Finding Superfund Sites in Your Neighborhood

Go to the Superfund website maintained by the EPA at www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/npl.htm

1. Click on your state. How many National Priority List (NPL) sites occur near where you live? Where are they? Which ones did you already know about?

2. Click on a site near you to see a fact sheet. What types of pollution does this site have? From what sources? How old is the problem? What is being done, or what has been done to clean up this site?

Recycling Challenge

The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide, www.obviously.com/recycle/, provides a detailed list of recyclable materials and where to send them. Before you look at this website, take five minutes and write down at least 25 different types of items in the room around you. These items can be small (paper clips, hair clips, books, food packaging, etc.) or large (carpets, furniture, computers, light fixtures, plumbing, etc.). Once you have made the list, mark all those that are recyclable and note how you would recycle them.

Now look at the Recycling Guide web page, above. Look at all three "guide" pages--The World’s Shortest Comprehensive Recycling Guide, the Guide to Recycling Common Materials, and Guide to Hard-to-Recycle Materials. How many additional items on your list can be recycled, according to these guides? How many could be recycled in principle but would be hard to recycle in your community? Why? What recycled products could be made by recycling the materials on your list?

How many of the items on your list might be available with recycled content? How many of them could you have avoided acquiring in the first place?