What Milly Did

The extraordinary story of the woman who made plastics recycling possible.

Book Genre:

Nonfiction, Picture Books

Audience:

ages 8 to 11 / grades 3 to 6

Written by

Elise Moser

Illustrated by

Scot Ritchie

Book Description
Milly Zantow wanted to solve the problem of her town’s full landfill and ended up creating a global recycling standard — the system of numbers you see inside the little triangle on plastics. This is the inspiring story of how she mobilized her community, creating sweeping change to help the environment.

On a trip to Japan in 1978, Milly noticed that people were putting little bundles out on the street each morning. They were recycling — something that hadn’t taken hold in North America. When she returned to Sauk City, Wisconsin, she discovered that her town’s landfill was nearing capacity, and that plastic made up a large part of the garbage. No one was recycling plastics.

Milly decided to figure out how. She discovered that there are more than seven kinds of plastic, and they can’t be combined for recycling, so she learned how to use various tests to identify them. Then she found a company willing to use recycled plastic, but the plastic would have to be ground up first.

Milly and her friend bought a huge industrial grinder and established E-Z Recycling. They worked with local school children and their community, and they helped other communities start their own recycling programs. But Milly knew that the largescale recycling of plastics would never work unless people could easily identify the seven types. She came up with the idea of placing an identifying number in the little recycling triangle, which has become the international standard.

Milly’s story is a glimpse into the early days of the recycling movement and shows how, thanks to her determination, hard work and community-building, huge changes took place, spreading rapidly across North America.
Pre-Reading Activities/ Key Ideas & Details
Pioneers
The subtitle of this book is: “The Remarkable Pioneer of Plastics Recycling.” What does it mean to be a pioneer? What does it mean in this context?
Pre-Reading Activities/ Vocabulary Acquisition
What Do We Recycle?
Discuss the difference between recycling material and throwing it away. What do students recycle at school? At home?
Pre-Reading Activities/ Integrated Learning
Why Do We Recycle?
Why is it important to recycle? What do students think about recycling?
Pre-Reading Activities/ Vocabulary Acquisition
Vocabulary
There are some technical terms used in this book (e.g., PET) and some vocabulary that is domain-specific to plastics and recycling. As students read the book, have them keep a record of words they don’t know or words used in an unfamiliar way. Have students derive the meanings from context, then look the words up in the glossary in the back of the book as well as in the dictionary. How are the definitions in the glossary different from those in the dictionary? Are there other words with similar meanings the author could have used instead?
Post-Reading Activities/ Key Ideas & Details
Fact Scavenger Hunt
Have students test their comprehension by answering the following questions and recording the number of the page where the answer is located. Come together as a class and discuss their answers.
- Where did Milly first see recycling in action?
- How did Milly get the money to buy her first plastic chipper?
- When did plastics first begin to gain popularity?
- Why did Milly go to Japan?
- What did Milly learn about manufacturing plastic jugs that made her realize some of them could be recycled?
- What were the advantages of recycling Milly emphasized in her presentations?
- In what state did Milly establish her first recycling company?
- How many categories of plastic resin are there and what are they named?
- What was the Plastiki?
- What is a nurdle?
- What are most plastics made of?
- How did marking every plastic item with a number aid in the recycling process?
Post-Reading Activities/ Text Forms & Genres
For More Information…
This book includes tools to help readers locate critical information quickly and efficiently. As a class, review the following sections: Glossary, the Table of Plastic Resins, For Further Reading, Selected Sources, Source Notes, Acknowledgments and Index. Why are each of these elements included? How do they work together to enhance the reader’s experience with the text, deepen their knowledge of the topic and help them locate information in the book?
Post-Reading Activities/ Critical Thinking in Literacy
Putting it in Perspective
What Milly Did provides a historical context for recycling and shows how Milly influenced the modern recycling movement. Break students into small groups and have them review the book to identify ways in which Milly’s parents and their generation reused things and why they did it. According to the text, what happened to cause Americans to change the way they acted? How did Milly and others like her influence the way we think about trash and recycling today?
Post-Reading Activities/ Comprehension Strategies
Timeline
Milly’s success didn’t happen overnight. She worked very hard and took things one step at a time. Break students into small groups and have them review the text to create a list of the major events in Milly’s life that played a role in establishing nationwide plastics recycling standards (e.g., Milly visiting Japan or buying her first grinder). Come together as a class to compare and contrast the different timelines. Identify the cause-and-effect relationship between events and have groups discuss why they included the events they did. Work together to create one master timeline and post it in the classroom.
Post-Reading Activities/ Text Forms & Genres
The Book and the Film
After they have read the book have students watch the short film Plastics One Through Seven about Milly Zantow available on YouTube. Discuss the following issues as a class: How do the two different media present the information? What parts of the story were told by both the book and movie? What parts were told in one format only? What aspects of Milly’s story were conveyed most effectively by each medium?
Post-Reading Activities/ Developing & Creating Texts
Report by the Numbers
Break students into seven different groups, one for each of the plastics recycling categories. Using several digital and print resources, have each group prepare a report and presentation about their category to share with the class. Have them include such information as: the scientific name of their category of plastic, what it is used for, whether it is recycled in the local community, how it is recycled and what it is recycled into. Their presentation should include a video from the Web showing the process of recycling their plastic. Each group should also bring in an object made from their plastic to pass around the class. After they have presented their findings to the class, have each group submit a summary of their report as a digital file, including links to the video, resource materials and references. Compile these into a single online document or Web page and make it available to the whole school.
Post-Reading Activities/ Comprehension Strategies
Exploring the Sidebars
Invite a representative from your local recycling center to come talk to the class. Have each student prepare at least one thoughtful question for the guest, either about the process of recycling in general or how it works in your community. When the presentation has concluded, gather as a class to summarize the speaker’s main points, the reasons and evidence used to support these claims and how students feel about what the speaker told them.
Post-Reading Activities/ Developing & Creating Texts
The Importance of Being Milly
Have students write a paper detailing the progress Milly Zantow made in advancing recycling, both in her community and nationwide. What changes did she bring about and how did she do it? What do students think was the author’s main message or messages? Have them identify specific reasons and evidence from the text to support their interpretation. Allow time for students to review and revise their papers as necessary before submitting their final copy.
Post-Reading Activities/ Critical Thinking in Literacy
Milly Inspires
The story of how Milly rallied her community and, through creativity, hard work and determination, created sweeping change to help the environment is probably new to students. Is Milly an inspirational figure, or do students not relate to her and her story? Are the lessons of her life applicable to students or irrelevant? Have students write a personal opinion paper describing how Milly’s story makes them feel about an individual’s ability to change the world. Break them into pairs to review each other’s work and revise their papers based on peer feedback before submitting a final version.