What Happens to Our Trash? (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2) by D. J. Ward

Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2

by D.J. Ward

Each person in the United States makes almost five pounds of trash every day. That's more trash per person per day than people make in any other country. What happens to our trash? How can we stop throwing so much stuff away? Read and find out

Genres: Picture Books, Science, Nonfiction, Environment, Childrens

Paperback

First published January 24, 2012

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a simple and straightforward explanation about where our trash goes. Some interesting statistics are included, as well as suggestions for ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle. The illustrations are pretty good too. In the back, there are instructions for creating your own compost pile, as well as a list of resources for further study. I will order this for my library and read it aloud to students in grades 1, 2, or 3 for Earth Day.

[Stefani · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So where will your trash go? Will it go to the recycling plant? Will it go to the compost pile? Will it get buried underground? It's almost impossible to make no trash at all. But if we reduce, reuse, and recycle, we will make a lot less than we do now."

I: 5 - 9 Years
R: 2nd - 4th Grade

I read this book for a project in my Children's Literature class.

This book did an excellent job describing what happens to the trash we throw out. It was enlightening to see that throwing out trash isn't AS harmful as it seems. For instance, some landfills that burn trash use the heat to provide power to parts of the city. However, the book also stressed the importance of reducing, reusing, recycling, and, ultimately, preventing the act of simply throwing out things without a second thought. The information was presented in a kid-friendly ad uncomplicated way.

This book can be helpful when giving a lesson about reducing, reusing, and recycling. Students in the classroom can also do an activity where they are given an item and then they are asked how they could reduce the use of it, reuse it, or recycle it. Students and teachers can practice recycling in the classroom. The information that the students learn through this book can also be used to help reduce, reuse, and recycle at home as well.

[SaraKat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very accurate informational book about waste management for most communities. It describes how kids can reduce, reuse, and recycle to keep from throwing so much away. It describes what landfills are and how recycling works and what composting is. It does talk about materials being recyclable in a broad sense while some communities might not accept those things, so I think it might have been better to tell readers to check with their city's waste management company to find out what was recyclable there. It would also be helpful to remind kids that recycling incorrectly can cause the recyclables to end up in the landfill as well. The art is great and detailed.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice dense book that goes over the various reasons why we should recycle and how one might go about doing it. However, there are a number of children that I would not recommend this book for because it could cause a disruption in how they live. Which may be what the authors intended. I think the awareness that it brings and small changes that might come from it are good, but the potential for unhealthy obsession is what you'd want to avoid if your kid is susceptible to that type of thing.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly in-depth and through for an easy reader, this book engagingly explains what happens when we throw things "away." There's also content on what happens when we produce too much garbage--and things we can all do to reduce the amount of garbage we create.

[Samantha Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for all students but I think it would be best for 2-3rd grade students. You could take this book and make a weeks worth of lessons out of it! This book also has so many beautiful illustrations! Overall a wonderful book!!

[Jc · Rating 3 out of 5]

We should all be doing as much ass possible to protect our environment from pollution. We can start by reducing the amounts of garbage we create each day.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The girls were interested the whole way through, especially Kait because there was lots of mentions of electricity and how it’s generated, which she’s studying in science class right now.

[Amit Tiwary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winner.

[Katie Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great information presented in an accessible way with great illustrations. It is useful for a kid who wants to know how things work but it is not an engaging read aloud for groups.

[Gail Gauthier · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I had an interesting experience reading What Happens to Our Trash? by D. J. Ward with illustrations by Paul Meisel. I read parts of it aloud at dinner, which I was eating with a civil engineer. He approved the descriptions of the clay and plastic layers in the landfill. When I read, "The trash gets covered with dirt each day," he called out, "Daily cover!" When I read, "When a landfill becomes full, workers carefully cover it," he exclaimed, "Final cover!" (Those terms may date him. It's been a while since he's done design work for a landfill.) The book discusses landfills at some length."

Excerpt from Original Content

[Eva Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a big question and I know some of it because we BURN some in the woodstove, and we put old food in the compost pile for animals to eat, and then some of it we take to the dump. But I didn't see ANYTHING about burning it, and there was just one thing about compost, so I don't know.
This book is kind of a cartoon with a lot of words.
I don't think this one was really about Vermont. In Vermont, we do things different.

[Alexandria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a great deal wordier than the ones I normally read the boys I babysit, but is done so well that even the three year old was interested. It inspired a lot of questions and really got the message across about the danger of the US' current rate of material consumption and waste production. I am definitely going to adding this to my kids' bookshelves, though I hope by the time they're old enough for it, the statistics won't be so terrible.