Activity T i tl e : EcoSchools Topic Area: Learning across the Curriculum:

Why waste our waste?

Key Stage:

Activity Number:

Waste minimisation

Subject(s):

NC Reference:

ESDGC Statement:

Learning Outcomes:

Description:

Pupils will gain a better understanding of what can be recycled, what they can recycle and how many of their peers are actively involved. Pupils will have a clearer understanding of the recycling facilities in their area and of what happens to all the non-recyclable waste. Pupils will understand the proportions of the different types of waste that come from typical homes. Pupils will realise the scale of the amount of food waste generated in Wales and elsewhere. Pupils will realise that landfilling food waste is extremely harmful to the environment due to the release of Methane. Pupils begin to understand that food waste treatments can be a more effective way of managing food waste and have more benefits than home composting or landfilling. Pupils to discuss the types of materials that people routinely recycle in their locality & the kinds of facilities they have locally for recycling. Do they recycle themselves? Take a poll of those who do recycle @ home. Pupils to research what exactly their local authority collects for domestic recycling. Where does the rest go? Can they find out the remaining capacity of their local landfill site? Does this concern them? Pupils then to research the amounts of different types of waste that come from typical homes. (A large proportion is food waste) this information may come from their notes during the previous session How much of a households waste is food waste? (c.30% of household waste is food waste, and most of it is landfilled) How much food waste does Wales produce? Does their Local authority collect food waste? What does their LA do with all the food waste? quite possible that pupils will say that landfilling organic waste is ok as it is bio-degradable, is this true? Is landfill a good way of disposing of food waste? What can be done with food waste? (Home composting may be brought up) Although Methane can be very harmful to the environment if discharged directly, does it have any beneficial uses? Are there any processes that can be employed that make better more efficient use of food waste? Are there additional benefits to these

processes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4h5MawZLpA http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8088000/8088938.stm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dErUHBjR0o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UafRz3QeO8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=but5ntRMQQc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXLUoqzlT2k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb4HZlZulEs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJRV38zvX7U http://www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk/inyourarea.html http://www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk/recovery/treatmentoptions /index.html

Resources:

Notes:

Again, pupils should record their findings in their Talking a Load of Rubbish portfolio.