From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4-- An eminently readable and well-organized offering that's filled with information. Gibbons's cartoons in primary shapes and colors graphically illustrate the contents of a landfill and how to recycle various products to cut down on the need for landfills--for which space is already in short supply. Discussing paper, plastic, glass, cans, and polystyrene, the author describes how to recycle, why it's necessary, and its benefits. The top two-thirds of each page is devoted to illustrations that perfectly complement the brief text below. The book ends with a mention of the ozone layer and the limited potential for recycling polystyrene, followed by 14 facts about garbage. The plea is to make our planet a safer and healthier place to live with a habit that is fun and easy--recycling. An excellent, functional introduction. --Carole B. Kirkpatrick, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WACopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Bright pen-and-wash illustrations show children collecting and separating recyclable paper, glass, cans, and plastic and taking them to deposit points or putting them out for pickup. Gibbons urges elimination of non-biodegradable polystyrene products, which release dangerous CFCs when burned, and shows a sanitary landfill and recycling plants where materials are crushed, melted, and reformed into useful products. The captioned panels and running text stress the need for reducing waste and saving natural resources. There are two pages of arresting statistics: ``Forty- three thousand tons of food is thrown out in the United States each day''; ``Fourteen billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year.'' A concluding page lists things kids can do to make a difference. Printed on recycled paper. Attractive and timely, an excellent introduction. (Nonfiction. 4-10) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Card catalog description
Explains the process of recycling from start to finish and discusses what happens to paper, glass, aluminum cans, and plastic when they are recycled into new products.

ANNOTATION

Explains the process of recycling from start to finish and discusses what happens to paper, glass, aluminum cans, and plastic when they are recycled into new products.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This lively and informative handbook explains the process of recycling from start to finish. The book focuses on the path of five different types of garbage - paper, glass, aluminum can, plastic, and polystyrene - and describes what happens to each of them when they are recycled into new products.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

In Recycle, author/artist Gail Gibbons simply, succinctly and clearly explains how recycling conserves energy and reduces pollution as it decreases waste. She shows basic steps involved in making new-from-used paper, glass, cans, and plastic: old bottles crushed and melted, for example, and aluminum cans ground into chips, melted into bars and pressed into thin sheets. Ms. Gibbons concludes with a few specific recycling recommendations and an assortment of not-so-trivial trash trivia (e.g. fourteen billion pounds of trash are dumped into the ocean every year!). [Note: If you have a first edition, please modify the second sentence on page 26 to read, "Some polystyrene is made using gases called chlorofluorocarbons, also called CFCs."

School Library Journal