Going Green

By Maggie Tharpe

Grade 5

Teacher: Mrs. Celentano

Imagine a beautiful park, with no litter, and people and animals living in harmony. Imagine people riding bikes instead of cars, and a beautiful sky with no pollution. Well, our world can be like that too! All you have to do is reuse items, use smart transportation, and keep the earth clean and pretty.  Does it bother you to think that our earth needs help? Well, then keep reading and I’ll show you exactly how.

Do you have a huge pile of trash in your garbage can? Chances are that most of your trash can be reused. What are some of these reusable things? One of my personal favorites is the water bottle. Do you like Poland Springs or Aquafina? If so, I’m here to tell you that those companies are wasting plastic because every time you finish drinking from a plastic water bottle, you have to through it away. In fact, according to www.droptheprop.com, 30 billion plastic water bottles are thrown away every year. But, if you buy metal or heavy-duty reusable plastic water bottles you won’t have to put them in the trash.  Information found at www.cleanair.org  says that “Every year Americans use approximately 1 billion shopping bags creating 300,000 tons of landfill.” Well, if you spend just a couple of dollars you can have your very own reusable bag! Plus they come in so many styles that it won’t matter if you like cute cuddly styles or hip up-to-date fashions - there will always be a bag for you. So, next time you go to the grocery store tell the cashier to put away the plastic grocery bags! One last way you can recycle is to hand down clothes to another person. For example, when I grow out of my clothes I give them to a charity or to my little cousins. Sure the clothes are a little worn, but materials like cotton and wool take many years to decompose. So, now that you’re great recyclers we can move on to transportation.

HONK! Cars rush up and down the streets leaving a cloud of pollution behind. When all this pollution builds up, it damages the ozone layer, and creates mutant animals. What are some ways that we can stop all this pollution? Well, one way is to bike to places close by. Biking is a great form of exercise, and you’re not paying for gas! Okay, so maybe you don’t like spinning your feet around on the bike wheel. If that’s the case, you will like this next way of transportation - walking! Walking is great because you can listen to music, but remember to only listen in one ear so you can still hear other noises around you. One last eco-friendly transportation method is carpooling. Sure, when you’re carpooling you are driving a car but you’re still helping the earth. How? Let’s say that you’re on a soccer team and you and three friends need to get to a game. Instead of all four of you going in separate cars, you can all go in one car which results in less pollution. Did you know that according to www.extraordinaryroadtrip.org “Larger vehicles like popular sports utility vehicles (SUVs) can produce more than twice as much pollution as a small car!” Now instead of four SUVs driving to soccer, there can be only one!

Now that you’ve learned how our earth can have less trash and pollution, let’s learn how to make the earth clean and pretty. One way that the earth will shine is to plant trees. Did you know that the trees have an interdependent relationship with us? That means that trees need us and we need trees. When we breathe out carbon dioxide trees breathe it in, and when trees breathe out oxygen we breathe it in. So the more trees we plant the better we breathe. Plus, trees like cherry blossoms really spruce up parks and backyards.  Another way to make the earth shine is to not litter! You may think that animals will eat your dirty trash, but you are wrong. In fact, when animals try to eat the trash they often choke or get sick. Speaking of animals - saving them is a great way to make the earth pretty because animals are really beautiful. Did you know that 14 out of 14 kids in Mrs. Celentano’s class think that it is important to save animals? You can save animals by not cutting down trees and not polluting the ocean that they live in. If you follow these simple steps, soon our world will get an A+ in beauty class!

What are you waiting for? If you just reuse items, use smart transportation, and keep the earth clean and pretty the world will be a better place!