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Orange Juice

Resource for Grades 1-4

| Citation

Media Type:
Video

Running Time: 2m 19s
Size: 2.5 MB

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Source: LOOP SCOOPS

This media asset comes from LOOP SCOOPS.

Resource Produced by:

Collection Developed by:

Collection Credits

Collection Funded by:

Major funding for LOOP SCOOPS is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Although the information in these materials has been funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement 83447601 to WGBH, it may not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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In this animated video from LOOP SCOOPS, a boy named Ben is asked whether fresh squeezed orange juice or bottled juice is better for the environment. After initially choosing bottled juice, Ben learns the story behind it: oranges are grown in Florida and trucked to a plant in Kansas where they are squeezed, pasteurized, and filtered. The juice is bottled at another plant and then finally shipped to stores. The bottles, if not recycled, pile up in landfills. Ben then learns about the simpler life cycle of fresh squeezed orange juice, and recognizes that it generates less waste.

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Background Essay

The life cycle of a plastic bottle starts with the creation of plastic. The vast majority of plastic bottles are made from petroleum, although some manufacturers use bioplastics made from plant materials. Manufacturers produce plastic pellets, which are melted down into "preforms." The preforms look like small test tubes; when heated, they expand and turn into water and juice bottles.

Plastic bottles have two major advantages over glass or metal containers: they are sturdy and lightweight. And because they are lightweight, shipping plastic bottles cuts down on fuel use, too.

But there are tradeoffs. Although most plastic bottles are very easy to recycle, about 65–85 percent still end up in landfills. In a landfill, a plastic bottle can take hundreds of years to break down and this can have a profound environmental impact. Because consumers have a powerful role in the fate of the plastics they use, many environmental organizations have focused their efforts on asking them to reduce their use of plastics, reuse them when possible, and ultimately recycle them.

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Teaching Tips

Here are suggested ways to engage students with this video and with activities related to this topic.

Viewing the video: Use the following suggestions to guide students' viewing of the video:
- Before: Tell students that they are going to watch a video about orange juice. In the video, a boy named Ben will learn that orange juice can come in two very different packages. Tell them to watch closely to see what the packages are.
- After: Ask why Ben thought the bottled juice was better for the environment. What did he forget to think about?
Doing a classroom activity: Have students review ads for familiar products. Ask them to determine: 1) what part of the life cycle story is being told, 2) what part of the story is not being told, and 3) what additional information they would need to make an informed purchase. This will help students see that ads are not designed to tell them the complete story; rather, they are designed to persuade. The activity should emphasize that ads are neither complete nor unbiased sources of information about a product.
Doing research projects—groups: Bury an empty juice bottle and an orange, either in the schoolyard or in two shoeboxes full of dirt. Have students predict what will happen to each object. Check on the objects in two weeks, and then, if possible, later in the year.
Classroom activity: Create a biodegredation timeline. With masking tape, create a timeline on the floor. Label one end "Now," and mark off 50-year intervals every three feet, for a total span of 300 years. Pass out 10 items made of various materials, such as a plastic bottle, a glass bottle, an aluminum can, a cotton sock, an orange peel, etc. Then ask students to place each item on the timeline to show how many years it will take to biodegrade or break into pieces in a landfill. Reinforce the point that some materials, like glass and plastic, will eventually break into tiny pieces but won't biodegrade. When students have finished placing the items, reveal the answers and have students rearrange the items, as needed. For a list of common objects and how long each takes to decompose or break into tiny pieces, see Biodegradation.