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Recycling

Classifying recyclables Recyclable items need to be sorted according to the type of material from which they are made. The picture below shows the recyclable items that one household collected in a week. They have been sorted into groups of similar materials. List the different types of material (eg. glass) from which these items are made.

Think about items your household could recycle. If you were to group them according to the type of material from which they are made, what additional categories (if any) would you have?

2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling
Most recyclable materials can be classified under the major categories of glass, metal, plastic, processed wood (eg. paper), textiles and electronics. A broad classification like this is often made before disposing of the material. At the recycling plant, more detailed sorting takes place so categories are divided into sub-categories e.g. glass is sorted according to its colour. The tree diagram below shows 6 major categories of common recyclable materials from households. Add smaller branches to the right of the diagram to show how each category could split into two or more categories.

Glass

Metal

Plastic Recyclable materials Processed Wood

Textiles

Electronics

2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling
Collecting and weighting data The table below shows how the recyclable items pictured on the first page could be categorised. Within the same category, some items have a greater mass than others. To account for this, the different items have been weighted according to their estimated mass. For example, an empty tissue box has about 6 times the mass of an empty toilet roll it. So the toilet roll has been given a weighting of 1 and the tissue box has been given a weighting of 6. In each category, a small item has been used as the standard (i.e. given a weighting of 1) to avoid the need for weightings to be fractions. If the smallest item is very small (eg. small advertising leaflets) a group of them could be used as the standard (eg. 10 small advertising leaflets together could be given a weighting of 1) to avoid having very large numbers as weightings. The relative contribution of an item to the total mass of a category can be determined by multiplying the number of items by their weight, then calculating this as a percentage of the total. Note: A different standard has been used for each category so comparisons cannot be made between categories. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest percent. Item Category: GLASS small glass bottles ( 400 mL) large glass bottles ( 800 mL) glass jars Number 4 6 2 Weighting 1 2 1 Total: Category: METAL aluminium drink cans medium steel cans ( 400 g net ) large steel cans Number x Weight 4 12 2 18 % 22 66 11 100

9 6 2

1 4 6 Total:

9 24 12 45

20 53 27 100

Category: PLASTIC small containers (margarine, cream) medium bottles ( 1L) large jars

2 2 1

1 3 4 Total:

2 6 4 12

17 50 33 100

Category: PROCESSED WOOD toilet rolls long rolls small boxes (eg. light globe) medium boxes large boxes small waxed boxes large waxed boxes newspapers advertising leaflets

2 1 1 5 2 1 2 4 1

1 2 2 6 30 3 6 40 4 Total:

2 2 2 30 60 3 12 160 4 275

1 1 1 11 22 1 3 58 1 100

2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling
1. Using the table below, make a tally of the recyclable items your household can collect over the next 2 weeks. Then write the final number in the third column. In the last column, name the category you would put the item in according to the type of material it is made of. Item Tally Final number Category

2. In the table on the next page: - list the items in the first column under category headings (those you named in the table above). - write the final number of each of the items in the second column. - complete the table by making one item in each category the standard (with a weighting of 1), then giving weights to the other items in that category. - calculate the relative contribution of each item to the category total by using the last 2 columns.
2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling
Item Number Weighting Number x Weight %

2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling
Picture graphs and column graphs The graph below is a picture graph of someones recyclable items. Each icon (picture symbol) is used to represent one item. If there are many similar items to represent, each picture symbol can be made to represent more than one of that item. If this is done, a key must be given. 1. Suggest how you could improve the graph below so it is easier to see the relative numbers of items in each category.

2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling
2. Make a column graph of the data given in the picture graph on the previous page.

3. Categorise your own recycling data in some way. Show the number of items in each category by making: a) a picture graph b) a column graph
2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Number of items

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling
Divided bar graphs and sector graphs Divided bar graphs and sector graphs are used to show relative values. The table on page 3 gives the relative contribution of different items to the total weight of each category eg. the relative weight of small glass bottles, large glass bottles and glass jars to the total weight of the glass. This bar graph below shows the data for the glass category. GLASS
Small bottles 22% Large bottles 66% Jars 11%

1. Draw 3 more bar graphs to show the contribution of different items to the weight of the metal, plastic and processed wood categories as given in the table. (See page 3.)

METAL

PLASTIC

The graph for the processed wood category has some small item categories. Combine item categories into 2 categories - cardboard and paper. PROCESSED WOOD

2. Draw a series of bar graphs like those above to represent your own recycling data. 3. Using a computer program, represent your own data using sector graphs (i.e. pie charts).

2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling
Recycling on the farm For recycling to be economically feasible and environmentally effective, there needs to be an effective system in place. Recycling on a farm differs from recycling in a town because it is not as efficient to transport items long distances either for recycling or for landfill. Also, pollution caused by incineration (i.e. burning up) is not as damaging to human health if it is done in an isolated location. The most dangerous items on farms are the chemicals used for crop production (e.g. herbicides) and animal health (e.g. drenches). drumMUSTER is a recycling system that was put in place in February, 1999 to enable farmers to dispose of their empty chemical containers. 1. Think about ways in which items on farms can be recycled on the farm. Describe one of these ways.

2. The graph below is from the drumMUSTER website (http://www.drummuster.com.au). The graph claims to shows the number of national returns (i.e. containers that were collected nation-wide) in to the program over the first 10 years of its operation.

a) In 2009, the website stated that Since the inception of the program in May 1999 there have been 13,075,904 containers collected across Australia. Does the graph show an increase in the number of containers collected in a year compared to the number collected during the previous year? Give a reason for your answer.

2009 Macquarie University ASISTM project

Working Mathematically in a rural context

Recycling

b) Initially, only containers of hazardous chemicals were accepted by the drumMUSTER program. During 2003, the program began to accept previously non-eligible containers that contain nonhazardous chemicals. This change of policy was expected to result in more containers being accepted. Is there any evidence of this from the graph? Give a reason for your answer.

2009 Macquarie University Mathematically ASISTM project

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Working in a rural context

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