Alice Ferguson Foundation

Trash Free Resource Library

 

Looking to learn more about trash?

Our resource library is here to help you understand the waste we generate and activities you can do to help reduce waste, become mindful about the waste you create, and how to properly dispose of that waste. Let’s work together to take action for clean land, safe water and healthy lives.

This library will be updated periodically with new information we find that can help our community reduce waste from entering our beautiful Potomac River Watershed.

Activities

• • Can you take on these fun Trash Challenges? Play Earth bingo with us and Accokeek Foundation
    • Alice Ferguson Foundation Bingo Card Image | PDF
    • Accokeek Foundation Bingo Card Image | PDF
    • For completing the Bingo Challenge’s here is our Earth Hero Badge.
  • Click for more family and kid-friendly activities here.
  • Join a cleanup in your neighborhood, city or park.
  • Turn Milk into Plastic – Video
  • Watch our Talkin’ Trash Webinar

 

Resources:

• Bioplastics
• • Turn Milk into Plastic – Video
  • National Geographic – What you need to know about plant-based plastics
  • National Geographic – Biodegradable shopping bags buried for three years still work
    • Impacts of Discarded Plastic Bags on Marine Assemblages and Ecosystem Functioning

• Microplastics
  • STOP(motion) Microplastics
  • NOAA – What are microplastics?
  • Washington Post – You’re literally eating microplastics. How you can cut down exposure to them.

• Composting
• Create an at Home Hazardous Waste Bins – Here are some ideas
  • Batteries, Chemicals, Light Bulbs, Electronics (wires, phones, computers)

• DIY out of something you would throw away
  • Check out Pinterest for YouTube or some really good ideas
  • DIY Face Mask – No sew out of old t-shirts!
  • 15 Best Ideas To Reuse Old Bed-sheets, Curtains & Towels
    • Fun fact – Sam from Alice Ferguson Foundation made curtains out of old bedsheets!

• Build your own watershed
  • PBS Kids – Build a Watershed

• Reduce Paper Waste
  • Research bidets
  • Try audio or electronic books
  • Check out Rocketbook

• Reduce Food Waste
  • EPA – Reducing food waste at home
  • NPR – 5 Ways to reduce food waste

• University of California
  • Climate Lab

 

Documentary Suggestions:

• The Plastic Problem  
• Plastic Wars 
• Mission Blue
• Environmental Film Festival
• No More Plastic: In Search of a Sustainable Future – Part 1: Clearing Plastic from the Ocean 
• No More Plastic: In Search of a Sustainable Future – Part 2: Frontlines of Global Business

 

Recycling Programs

• Prince George’s County, Maryland
• Charles County, Maryland
• Montgomery County, Maryland
• Washington, DC
• Fairfax County, Virginia
• City of Alexandria, Virginia
• Arlington County, Virginia
• Prince William County, Virginia

 

Decomposition Rates:

• Decomposition Rates and other fun activities from our partners at NOAA Marine Debris Program

 

Reading Suggestions:

• Unstoppable by Bill Nye
• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
• How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson
• Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
• One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul
• The Nature Principle by Richard Louv
• The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony