This growing mountain of garbage and trash represents not only an attitude of indifference toward valuable natural resources, but also a serious economic and public health problem. – Jimmy Carter
I decided to collect the light bulbs and batteries for lots of reasons. I knew batteries and light bulbs were bad for the environment when thrown away, so I decided to help stop it for my make a difference project. After asking the Suncrest O.A., I put a sign outside the clubhouse, and a bin inside it to collect the items. I also put a picture frame on top of the bin with a paper explaining why and what I was doing. After the collection, I took the batteries to Home Depot and the light bulbs to IKEA, where they will be properly disposed of.
When I started this, I knew batteries and light bulbs shouldn’t be thrown away, but I didn’t really know why. After researching I found out some crazy stuff. Batteries contain lead, lithium, cadmium, nickel, and mercury. All of these are toxic in gas form. Not only that, lithium is an extreme fire hazard in the landfills. It sometimes causes landfill fires that further releases the chemicals into the air. Light bulbs, although not as serious of a threat as batteries, are bad. They contain tungsten and mercury, which are both very hazardous. Tungsten is both toxic, and a very serious fire hazard.
I had many obstacles while doing this project. In the winter, the clubhouse isn’t super popular and we figured not many people would see it. To help with it, my mom posted on the Suncrest Facebook page and said what I was doing. I also am really bad with computers, so making this website, was really hard for me. Although, working on this for so long has definitely gotten me better.
This project made a difference. I collected things that would have eventually been thrown away by most people. Once they were thrown away, they would have seriously damaged the environment. They would have released harmful chemicals into the air and ground, and would have eventually made it into the water supplies. Another reason it helped, is that now the batteries will be made into more batteries. The different components of light bulbs can be made into many different things.
When I started this, I knew batteries and light bulbs shouldn’t be thrown away, but I didn’t really know why. After researching I found out some crazy stuff. Batteries contain lead, lithium, cadmium, nickel, and mercury. All of these are toxic in gas form. Not only that, lithium is an extreme fire hazard in the landfills. It sometimes causes landfill fires that further releases the chemicals into the air. Light bulbs, although not as serious of a threat as batteries, are bad. They contain tungsten and mercury, which are both very hazardous. Tungsten is both toxic, and a very serious fire hazard.
I had many obstacles while doing this project. In the winter, the clubhouse isn’t super popular and we figured not many people would see it. To help with it, my mom posted on the Suncrest Facebook page and said what I was doing. I also am really bad with computers, so making this website, was really hard for me. Although, working on this for so long has definitely gotten me better.
This project made a difference. I collected things that would have eventually been thrown away by most people. Once they were thrown away, they would have seriously damaged the environment. They would have released harmful chemicals into the air and ground, and would have eventually made it into the water supplies. Another reason it helped, is that now the batteries will be made into more batteries. The different components of light bulbs can be made into many different things.