Prolonging Landfill Life

Prolonging The Life Of A Landfill

Grade 7 Physical Science- Mixtures and Solutions (MS)

Outcome:

MS7.2 Investigate methods of separating the components of mechanical mixtures and solutions, and analyze the impact of industrial and agricultural applications of those methods.

Lesson 1: What’s in A Landfill?

Materials

• Photos of landfill (see attached worksheet, or individual JPEGS - Landfill; Landfill-Burnables; Landfill-Metals; Landfill-Rubble)
• Waste collected from classroom bin or lunchroom - try to include things that could be reused, recycled, and composted.
• OR pictures of assorted waste

Instructional Procedures

1. Play music video “Love to Love You Landfills” (2:47)
2. Show students the display of “garbage”.  Explain these items are examples of “solid waste”.  Every community must have means or procedures to deal with solid waste materials.  Household waste is just one source of material that is found in the “waste stream”.  What else may make its way into the “waste stream”? (Construction waste, tires, paint, metals, hazardous chemicals, etc.)
3. Discuss how your community manages waste. (Back alley collection, recycling programs, composting, landfill, etc.)
4. Show pictures of a landfill (see attached worksheet, or individual JPEGS - Landfill; Landfill-Burnables; Landfill-Metals; Landfill-Rubble).  Allow some discussion of the students’ impressions of landfills.  What do they notice about the photos of the landfill?  (There are some piles of sorted materials.)  This is to get the students thinking about the processes that a landfill uses to divert the waste materials.
5. Have students complete the worksheet (lesson 1) individually or in small groups.

a) Why should materials be sorted before they reach the landfill?
b) What do you think happens to the materials that are sorted?
c) What do you think happens to waste material that is already mixed together (ex. household waste)?

6. Bringing students back to the group, discuss answers.

a) The materials need to be sorted so they can be recycled and, in the process, diverted from landfills.
b) The materials are sold or distributed to recyclers.
c) Material that is already mixed together is a problem and very little can be done with it.  This is the material that is filling up the landfills.  Once it is in the landfill, it is too expensive and time-consuming to sort through the material. 

* Teacher Note * Students may bring up the concept of decomposition in the landfill.  Explain to students that some things will decompose if given enough time.  The table below shows the extremely slow decomposition rates of common garbage material.  In Saskatchewan, landfills are fairly dry and garbage takes a long time to break down.  The materials that do break down produce air pollution (methane) and/or water pollution (leachate).

Prolonging the Life Of A Landfill – Decomposition Rates In The Landfill

http://www.ways2gogreen.com/DontThrowThisAwayDecompositionRates.html

Lesson 2: Prolonging the Life Of A Landfill

Instructional Procedures

1. Review last lesson’s findings, especially the idea that our household garbage is what is causing the landfills to fill up.
2. Watch the video: CBC News on Town Of Markham Zero Waste (2:25)
3. Discuss the idea of zero waste.  It is based on the idea of reducing the amount of raw materials we use, reusing items, recycling, and composting organic materials to divert as much as possible from going into the landfill.  From a manufacturer’s standpoint it means closing the raw materials loop – i.e. using raw materials to produce a product, and recycling that product into a new product (e.g. aluminum cans).
4. Return to the list of “garbage” from Lesson 1.  How could the students use the practices of reducing, reusing, recycling and composting to keep each item from making its way into a landfill and in turn contribute to the zero waste initiative?
5. As a class, find examples of each solid waste management practice.  For example - Reducing: buying used products and donating items you don’t need (Kijiji, thrift stores); Reusing: using plastic containers (such as margarine or sour cream) for storage in the home; Recycling: taking paint and bottles to recycling depots; Composting: collecting organic material for compost.
6. Using the following technological method of problem solving (or a method students are more familiar using), have students plan a municipal waste collection system that maximizes the reuse of waste resources (and prolongs the life of the landfill).  Working in groups, have them make decisions about which items could be collected from homes and which could be collected at the landfill.  Present their plans to the class for discussion.  Or, give small groups of students one waste resource for their plan.

   Prolonging the Life of the Landfill

   1. Recognize a human need.
   2. Identify the specific problem to be solved
   3. Identify criteria for a successful solution to a problem
   4. Generate a list of ideas, possible solutions, materials and equipment
   5. Plan and construct a working model or prototype
   6. Test, evaluate and modify the model or prototype
   7. Communicate the procedure and results of your design
   (re-enter the design process at any step to revise as necessary)

   See Toolkit 3 in the grade 7 Pearson SK Science textbook for a complete description of this method.

Printable PDF version including worksheet and resources sheet

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