Why Should I Recycle? is a great question and also the title of TERI’s (The Energy and Resources Institute) latest hardcover book. When our dustbins are filled to the brim and our cities are becoming collective trash dumps, this is a question that we should all be able to answer. Of course, it’s a tough thing – for instance, recycling in most cities isn’t easy if your building society or local municipality is not committed to it. Chances are then that your painstaking efforts of segregating wet and dry garbage will all end up in one dump.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t possibilities and TERI’s latest book is a big help there. Why Should I Recycle? starts by explaining what constitutes waste and how you can deal with it. There are simple charts and infographics to show data such as how much time wood takes to decompose when compared to glass and what are the kinds of things we throw away. E-waste, greenhouse gas emissions and landfills are explained in an easy-to-understand manner, as well as the concept of who scrap dealers are and what they do.
I couldn’t help but love the activity ‘Create a Mini Landfill and an Open Dump’, where children are taught how to make one at home and then check cartons for smell and rotten fillings over the next few weeks. Children can also try making recycled paper at home with a step-by-step illustrated guide.
The rest of the book deals with the 3 Rs – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle – with some simple tips and suggestions on implementing them. For all those who are confused about what can and cannot be recycled, there’s a handy guide which I am quite tempted to put up on my refrigerator.
Why Should I Recycle? is a good addition to school and home libraries. That said, someone please go and delete Comics Sans from TERI’s design computer!
By Bijal Vachharajani
WHY SHOULD I RECYCLE?
Author: Aanchal Broca Kumar
Illustrators: Santosh Gautam, Vijay Nipane
English
50 pages
Rs 225.00
ISBN: 978-81-7993-450-0
TERI, 2014
Subject Category: Contemporary/Non-Fiction
Age-group: 8+
