Students in Dennis Chavez Elementary teacher Sandra Goldberg’s fourth-grade class have been reading about the planet and how to clean it up. They devote 10-15 minutes a day to picking up trash around the campus, and gathered 16.5 pounds in four days. Their research assignment last week was to write a persuasive essay about getting the community to do their part to help stop pollution.

A special announcement

Editor:

Hello, everyone, I am Oliver, and I have a special announcement for today.

We, up at fourth grade, have environmental reports to read, specially written by us! Let’s first address a big issue: Plastic. It can harm the animals right under our noses¸ while we see it as a convenience! Anyway, before I get carried away, let’s talk.

So, our planet is in rather big trouble, but there are ways to help. If everyone goes by at least one of these ways, our planet can get healthier tenfold!

Some ways are most well known as “The Three R’s.” We all know, right? If you do, say it with me in 3… 2… 1… Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! We will talk about all three today, but it’s kind of out of order, so we’ll talk about recycling first.

There are four types of recyclable items. Aluminum cans, plastic items, glass bottles or others, or some kinds of paper can all be recycled. To get something recycled, try finding a special blue or green bin or a nearby recycling center. Did you know that according to childfun.com, recycling produces enough energy to power some electronics for hours? Also, quick disclaimer, .com sites are not always reliable.

It smells bad on the shores of Bali, Indonesia, is that just me? It’s because there isn’t any trash pickup there, so people just feel free to make a mess wherever they please! Why does this matter to us?

Well, the way it is there is only a reflection on our behavior, so it basically just represents us. But again, so this doesn’t get carried away, this will bring us to the R that stands for reduce. Trash waste is the leading cause of pollution, mainly because of one core material: Plastic. Plastic bags, burned plastic, not to forget plastic bottles. It’s just everywhere!

When plastics are burned, they release a gas called a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases in the air can harm a protective chemical around the Earth called ozone, which protects us from an excessive amount of the sun’s heat. A hole in the ozone layer was discovered over Antarctica, where most of the water is ice. If that ice melts, the oceans will rise to dangerous levels.

Don’t be discouraged, though. You can still help the planet! We need to make a drastic decrease in waste, though, but we can still try!

A fun way to help the problem is to reuse old or just used items. Why keep buying more and more new water bottles when you can refill used ones? It might wear out eventually, but there’s always more!  Or perhaps you can use it for crafts, such as turning a bottle into a rocket or bird feeder? Or, for more practical use, you can make a milk jug into a pencil case?

For more fun ways to reuse things, go to specialtybottle.com today!

We also need to reduce energy usage. Some people just use too much energy. If you’re scared of our situation, it’s OK, this is scary. The average person creates 4 pounds of waste a day! It amounts to 1.5 tons a year per person, but it also approximates to 32 billion pounds per day around the world! (According to do something.org)

Also, about one fifth of the world’s energy is wasted on vehicles, while people blame industries for worse! And, according to atomberg.com, microwave ovens use only half the energy conventional ovens do, while getting the job done faster! Those tiny boxes really are convenient!

Well, this concludes my scoop on the issue, I suppose. Our environment is in danger, and we need to help save it. Unfortunately, we can’t stop greenhouse gases entirely, because according to climate.nasa.gov, we exhale and fart two greenhouse gases, but we can still stop waste!

This change may be hard to make, but I know we can do it! Well, this report is over, and I can’t say more, but if I didn’t convince you, maybe someone else can.

Hope you enjoyed this, and I hope it gets a good grade.

Oliver Kane

DCE fourth-grader

 

Trashing our planet

Editor:

Do you want to stop littering?

According to a powerful video called, “Why We Need to Stop Plastic Pollution,” there are 17 billion pounds of trash in the oceans.

Some things you can do to help the environment are recycle bags, paper, cans and plastic. These are just a few things you can recycle to help the environment. According to Climate Crisis, there are thousands of sea animals dying because of trash.

You can reuse old items that you don’t want like giving them to a family member or making something you can reuse out of water bottles, cans, paper or plastic.

People around the world need to stop littering now. Did you know that about 90 percent of trash in the ocean is plastic? If we don’t stop, our beautiful planet will become a planet full of trash.

We have to do the three Rs, the 3 Rs are recycle, reuse and reduce. We should do these things to help the environment.

Brandon Lopez-Torres

DCE fourth-grader

Concept Of Mother Earth Day

We are killing the Earth

Editor:

From “Why We Need to Stop Plastic Pollution in Our Oceans,” the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic is dumped in the sea every minute, 17,600 billion pounds every year and it could kill many sea animals. Sea turtles can go extinct if we keep putting plastic in our ocean.

According to “Don’t Litter Make the World Better,” numerous fish die every day because the ocean gets polluted with the trash that accumulates on the ground and then gets dumped into the ocean. We eat fish from the polluted ocean and it could get in to our water that we drink.

“Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle” says you can reuse paper, plastic and cardboard if you are done with a craft and have paper left over use it for something else. If you have plastic water bottles, reuse it, and if you have cardboard boxes leftover make them into something.

