Employ the marginal decision making process in their own lives and evaluate the decisions of others based upon a comparison of the marginal social benefit with the marginal social cost. Realize the concept of product safety includes safety to humans, animals, and the general environment now and in the future. Facts About Solid Waste fact sheet for each student. Students discover that decisions often have long-term impacts and secondary effects as they devise their own solution to the solid waste problem in America. After researching and reading about the magnitude of the problem, students develop a solution to the problem and write a position paper.
Student groups evaluate the individual ideas and reach consensus on a solid waste plan.
The decisions people make have consequences or secondary effects often called externalities. Consumers' decisions to consume and producers' decisions to package products in certain ways generate solid waste which impacts not only the consumer and business, but also the rest of society. The proper safe disposal of solid waste is becoming a major societal concern because many of our landfills are closing, and others no longer meet the more substantial environmental restrictions. In addition, the cost of developing new environmentally safe landfills has skyrocketed. Have them guess if nobody has the answer.