Why Do We Have to Recycle?
Season 3 Episode 4
Themes: Empathy
Plot Highlights
- The StoryBots receive a call from a child named Rory who asks them the question, why do we have to recycle? The group prepares for transport to the outside world to find him an answer.
- The group lands in a trash can surrounded by garbage. The red StoryBot, Boop, gets his head stuck in a plastic cup. The trash can is picked up and dumped into a garbage truck, and they’re taken to a dump where they find themselves surrounded by trash.
- The StoryBots have run away as a bulldozer comes up from behind them. The bulldozer nearly runs them over, but a small critter driving a car approaches the group and drives them to safety.
- The creature who saved the StoryBots introduces herself as Angry Annie, and she has an angry demeanor as she explains how the trash in the landfill has polluted their soil, water, and air, and has ruined what used to be “the green place.” The StoryBots are surprised to find out that trash doesn’t just disappear when it gets picked up from your house, but instead it sits in smelly landfills like this one.
- Boop finally frees himself from the plastic cup on his head, and it left an imprint on the top of his head in the shape of the 3-arrow recycling symbol. Angry Annie is shocked when she sees the symbol, and insists that the StoryBots come with her to meet “the others.”
- Annie takes the StoryBots to a community of animals living in run-down houses made of trash. They meet the leader, Lord Wormo, who tells the about the prophecy that someone bearing the recycling symbol would arrive and teach them about recycling to recover their land. He’s distraught when he finds out that the StoryBots don’t know about recycling, and he and the others in the community start to panic.
- The StoryBots see the recycling symbol on a building in the distance, so they hop into Angry Annie’s car once again and head toward it. They jump over an approaching bulldozer, and fly through the air into the recycling building.
- They land inside the building on a conveyor belt and they meet Chuck, who explains that they’re in a Materials Recovery Facility. He teaches them how different recycled materials are sorted at the facility so they can be sent elsewhere to become new products. He also explains the importance of reducing consumption of disposable materials and reusing instead of throwing things away whenever possible.
- The StoryBots return to their boss and explain the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling due to the harmful effects of waste sitting in landfills. The episode closes with a final song about the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Discussion Questions
After this episode, we encourage you to talk to your child about reducing, reusing, and recycling in your own home, and about themes like empathy that emerge in the episode. Consider exploring some of the following questions together.
- Why do you think Angry Annie was angry? How do you think you would feel if your home became polluted with trash like hers did?
- What did you learn about recycling in this episode? Do you know what we recycle at home?
- Do you remember what it means to “reduce” and “reuse”? Can you think of something we could reduce our consumption of at home? What about something that we could reuse after we’re done with it?
- If your child is interested in learning more about recycling, consider watching this video together about how recycling works or trying out some of these activities.
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