Rag-and-bone man

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/rag-and-bone-man

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What was a rag-and-bone man?A rag-and-bone man was a person who walked around cities looking for old clothes, bones, broken glass, and scrap metal to sell or reuse. They helped keep streets clean by picking up trash that people would otherwise throw away.
2. Why did people need rag-and-bone men?They turned discarded items into useful materials, like making paper from rags or glue from bones. This saved new resources and helped factories get the parts they needed.

Informal Economy: Economic activities and labor that are neither taxed nor monitored by any government.
Circular Economy: An economic model focused on eliminating waste and the continuous use of resources through reuse and recycling.
Resource Recovery: The process of extracting valuable materials from waste streams for reuse or sale.
Secondary Raw Materials: Materials obtained from recycling waste products, used as feedstock for new manufacturing.