Scary rubbish statistics!

How long does it take rubbish to break down?  

Today we predicted how long we think it takes for various rubbish items to break down in a landfill.  We were VERY surprised to see the actual estimations that scientists have made.  The statistics made us think very differently about buying products and throwing things away.  

Remember to REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

How long does it take to break down?

	Our Predictions	Actual
aluminum can	50-80 years	200-500 years
Banana	1 month	3-4 weeks
cigarette butt	5 months	2-5 years
cotton rag	1 year	5 months
glass bottle	Unknown/Forever	Unknown/Forever
leather boot	80-100 years	40-50 years
paper bag	3-4 weeks	1 month
wool sock	450 years	1 year
tin can	2-5 years	80-100 years
plastic jug	40-50 years	1 million years
Styrofoam cup	Unknown/Forever	Unknown/Forever
rubber sole of boot	200-500 years	50-80 years
plastic 6-pack rings	1 million	450 years

Beach Clean Up Trip

Rugby World Cup 2011 Finally Begins!!!

For mufti day today, we dressed up in our favourite rugby team colours.  Most us dressed up in black and white...but we had some people dress up in Samoan and English colours.  We are having so much fun celebrating the start of the Rugby World Cup.

GO ALL BLACKS....AND WALES (our adopted team).

Check out these Brain games!!

Check out this link for some great Brain Games...

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/braingames/braingames.htm

Ways to reduce our water footprint

Room 16 have brainstormed some ways to reduce our water footprint!

Our 'water footprint' comes from the amount of water we use.  It includes things like showering, flushing the toilet, water used to produce the food we eat and make the goods we buy.  The more water we use the larger our water footprint.  We have brainstormed some ways to reduce our water footprints.  Maybe you could make a promise too to help reduce your water footprint.

We promise to:

·    Use less water on my garden

·    Only have one shower a day

·    Tell my Mum not to drink her favourite coffee but drink tea instead.

·    Have a shower instead of a bath

·    Turn the tap off when I am brushing my teeth

·    Drink water instead of softdrinks etc

·    Reuse water bottles

·    Use water bottles instead of the drinking fountain

·    Wash your face with face cloth

·    Use half a flush instead of a whole flush

·    Use a Toilet Flush Control on your toilet

·    Not to put paint, oil, soap, food, dye, litter down storm water drains.

·    Clean up rubbish on the beach.

·    Not to wear too many clothes so they don’t have to be washed

·    Reuse, reduce, recycle

·    Pick up rubbish so it doesn’t go down the storm water drain

·    Not litter

·    Collect rainwater in buckets around my house to water the garden

·    Have a shower for 4 minutes or less