The Roots of Recycling | Retro Report

By recounting perhaps the most vivid and famous news story in the history of solid waste disposal, this 12-minute video provides students with historical context for any lesson or unit focused on recycling, waste disposal or waste management strategies. Through the surprising and engaging story of the doomed trash barge Mobro, students will see how public attitudes in the U.S. toward recycling and sustainability began to shift. Useful as an introduction to a sequence of lessons focused on solid waste disposal or waste management strategies, the video sets up a conversation about the historical context of environmental problems and solutions.

Students will examine their lunchroom garbage and make proposals for alternative methods of disposing of waste. Students will learn concepts of the properties of matter, the particle nature of matter and the conservation of matter. This lesson strengthens the science and engineering practices of asking questions, planning investigations, developing models, designing solutions and arguing from evidence. Students will work with the crosscutting concepts of patterns, cause and effect and energy and matter.

Some ideas in this lesson were inspired by the Garbage Unit by NYU SAIL Research Lab.