Sustainability Fair

Today our school had a sustainability fair on campus. It was to teach us how big the problems our earth has right now but to also to show us how much of a difference doing small things can make. The fair had about 10-15 booths; each teaching us about a different way to help our earth. One booth taught us about global warming. Another booth taughts us about the trash that was killing animals who got caught in plastic debris. There was even another booth taught us about how one 4th grade class raised money by recycling alluminum cans so that they could adopt three endangered tigers from a zoo. Because of the new HI-5 program, they recycled all their cans which got them $0.05 each instead of throwing them out and wasting good money. Not only that but they used the money to help protect endangered animals. We have all heard on the news about more and more of our animals going extinct and what a big problem is and this made me realize that if 4th graders can help just by recycling I should be able to do something to.
Another thing I already knew but that they were emphasizing at the fair was that we have just built a new middle school that is the greenest in the country. Everything possible was made environmentally friendly. The lockers were made out of recycled milk cartons, the desks and chairs were also made out of recycled products. In fact pretty much the whole foundation of the new middle school was made out of recyclables. All of the rooms are also heated by solar power instead of electricity which takes advantage of the fact that it's almost always sunny here.
Another cool thing about the fair was that they had many different posters all over the room that gave us information about how wasteful we are and how easily we could help make a difference. One poster said that we throw away aboit 4lbs worth of garbage away each day. Most of that is either uneaten food or products that could be recycled. Considering how many people in this world are starving we should realize how much we waste and try to use everything that we buy so that there will be more for other people. Another interesting fact is that by recycling one alluminum can, you could power a tv for up to three hours. I love to watch tv and I probably waste a lot of electricity by watching so much. But knowing this information its a win/win because if I recycle one can that I would have thrown away a help the environment and I don't have to feel guily about wasting so much electricity. Probably the biggest and most startling fact that I learned today was that the amount of paper and would we throw away every year is enough energy to heat 50 million houses for 20 years. That's huge. If we recycled all of our paper and wood instead of wasting it we could heat up to half the worlds homes each year. And if we keep recycling that amount of paper and wood each year we could keep doing that for years and years. That would provide so many familys that are in need with warmth each year.
So the next time you're about to throw something out look at it first to see if it could be recycled. Because if we all do something small it translates into something huge.