This brief article discusses Oregon's Bottle Bill, what the law has accomplished, and the future of this law's implementation.
Students will learn that Oregon's Bottle Bill is a decades-old program that pays citizens to recycle, that this law has removed a large amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and the program's next steps will make it easier for people to earn money from recycling.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article is concise and easy for high schoolers to understand.
This article provides exact data that is useful for comprehension.
Additional Prerequisites
Students need to have a basic understanding of climate change.
Students should know the following words: redemption, litter, distributor, metric tons, and fossil fuels.
Differentiation
This article could supplement a lesson on different solutions to the global climate crisis.
After reading the article, the teacher could lead a classroom discussion on how students can fight climate change on an individual level.
This article could augment a lesson on the Oregon government's effectiveness at dealing with climate change.
This article could enhance a discussion on how governments could provide financial incentives to encourage citizens to live more sustainably.
Scientist Notes
This article discusses the success of Oregon’s Bottle Bill recycling program as of the year 2022. This article links to information about the history of the bill and all of the data published. Information about how the program works, its funding, how profits are used, and why it has been successful are discussed. Resources are linked in the article. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.3.9-12 Analyze the ways in which incentives influence what is produced and distributed in a market system.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms.
