Persuasive Speech Outline

Henry Dang

COMM 1020-02

Instructor Shriene McKay

4/26/17

General Purpose: To Persuade

Specific Purpose: To dispose of waste in the appropriate manner, more often.

Attention

I. Recycling is essentially reusing or the repurposing of an item rather than sending it to

the landfills, and it is generally thought of as a good thing.
A. However, a majority of the population does not understand the importance of
recycling and how one person can have a tremendous impact.
II. To give the audience a better understanding of what Im talking about I will walk
them through the average day of Jim.
A. Jim is a college student like you and I.
B. He leaves his house early in the morning to attend school.
C. Around noon he heads to the local caf to grab lunch.
D. After lunch he heads back to campus to finish up his classes and to study.
E. Afterwards he heads back to the caf to grab a bite to eat before he goes to the
gym.
F. He ends the day by going home to rest up for the next day.
III. At first glance it seems like a ordinary day that an average student here at SLCC
would have however, if we focus on the waste that he produced that day we can get a
better understanding of the problem.
A. Before he left his house, he had a can of soda that went straight to the trash.
B. At school, Jim received some graded assignments that he tossed in the trash
because he felt that it no longer served him any purpose.
C. At the caf, Jim had himself a burger and a soda. The wrapper and soda, like
before went straight to the trash.
D. Back at school Jim tossed some drafts that didnt quite meet his expectations, and
of course had a can of soda to give him the energy to study.
E. Returning to the caf Jim had quite a large meal that resulted in a large amount of
trash.
F. At the gym, he tossed away a plastic bottle that he was using.
G. Back home, Jim ate some leftovers and discarded the wrapper that it came in.
IV. When you lay out all his trash, you can begin to realize how much waste one person
can produce in a day.

Need

V. The Average person produces 4.3 pounds of waste a day (Duke).

A. That means by the end of the day, our class will produce about 86 pounds of
waste.
B. By the end of the day, this campus will produce around 72 tons of waste.
VI. A majority of the waste is not disposed of correctly (Duke).
A. 55% of the 220 million tons of waste produced by the US each year, end up in
landfills (Duke).
B. The EPA estimates that 70% of American Waste is recyclable, however most
never come near that number. (PlanetAid)
C. This poses a huge problem to the environment because Landfills produce the
United States 2nd largest source of manmade methane, a greenhouse gas. (Duke)
VII. The lack of recycling depletes the earth of its natural resources by mining and
producing raw virgin material.
A. The production of raw virgin material releases harmful greenhouse gases
responsible for global warming. (Wise)
B. The production of recycled material produces less pollution into the atmosphere
compared to that of raw material. That is because the energy required to produce
recycled material only uses 2/3 of the energy required to produce raw virgin
material. (Pullen)
VIII. So, what can you do to reduce the problem?
A. Lets recount Jims day and see what he could have done instead.
B. At home, instead of tossing all his waste into the trash can, he could have placed
them in a separate container to be recycled.
C. When he was at school, instead of tossing away his papers and soda can in the
trash he could have put them in separate recycling containers. Usually colleges,
especially ones like SLCC, will have specialized recycling bins placed all around
campus reducing the burden of finding one.
D. Also, when he is eating out, he could visit places that provide reusable silverware,
instead of plastic utensil.
E. While he was at the gym, instead of using a water bottle that he will dispose after
every visit to the gym, he could bring a reusable bottle that could last for years
and reduce his footprint on the environment.

Call to Action

IX. By taking these simple but impactful steps, Jim was able to reduce the amount of
waste that he sent to the landfills by a dramatic amount.
A. One person doesnt seem like it would make much of a difference, however if all
of us began to incorporate these practices in our daily lives and shared it with
other, together we can help make this planet a better place.
 Work Cited

Duke. "How much do we waste daily?" Center for Sustainability & Commerce. Duke
University, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
<https://center.sustainability.duke.edu/resources/green-facts-consumers/how-much-
do-we-waste-daily>.

Pullen, Kate. "What Impact Does Recycling Have on the Environment?" LoveToKnow.
LoveToKnow Corp, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
<http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/How_Does_Recycling_Affect_the_Environment
>.

"Recycling Rates Around the World." Recycling Rates Around the World - Planet Aid,
Inc. Planet Aid, 2 Sept. 2015. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
<http://www.planetaid.org/blog/recycling-rates-around-the-world>.

Writer, Leaf Group. "The Effects of Not Recycling." Sciencing. Leaf Group, n.d. Web. 20
Mar. 2017. <http://sciencing.com/effects-not-recycling-4827369.html>.