What Are We Throwing Away Around Here? Analyze Your School's Trash Stream Activity

This 3-page lesson, from the Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center, looks into what is thrown away in the trash on an average day. The purpose of the activity is to examine the trash thrown away at a school. During the activity, the instructor collects trash from the previous day, the class sorts through the trash, and the class creates and analyzes data about what was thrown away. Extension activities are also provided. The activity would be most appropriate for technology studies or high school science classes.