Garbage: Investigate What Happens When You Throw It Out With 25 Projects Review

The book Garbage: Investigate What Happens When You Throw It Out by Donna Latham is part of
the “Build it Yourself Series” of books. This book is geared towards children ages 9 to 12 years old.
Even though my children are younger than the recommended age, I was excited to see this book. My
husband and I are trying hard to raise environmental conscience children. I can remember a time when
my oldest was about 3 years old and we made an impromptu stop at the grocery store and therefore did not have
our reusable bags. She was quite upset and asked to drive home to get them! Of course, she didn’t
realize the impact of the fuel on the environment… but she was only 3!

According to this book, American throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every HOUR. Isn’t that a scary
statistic?! With the help of this book, people will be “Encouraged to think about the choices they make
that generate garbage in the first place, readers learn ways to reduce, reuse, recycle—and rethink their
actions. Along the way, kids can explore the science of garbology, discover fascinating information
that archaeologists can learn by excavating middens, and used projects to investigate the world of
trash. Activities include whipping up a delicious edible landfill, brewing natural dyes for a T-shirt, and
comparing the effects of commercial and homemade cleaners. Kids will learn that the battle against the
world’s overwhelming waste problem begins with them.”

Perhaps it is because of the efforts we are already trying in our home that this book held appeal for us.
Since moving out of my parents’ house, I have been a recycler. We recycle or reuse as much as possible.
I have been known to bring home recyclables while traveling if I don’t see a recycling center where I am.
In fact, I can remember a time with my fellow Mama Report writers, Alicia and Melissa,  many, MANY years ago where I did that… I also seem to remember getting a couple of strange looks from them.

I enjoyed reviewing this book because of the facts it shared and the simple way it discusses making
changes. Saving the environment is a daunting task, no doubt. However if we each did just a little bit,
won’t we have helped? In the past couple of years, we have started a compost pile. We discard our
fruit and vegetable peelings, breads, and anything else non-dairy and non-meat into the pile. It will
later serve as nutrient-rich soil for our garden.

If you don’t already recycle, I suggest trying it out for a few weeks… If you throw out ONLY the garbage,
you will be shocked by how little you take to the curb. We have a mid-sized garbage can that we fill
about once every 3 weeks. As a comparison, each week my parents generate enough to fill two cans
that are larger in size.

Because we encourage questions and curiousity, my daughters were more than excited to do an
experiment from the book. We opted for “Clean Up an Oil Spill”.

Here are the items necessary for the experiment. (It did suggest blue food coloring, but since our last experiment exhausted our supply, we opted for green.)