be a giant ugly dump!
Oh what can we do?
So Manitoba doesn’t look like goo?
To do the job, you must do it right.
Recycle all day long and into the night.
You know that thing that’s square and blue?
Add your paper, cans and cardboard too!
To keep the grass so green and the ocean so blue,
Recycling is a must for me and you!
Submitted by:
Miss Little’s Grade 3 Class
Opasquia School, The Pas, Manitoba
Recycling: Good for All
We, as a society, are all well aware that our actions will affect the earth. We have been told numerous times by the media that we need to start cleaning up our act. But, what most of society is either ignorant of or chooses to ignore, is that every day, we make simple decisions such as throwing paper in the garbage, that will affect our communities for the worse. One simple thing we can do to enhance our lives is to recycle. Recycling is a good thing for everyone because it reduces waste, helps the environment, and can save you money.
As our population increases, so does our waste in the landfills. Manitobans make over a million tonnes of waste each year, and on average each Canadian produces 2.2 kilograms of waste per day. It all adds up. Over 60% of household waste can be recycled, so why don’t we recycle? One tonne of recycled paper saves 17 trees. Recycling saves energy and fossil fuels; for instance, it requires 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from scratch. Research done showed that one tonne of plastic bottles recycled would save the same amount of two peoples energy use for one year. All of these are examples of how recycling reduces our waste and impact on the earth.
When we recycle, it goes to a recycling plant to be reused again, and it doesn’t land up in a dump where it can pollute our water, soil and air. Most of what we throw in the trash isn’t biodegradable, and will stay on the earth. The collection and dumping of garbage in landfills is destroying the environment. Garbage dumps take up land space that used to be part of a habitat for plants and animals, and they also contribute to pollution, which hurts plants, animals and people. Some places burn their garbage, and this makes ashes and air pollution. When we recycle, it means fewer resources are taken from the earth (which is good) and we can conserve them. Recycling prevents soil erosion (from logging and mining) and loss of biodiversity. When we pollute the earth with excess garbage, we are adding to climate change that will affect the eco-systems. So, by recycling, we are saving the earth, protecting our health and wellbeing, and protecting wildlife.
Recycling saves money for businesses because it costs less to make products out of recycled items. By using recycled materials, businesses don’t need to spend money on extraction and forming of raw materials into useable materials. Think about it. To make paper from non-recycled materials, you would need to cut down trees, transport them, and then manufacture them into paper. Whereas, if you recycled, the paper wouldn’t have to travel as far to get produced into new paper, no trees would need to be cut down, and the process to make the paper is significantly reduced. From the example previously stated above, does not it make sense for businesses to use recycled materials? If the availability of a resource is increased and it isn’t extracted as much (because of using recycled materials) then the cost of the resource will be lower. If businesses use less energy to make their products by using recycled materials, then eventually our electricity rates could be lower. Landfills are expensive to run, so if you are sending less garbage to the dump by recycling, it means lower costs to collect garbage and this could save you money on your property taxes. Recycling programs are cheaper than the collection, burning and land filling of running garbage dumps.
If we all make an effort to recycle, this will show our government that we are serious about making a change. Actions speak louder than words, so to convince them that we are serious, we all need to recycle. Recycling is good for the economy and the environment, so it is a no brainer that we all should recycle!
Submitted by:
St. Maurice School, Winnipeg, Manitoba