Climate Action Booklist For Educators: Waste and Recycling
New York City public schools have designated four days of Climate Action during the 2024-25 school year to highlight climate education and sustainability with schoolwide events and activities. The suggested themes are "Waste," "Energy," "Health, Wellness and Green Space," and "Water." In support of these Climate Action days, The New York Public Library will be creating booklists and highlighting library resources around these themes to aid elementary and middle school educators. If you are interested in inviting a librarian to introduce these titles and materials to students please use this Invite an Outreach Librarian form to schedule a visit. Below are materials themed around waste and recycling.
Picture Books
- Change Starts With Us by Sophie Beer
- Dear Earth by Isabel Otter; illustrated by Clara Anganuzzi
- Dear Earth ... From Your Friends in Room 5 by Erin Dealey; illustrated by Luisa Uribe
- I’m Trying to Love Garbage by Bethany Barton
- Milk and Juice A Recycling Romance by Meredith Crandall Brown
- Rocket Says Clean Up! by Nathan Bryon; illustrated by Dapo Adeola
Non-Fiction
- 10 Things You Can Do to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle by Elizabeth Weitzman
- Can I Recycle This?: A Kid's Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics by Jennie Rom; illustrated by Christie Young
- Be The Change: Rob Greenfield's Call to Kids: Making a Difference in a Messed-Up World by Rob Greenfield and Antonia Banyard
- This Book Is Not Garbage: 50 Ways to Ditch Plastic, Reduce Trash, and Save the World! by Isabel Thomas; illustrated by Alex Paterson
- Earth Friend Forever by Molly Bloom; illustrated by Mike Orodán.
- Fly Guys Presents: Garbage and Recycling by Tedd Arnold
- Garbage by Anita Generi
- Green Machines and Other Amazing Eco-Inventions by Michelle Meadows; illustrated by Aristides Ruiz
- Join the No-Plastic Challenge: A First Book of Reducing Waste by Scot Ritchie
- Kids Fight Plastic: How to Be a #2minutesuperhero by Dorey Martin
- The Last Plastic Straw: A Plastic Problem and Finding Ways to Fix It by Dee Romito; illustrated by Ziyue Chen
- The Mess That We Made by Michelle Lord; illustrated by Julia Blattman
- Recycling by Meg Gaertner
- Recycle and Remake: Creative Projects for Eco Kids edited by Hélène Hilton
- This Book Will (Help) Cool the Climate: 50 Ways to Cut Pollution and Protect Our Planet! by Isabel Thomas; illustrated by Alex Paterson
- Total Garbage: A Messy Dive Into Trash, Waste, and Our World by Rebecca Donnelly; illustrated by John Hendrix
- Trash Revolution: Breaking the Waste Cycle by Erica Fyvie and Bill Slavin; illustrated by Bill Slavin
- What Happens to Our Trash? by D.J. Ward; illustrated by Paul Meisel
- What a Waste by Jess French
- Where Do Garbage Trucks Go?: And Other Questions About ... Trash and Recycling by Benjamin Richmond
- Why Does Plastic Hurt the Planet? by Clive Gifford; illustrated by Hannah Li
- Your Planet Needs You!: A Kids' Guide to Reducing Waste and Recycling by Philip Bunting
- Zero Waste: How One Community Is Leading a World Recycling Revolution by Allan Drummond
Fiction
- Sona Sharma, Looking After Planet Earth by Chitra Soundar; illustrated by Jen Khatun
- Team Trash: A Time Traveler's Guide to Sustainability by Kate Wheeler
- Yasmin the Recycler by Saadia Faruqi; illustrated by Hatem Aly
MyLibraryNYC Teacher Sets
MyLibraryNYC provides participating schools with enhanced library privileges including fine-free student and educator library cards, school delivery and the exclusive use of 14,000+ Teacher Sets designed for educator use in the classroom; and student and educator access to the unparalleled digital resources of New York City's public library systems as well as instructional support and professional development opportunities. Learn more.
Prompts for Classroom Discussion
NYA (National Youth Administration) girls who live at the resident center at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers' community at Eleven Mile Corner, Arizona, learn to use waste materials for toys, jewelry, etc
NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 58732513
- Have students write an action plan about recycling and going green for school.
- Have students write a letter to Earth about what they will do to protect the planet.
- What are some ways we can recycle at school and at home?
- What is composting?
- Tell us some ways your family already recycles?
- What are ways you can reuse items you have like the young women in this photo found in our Digital Collections?
Bonus Prompts!
- Looking at these two photos that feature garbage trucks, what are some differences that you notice about then and now?
- Pair these prompts with this new 2024 title, Gifts From the Garbage Truck: A True Story About the Things We (Don't) Throw Away by Andrew Larsen and illustrated by Oriol Vidal.
Group of Harlem youths recruited as street sweepers on 117th Street, ca. 1940s
NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1800872
Database Discovery
Have students explore these databases, accessible with a library card, for primary resources and fun tidbits.
- BrainPOP (onsite only, no library card required)
- Explora Elementary
- Explora Middle School
- Flipster
- Kids InfoBits
- Pixton