Activity

1. Find four or five wide-mouthed glass jars. You'll want to be able to see through the sides of them.

2. Collect a banana skin or apple core, a scrap of newspaper, a leaf (green or brown), and a piece of plastic. There may be other things you want to test as well.

3. Place each of these items in a separate jar. Hold them close to the side, where you can see them, and fill the jars with ordinary soil.

4. Don't cover the jars, but make sure the soil covers your samples.

5. Water every day, just enough to keep the soil damp. Don't let it dry out or freeze.

6. Watch what happens -- or doesn't happen -- in each jar.

You'll soon notice changes in some of your samples as they start to decompose. Some change faster than others, and the piece of plastic won't change at all!

 Anything that once came from a living thing is called "organic" and will break down. You can use these to make compost.

What do you think happens to all these things when they're taken away by the garbage collector and buried in a landfill?