Waste Minimisation

Purpose

This activity reinforces that waste minimisation is about four processes: reduce, pre-cycle, re-use, recycle. Students should also develop an awareness that they can actively reduce the amount of waste used in the home and school.

Activity

Students conduct a survey to analyse the waste in the home or school. School lunch boxes are a good example. They work out:

• what could be reduced eg unnecessary packaging like packaging around items already in some form of packaging
• what materials could be re-used and how
• what can be recycled.

Develop some creative solutions to re-using items eg brainstorm what you could do with an aluminium beverage can? An art or materials technology program could be developed around the idea of used aluminium beverage cans as a building material. Inform students that in Africa one community built themselves a fantastically sturdy hut using aluminium cans, and in Italy, a group of enthusiasts built a scaled down replica of the Basilica entirely of aluminium cans.

Students could attempt, in groups to build a shelter of aluminium cans or reproduce a scaled down version of a site of architectural significance. Remember to recycle the cans after the project!

Discussion

Discuss the costs of waste in terms of use of raw materials, processing, transport and handling. Students should be encouraged to think of personal costs and benefits of waste reduction and ways that they can actively participate in reducing waste in the home, at school or in the community.

For secondary students

Students could design and carry out a simple survey of friends, parents, neighbours, local community organisations about what they are doing to reduce waste.

Students write to local community organisations and the local council and ask about waste collection. Questions could include:

• How much gets collected?
• What are the costs of collecting, sorting, disposing of waste?
• What is the expected life of the current landfill site?
• What are the future plans for waste?
• How much waste is recycled and what happens to it?
• How much does the organisation/council make out of recycling each year?
  

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