Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle?

Before the meeting: 

1. Become familiar with the 3 R’s – Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce.  
2. Recycling is converting waste into reusable material.  For example, we can take some plastics once we are done using them, they can be melted back down and used again.  
3. Reuse is when we take an item that was used once and instead of throwing it away, we use it again.  When we use that item again it may be for a different purpose than the original one.  Check out some examples at Go Green Projects in Scout Life magazine.  
4. Reducing the amount of trash or waste we generate.  Avoiding things that are disposable in place of things that can be reused.  Examples include avoiding items that have excessive packaging and buying the proper amount instead of overbuying items that spoil or go bad.  
5. Set up the meeting space so that the den can be divided into two teams and have access to the dry erase board. 

During the meeting: 

1. Divide the den into two teams, keeping Cub Scouts and adult partners together. 
2. Explain the rules of the game. 
   • The first team will pick someone to draw on the dry-erase board.  The den leader says one of the three R’s – recycle, reduce, or reuse and the person drawing will draw something that matches that R.  For example, if the word recycle is said then the person drawing will draw something that can be recycled. 
   • As the person is drawing their team has 60 seconds to guess what the item is.  If they guess the item correctly the team gets a point.  If the item is something that matches what was called out the team gets another point.   In the example above if the team guesses the item and it is something that can be recycled then the team gets two points.  If the team guesses the item but it is not something that can be recycled, then the team gets one point.  
   • Teams take turns. 
   • Each member of the team must draw at least once. 
   • The team that has the most points after each member of their team has drawn wins.