Hopefully, you want to change the world like I do, and hopefully you care enough to recycle, reduce, and reuse.

Eternity Montoya-Hernandez

DCE fourth-grader

 

Stop pollution now

Editor:

I think we need to stop pollution, but not everyone knows what happens when they burn trash, throw it out a car window, or when they just put it in regular trash cans.

We should recycle what we can. Recycling is simple and all you need to do is bring your plastics, cardboard, metal, and glass to the recycling center.

When you recycle, you’re saving natural resources and you are saving items from going into landfills. According to the book, “Recycling,” by Neal Morris, it also takes three times more energy to make a new water bottle than a recycled one.

We should not throw trash out a car window because it’s against the law and it hurts the Earth. Also, it almost always ends up in the ocean or rivers.

According to Sand Sifting, sea turtles eat the plastic and die.  One turtle ate over 3,500  pieces. When you go to fast food places like Sonic, you could cause a lot of harm for the environment because Styrofoam can take over 100 years to fully biodegrade. If we don’t stop pollution turtles could go extinct in the next 10 years! So please stop littering.

We need to reuse because less things will end up in landfills. When we throw away cardboard, we are wasting trees and energy so why not use cardboard for school projects or make posters out of it.

You can reuse Walmart bags instead of getting new ones every time. This can save over 100 bags a year! According to the book, “Recycling,” by Neal Morris, you can save seven trees by using the backs of paper.

Always remember to recycle, reuse and never litter. I hope you agree with the fact that we need to stop pollution and please teach others about this, too.

California Hoblin

DCE fourth-grader

 

Recycle, Reuse and Reduce

Editor:

We need to stop pollution, because according to, “Recycling for Kids,” plastics are killing sea animals like turtles. The plastics are either suffocating sea animals or wrapping around them and choking them and I hate that they suffer.

It’s important to recycle because you can save animals and plants.  According to “Don’t Litter, Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce,” there is 17,600,000 pounds of plastic in the ocean, this is why we need to take action and recycle, it is so important. Also, according to “Don’t Litter, Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce,” in 2015 only 9 percent of the plastic was getting recycled.

If you want a clean planet, start throwing your trash in the trash and not out of your window or in your neighbor’s yard. If you litter, you need to stop because according to “Don’t Litter, Make the World Better,” many fish die everyday because human’s litter so much, and all the videos I’ve watched have said humans have caused this huge problem.

Also raise your hand if you like seafood … If we don’t stop littering say bye-bye to seafood that is safe for humans to eat.

Stop pollution, we need to reuse. Reusing is important because if you just have a broken toy and you can fix it instead of throwing it away. If you go to cityofirving.org, (it) gives you ideas on how to reuse items that may end up in the landfill.

In my opinion, I hate to see animals and plants suffer, this is why we need to stop and remember the three R’s — recycle, reuse and reduce.

Elizabeth Ortega

DCE fourth-grader

 

It’s just that easy

Editor:

Hello! Today I will tell you a couple of things about recycling, littering and reusing. First, I will tell you about recycling. You should recycle so the planet will be better.

This paragraph is about recycling. First of all, if you recycle the plastic has to be clean. Some plastic is not recycled and goes around the world four times.  That is according to recycleacrossamerica.com.

This paragraph is about littering. There is about 6,729 pieces of litter per road way. U.S roadways get about 51 billion pieces of litter per year. That is according to Raleighnic.gov.

This paragraph is about reusing. You can donate stuff to charities, they just have to be in good shape. You also can reuse stuff for a different purpose. That is according to USEPA.

That is all I’m going to teach you today. And don’t litter. Instead you should recycle. You should also reuse old things.

Quentin Trulcock

DCE fourth-grader

 

Earth, our home

Editor:

Do you want to have a clean planet? According to Oceana, there are sea animals that are dying and there is 17,600,000 pounds of trash in the ocean.

Recycling is a good thing to think about because Bali is having a trash problem and if you don’t recycle your plastic, glass, or aluminum, it gets lost in the ocean and will kill all sea animals because they think it’s food. If you don’t recycle you’re basically killing animals so think about recycling your plastic, glass and aluminum.

Littering is also bad for the planet. According to “Climate Crisis Stop Littering,” trash is ending up on the ground and little kids are stepping on glass and bleeding. There are cows that are eating tin cans instead of grass and the cows are dying from that.  Please think about not littering so you can save your children and the cows.

Reusing is something else to think about because you can reuse water bottles, card board, and clothing. According to Oceana, if you don’t reuse cardboard and you burn it you are putting pollution in the air. You can also reuse damaged office furniture.

The 3 R’s are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, so try to think about using the 3 R’s to save kids, sea animals, and land animals. Please recycle so we can save our planet and everything that lives on it.

Rylee Flores

DCE fourth-grader

 

What’s your Reaction?
+1
2
+1
0
+1
1
+1
0
+1
0
+1
0

The Valencia County News-Bulletin is a locally owned and operated community newspaper, dedicated to serving Valencia County since 1910 through the highest journalistic and professional business standards. The VCNB is published weekly on Thursdays, including holidays both in print and online.