Superhero Glitterbug fights litter and keeps Sioux Falls clean. One sunny day he went buzzing into the country. He saw a giant hole in the ground. It was the size of a big field. It smelled. It was full of garbage. He saw bulldozers, seagulls, and garbage trucks. He landed by a man standing by a bulldozer.
Glitterbug asked the man, “Who made this big mess?”
The man said, “This is the Sioux Falls Regional Landfill.” He told Glitterbug that it is where all the garbage goes. Garbage trucks bring garbage here from Sioux Falls and other towns. People throw away so much stuff. The hole is filling up quickly, the man said.
“What happens when it’s full?” Glitterbug asked.
“We have to make another giant hole in another field,” The man said. He explained that some kinds of garbage last hundreds of years.
Glitterbug could not believe all the garbage. He could not imagine a new field full of garbage. He asked the man, “How can we stop this garbage?”
The man said that almost half the stuff in the landfill did not need to be there. People in Sioux Falls throw away things that could be recycled. Paper and empty bottles and cans can be sent to a special factory to be made into other things. Then it stays out of the landfill.
Glitterbug wiggled his antennas and thought about it. He stood up, and shouted, “I know what we can do! We can tell kids and grownups in Sioux Falls to recycle things in their garbage. Cans and plastic bottles and papers can be recycled! Glitterbug knew he couldn’t recycle everything himself. But he could get his friends to help him. He said, “Kids want to keep Sioux Falls clean. They will get the grownups to recycle, too.”
He flew back to Sioux Falls to spread the word to kids, telling them, “Enough! Please recycle that stuff! Do your part!”
And he knew they would.
How do you recycle?
Glitterbug says it’s easy! It starts at home and at school. Just sort your garbage when you throw it way. If you can recycle it, put it in a recycling container instead of the garbage. The garbage truck driver will take the recycling stuff to a different place, so it can be reused.
