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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Union County, NJ

Why I love recycling

A worker checks a replacement distillation assembly for the space station's water recycling system in a processing facility. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Recycling" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.
A worker checks a replacement distillation assembly for the space station's water recycling system in a processing facility. NASA · Public domain
  • The stuff does not go away, it goes somewhere.
  • Some things can become the same thing again.
  • Sorting it right is the whole job.

You can love recycling in Union County.

What it really is

Recycling recovers material so it can be made into something again.

Three things to try today

  1. Sort one day of trash into piles.
  2. Weigh the biggest pile.
  3. Find out where that pile goes.
A worker checks a replacement distillation assembly for the space station's water recycling system in a processing facility. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Recycling" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.
A worker checks a replacement distillation assembly for the space station's water recycling system in a processing facility. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Nobody has to talk a child into liking recycling. They have to not talk them out of it. Union County is one of 21 counties in New Jersey.

Weighing it makes it real. Most families are surprised by which pile is heaviest.

If the kid who loves this is a girl

Read what one popular teacher said to one little girl who took out the classroom trash without being asked — and what that girl did with the rest of her life.

Girls are great at math — Union County, NJ →

Love something else too

An aerial photograph of the Vehicle Assembly Building under construction at Kennedy Space Center, its steel frame still open to the sky. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Building" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.Why I love buildingAn aerial view of construction crews and barges working to complete the westbound span of the Indian River causeway bridge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bridges" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.Why I love bridgesThe four-wheeled Artemis Jr. prototype rover, topped with a solar array, driving across a grass field beside the Operations and Checkout Building. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Cars" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.Why I love carsA humpback whale launching most of its body out of the ocean in a breach, with spray flying off its flippers. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Whales" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.Why I love whalesA bee crawling over the yellow centre of a wildflower while pollinating it on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Insects" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.Why I love bugsA scientist looks through a microscope at human breast cancer cells in a cell bioassay laboratory, with an automated liquid handling robot behind her. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Medicine" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.Why I love doctorsAstronaut Kate Rubins holds a handheld DNA sequencer while running a gene sequencing experiment aboard the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Genetics" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.Why I love DNAAstronaut Ricky Arnold processes swab samples of microbes collected from space station surfaces at a work station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Germs" page — read by families in Union County, NJ.Why I love germs

Near Union County

Why I love recycling, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Union County