(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see    “Introducing Short, High-Interest Readings ” Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: Categories > Reading > Short-high interest Readings.

Here is the third article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

Why Some Products Are Less Likely To Make It To The Recycling Bin

¹ A researcher used to get upset. He often saw people throwing things in the wastebasket, for example soda cans or gum wrappers, that they should have put in the recycling bins. Then he became interested in why they do that. As a result, he set up some experiments.

² In one study, 150 volunteer students were asked to give their opinion about a pair of scissors. (The students thought the study was about the scissors, but actually, the researchers were secretly studying recycling.)  They gave each of the students a sheet of paper. They told half of them to practice with the scissors by cutting the paper into eight pieces. The other half were told to just hold and practice squeezing the scissors but not cut the paper.

³ Then the researchers asked them to clean up the papers as they were leaving the room. Just outside the room, there was a garbage can and a recycling bin. Interestingly, 80% of students who had not cut their paper put it in the recycling bin, but only 44% of the cutters put their tiny piece of paper in the recycling bin.

⁴ In a similar study, researchers found that after the participants had drunk some soda, when the cans were undamaged, the cans went in the recycling.  But if the cans were dented or crushed in any way, the participants ended up putting those crushed cans in the garbage.

⁵ The researcher came to this conclusion. After we finish using a product, we somehow evaluate it: does the product still look like it could be useful?  A can that isn’t dented still looks like a can; it could possibly still hold soda in it, and so we think of it as being useful.  We believe that useful things go in the recycling.

⁶ However, when a product is clearly damaged or changed in size or form, people believe it to be less useful.  And when they perceive it as less useful, they’re more likely to throw it in the garbage, as opposed to recycling it. 

⁷ Things that could have been recycled actually make up a large portion of what’s thrown in the garbage every year.  The first step in changing these habits is to be aware of our misunderstanding about usefulness.  

⁸ This researcher is now thinking about putting big red frowny faces 😢 on the trash cans in an effort to get people to stop and think for a second and consider using the recycling bin.

Here is the link: Why Some Products Are Less Likely To Make It To The Recycling Bin

David Kehe

*About the free-download materials. During my 40 years of teaching ESL, I have had many colleagues who were very generous with their time, advice and materials. These downloads are my way of paying it forward