Discover - The Life of a Product

You learned how paper can be recycled to make new paper products.  This cycle can continue many times because a paper product can be recycled over and over again.  This cycle keeps going when we reduce, reuse, and recycle.  The materials in the items that we recycle are used again in new products.  If we throw something out, the cycle stops and the materials that could have been recycled and reused are lost.

In this activity, you will research another product to find out how it is made, used, and disposed.

Question: How is a product made, used, and disposed?


Materials

  • Internet

  • Google Drawing Doc.

Instructions

  • Choose an object that you would like to research.

  • Write all the materials used to make that object.

  • Use the Internet to research the materials that are needed to make each part of the object and how the object can be disposed.

  • Next, use Google Drawing Doc to construct a flow chart that shows how the product was made, how it is used, and then how to dispose of it.

  • Label all parts of the flow chart.

  • Save the flow chart to your Waste Notebook.

Skill Builder

Click here to learn how to construct a flow chart in Google Drawing Doc

Click here to learn how to do an Internet search
Here is an example of a flow chart for a pencil sharpener.

Materials needed for a pencil sharpener: plastic, metal

  • Plastic + metal + energy —> pencil sharpener —> recycle —> plastic, metal