Bricks That Get Built Again: teacher key

How Plastic Toy Bricks Are Made, grade 5 edition, written for 5th grade. A brick factory reuses almost all its plastic, but plastic can last for hundreds of years. See how bricks, waste and new materials fit together.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What happens to scrap plastic from the molds?
   • It is ground up and fed back in (answer)
   • It is buried
   • It is burned for fun
2. How long can thrown-away plastic stay around?
   • A few days
   • Hundreds of years (answer)
   • One night
3. What are most bricks made of?
   • Wood
   • Glass
   • Oil-based ABS plastic (answer)
4. What does LEGO say it wants by 2032?
   • More sustainable materials in its products (answer)
   • A bigger factory
   • Fewer colors
5. What are bricks built to do?
   • Be used once and thrown out
   • Be taken apart and built again (answer)
   • Rot away like paper
6. What does sustainable mean in the text?
   • Very heavy
   • Bright red
   • Easier on the Earth (answer)

Words

• thermoplastic: melts, then sets
• sustainable: kind to Earth