Americans discard a huge amount of material everyday. The activity described in this article--determining how much waste is thrown out or recycled in the school cafeteria over a five-day period--dramatically increases students' awareness of this fact of contemporary life. Armed with the information they've gathered, students go on to the constructive and educational activity of designing tent-card advertising that can be used to encourage recycling and reduce solid waste produced in the cafeteria. (Contains 2 figures.)