Our Europe, environmental awareness and language development through school exchanges

Reports and reviews

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concludes the book with an economic comparison of four possible waste reduction policies, and identifies six specific issues for hazardous waste disposal which need to be addressed before planning and regulatory policies can be improved . In Chapter 13 a brief summary of U .S . solid waste legislation is also given . It would be unwise to dismiss this book on the grounds of its likely restricted readership . There are several interesting results and observations made by the various authors . Special mention should be made of the contributions by (1) Susan Cutter (Chapter 8) for a brief but interesting case study on the alternative recycling incentives in New Jersey; (2) Allen Miedema (Chapter 12) who presented an informative economic comparison of four waste management policies : litter taxes, recycling subsides, user fees, and disposal charges ; (3) Charles Breeden and Joseph Havlicek Jr (Chapter 11) for their treatment of estimating the external costs at a deep-well injection site for liquid hazardous wastes ; and (4) Gundars Rudzitis, Oded Hochman, Eui-Gak Hwang (Chapter 7) for their comparison of social costs between landfill and incineration in Chicago . While the book has a number of good points some aspects of its content and reproduction spoil the finished product . The central core of several chapters is based on research results that originated in the University of Chicago from work conducted during the the 1960s and 1970s . Much of this work is now dated but there has been little attempt to update the results to the economics of the 1980s . One must therefore question the applicability of the models presented for possible use by waste planners . The book is solely directed towards the economic structure of the U .S . society which once again questions the value of its models and conclusions, to other countries . There are some annoying, though minor, typographical errors and U .S . and Imperial, not Metric, units have been used throughout . The references at the end of each section are a representative selection of the U .S . literature-although hardly up-to-date . The most recent references in seven out of the 13 chapters are before 1980, and there is virtually no coverage of the Western European literature .

BOOK REVIEW OUR EUROPE, ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL EXCHANGES . Edited by Cherry Mares . Produced by the Keep Britain Tidy Group Schools Research Project, 37 West Street, Brighton, U .K. (1985) £7.00 . Reviewed by K . M. Dean, New York, U.S .A . This handbook is designed to be used as a guide for teachers of language, and of other disciplines, to set up and organize a language exchange program for a study of the environment . The guide is based on testing of French and English students and their teachers . Accompanying the handbook is a folder, by the same name, containing a set of activity sheets in both French and English, two fact sheets, and "The Houses Game" . The activity sheets are intended for use by the students in class activities, with host families, and for interaction with members of the public, and are designed to make the learning process enjoyable . While completing the activity sheets the students explore such areas as the maintenance of buildings, the quality of the streets and beaches, and local shopping habits . The students are asked to collect and classify containers found on beaches, to take walks and explore the environment, and to study their host families leisure and recreational activities . It is suggested that students and teachers work together to design additional activity sheets for further exploration of the environment . The two fact sheets present teachers with information about containers and their



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disposal, and explains characteristics of various cultures waste habits . "The Houses Game" provides each student with twelve paper houses, each with a paper garden, and a problem : to lay out the houses on a sheet of A4 paper (the land) so that there is a path to each house, sunlight in every garden, parking facilities, open public space, and at the lowest cost . As the students work on their designs they are reminded of other factors that may be a factor in their layout . There are no winners in this educational game, however there is a discussion to determine the more efficient designs . The handbook explains the activities in the folder in greater detail . It also provides information for teachers about preparing the students for the experience of participating in an exchange, and details on running an exchange, covering typical problems run across . Three case studies are included as examples of past successful exchanges .