Local+Pollution-Group+A

 **Pollution is the release of contaminants into the environment causing harm. There are many types of pollution including, air pollution, land pollution, water pollution, and more. Air pollution is defined as hazardous substances being released into the atmosphere endangering human life and other living matter. Almost 232 million different types of vehicles are driven by U.S. citizens every day, adding greenhouse gases into the air. Every year 335,000 Americans die of lung cancer, which is a direct result of air pollution. Air pollution isn't just hurting the environment but it is endangering human life. To stop air pollution we can ride our bikes or walk to close places to not pollute the air with gases from our vehicles. Land pollution is contaminating the earth's natural surface. Every year one American produces over 3285 pounds of hazardous waste. Every day Americans throw away 1 million bushels of litter out their car window. Ways to stop land pollution are to recycle and to throw non recyclable items away in trashcans instead of on a natural surface. Water pollution is the release of chemicals and substances into large bodies of water. Over 73 different kinds of pesticides have been found in the groundwater that we eventually use to drink. Poisoning the water is poisoning yourself. 40% of U.S. rivers are too polluted for aquatic life to survive. By polluting water your are killing animals and possibly poisoning the water that you drink. Some ways to stop water pollution are to wash your car far away from any storm water drains, don’t throw trash, chemicals, or solvents into sewer drains, and to inspect your septic system every 3-5 years. In Hershey the chocolate factory is a major supplier of air pollution. The smoke from the factory is leaking into the air causing contamination in the air. The smoke from the factory could also be contributing to the Greenhouse Effect, also known as Global Warming. The smoke causes more heat in cooler areas like Antarctica causing animals to die and shorter winters. Hershey also has a lot of land pollution as well. Many programs such as Adopt A Highway try to keep the streets of Hershey clean yet every year there is always more and more trash on the streets. Trash can be found from the parking lot of a mall to deep in the woods. Many drivers also throw trash out of their windows while driving.**  

** PROPOSAL: Our group has noticed that our school has recycling and trash cans inside the classrooms, at lunch, and trashcans outside the school. But what what about recycling outside? Bottles, cans, and paper are all being put in the trash cans when they should be being recycled. We propose to put one or two recycling bins outside of our school, on the sidewalks, where the buses pull into the school. We think that this will eliminate a partial amount of pollution in Hershey by having less litter on the ground. We would like to start our plan small with just putting recycling bins outside of the Middle School. If this plan is successful and people are using the bins we would like to ask for recycling bins outside of the High School and the Elementary and ECC buildings. We strongly believe that this will help with the pollution problem in our community and it will also help with the recycling problem. We would also like to let the students of Hershey Middle School know how important it is to pick up litter on the ground, it might not seem like much but everyone doing a little bit to help our planet really adds up to a cleaner, healthier environment!

__Citations__** //Lawrence berkley national Laboratory//. Berkley National Laboratory, 5 Apr. 2009. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. [].

Green Student. "Pollution." //Www.Greenstudentu.com//. Web. 26 Jan. 2010. .