Background Information

Educator Information: What do you do with the things you no longer want or need, such as the packaging from the food you buy or bottles you drink from? Many of us have grown up thinking of this as 'waste', as something we need to just get rid of. But what if we think of these materials as a resource for creating new and useful products? What if we can re-imagine how we think about and use these materials?

Thinking of waste items as the resources required for creating new products is a great way to shift our thinking about what we should do with these materials. Recycling is key to this thinking as it means we can keep returning recyclables to the recycling system to be re-manufactured without requiring the extraction of natural resources from our environment: this is called 'closing the loop'. Closed-loop recycling assumes that materials will be re-manufactured over and over again, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill and the number of natural resources extracted from the earth.

What does this mean for us? All it takes is putting the correct recyclables in the right bin. But why do it? There are a number of reasons and they're all very important:

When left in our environment, some types of waste - such as plastic waste - can leach chemicals into the environment, harming plants and animals. In the ocean, some marine animals mistake plastic waste for food and eat it. And some animals eat so much plastic they die of malnutrition. In addition, the chemicals that leach from the plastic can enter the food chain, being consumed by other animals and eventually people.
All the raw materials required to make any of the goods that we use come from resources that are finite, meaning that once they run out you won’t be able to get them back. Recycling means we can recover resources and find innovative ways to re-use these items over and over again.
Getting the raw materials to make products uses more energy than recycling. Take aluminium cans, for example. Making an aluminium can from recycled aluminium cans only takes 5% of the energy that is required to make aluminium products from raw materials (source). What about paper? Sure, we can always grow more trees to make more paper but growing more trees requires water and energy.
Recycling reduces the amount of waste going to landfill. Less waste in landfill is less waste in our environment, which is better for everyone.
By recycling in the right way we can increase the amount of materials recovered and reused to make new products. In this way, we can all contribute to closing the loop and enabling materials to be reused over and over again.

What is the future of the stuff we no longer want or need? By following a closed-loop principle, we are securing a future where there is no waste, only resources. To not re-think, re-imagine and re-manufacture these resources would be a wasted opportunity.

Information about Visy: This activity has been developed in partnership with Visy. For over 70 years Visy has been committed to finding sustainable solutions for Australia’s recyclables and helping to reduce local landfills. Visy collects, receives and sorts paper, cardboard, glass, plastics, steel and aluminium from households, businesses and schools with the purpose of reusing these products in the re-manufacture of new packaging products.

Many of us are familiar with the terms 'reduce, reuse and recycle' or even 'refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle'. In these statements 'recycle' is the final step. However, at Visy there is a unique, local dedication to their recycling with the aim to recover and re-use as much material as possible to 're-manufacture' those materials back into recyclable packaging within their own operations. This model helps demonstrate how the materials we place in the recycling bin can be remade into new products, which, once no longer needed, can again be recycled and re-manufactured. This is core to the idea behind closed-loop recycling; that the materials and resources we use in our day to day lives can be re-manufactured and reused over and over again.

Definitions:

Recycling – Recycling is a process of re-manufacturing materials into new materials or products ready to be used again. This prevents the waste of useful materials, natural resources and human-produced resources
Waste/Rubbish – Stuff we no longer want or need.
Compost – Decayed organic materials (like food scraps or green waste) that can be used as a fertiliser for the garden.
Environment – Our environment is all the plants and animals (including people) on Earth, and all the things that are needed to keep the plants and animals alive, such as the air, water, soil and sunshine.
Sustainability – Sustainability is about making sure there is enough for our environment and for everyone on earth, both now and in the future.

New words for children to learn:

Recycling
Waste
Compost

Ages 0 to 2

Preparation:

Collect a range of familiar objects, including waste and recyclables, such as:

Familiar objects – toys, water bottles, clean paper, cushions, books etc.
Waste and recyclables – Food scraps (in a sealed tub), newspapers or used paper, empty food containers (cleaned and sharp edges covered in masking tape), food wrappers, broken toys and books etc.

Activity:

Begin by arranging the materials you have collected on the floor and invite children to sit around the objects. As a group, work through each of the items by discussing:

What the item is
What it is/was used for
What it is made from
What colours it has on it
Any other features.

Allow children time to use their senses to investigate each of the items.

Now invite children to suggest answers to the following:

I wonder which of these items should go in the bin?
I wonder why we should put things in the bin?

Work with children to investigate each item, deciding which of these items are rubbish and why they might be rubbish (e.g. Is it broken? Is it empty? Do we no longer need it?). As children investigate these objects, talk to them about which bin they might use, such as the recycling bin, rubbish bin, or compost/worm/chook bin, explaining what each of these bins is for:

Recycling bin – For things like paper, plastic, metal and glass. These things can be recycled, meaning they can be turned into something new that can be used again, before being recycled again and used again, and so on. Contact your local council about what items are collected for recycling in your area.
Compost/worm/chook bin – For food scraps that can be given to chooks or worms to eat, or that can be turned into compost for the garden.
Rubbish bin – For things that can't be recycled or given to the compost/chooks/worms. See the Recycling Factsheet or this poster for more information.

Take it further: Consider displaying the Litter Flashcards to children and invite them to point out where the rubbish is. You can use the prompts on the flashcards to guide further discussion.

Provocations:

I wonder what this is?
I wonder what this was used for?
I wonder what this is made from?
I wonder what colours this has on it?
I wonder what else is interesting about this thing?
I wonder which of these items should go in the bin?
I wonder why we should put things in the bin?
I wonder which bin this should go in?

Possible lines of development:

Investigate waste and recycling further with these activities: What is it made from? And What is recycling?
Can you make anything from the waste and recycling materials you collected? Can you repair any of the broken toys or books? Invite children to help you with repairs, and encourage them to alert you to broken toys and books for repair.
Being safe with waste ('Remember to wash your hands after touching rubbish' and 'Beware of sharp glass or metal').
Work with children to make new signs for your bins.

Ages 3 to 5

Preparation:

Arrange your rubbish, recycling and compost bins in a place accessible to children.
Collect a range of waste materials, such as cans, milk cartons and bottles, glass jars and lids, old newspapers, old clothes, broken toys, and food scraps in sealed containers.

Activity:

Begin by inviting children to respond to the following question:

I wonder what rubbish is?

Through your discussion lead children to the idea that waste is stuff that we no longer want or need. Continue by explaining that there are lots of different reasons why we might no longer want or need something.

You can then suggest to children that just because you no longer want or need an item, it doesn't mean that it's not useful anymore. Maybe someone else could use it or it could be used for something else.

One by one, show children the waste materials you have collected and invite them to suggest reasons why each item might be rubbish – why we no longer want or need the item. Can they think of any other things that could happen to these items, instead of just placing them straight into the bin? For example:

Can – The can is empty; we have eaten what was inside the can and we don't need the can anymore. What could we use it for instead? Can we store something in it?
Newspaper – We have read the newspaper and we don't need to keep it. What could we use if for now? Can we use it to make papier mache?
Old clothes – The clothes are too small for us now and we don't need them anymore. What could we do with these? Can we give them to someone else?
Food scraps – We are full and can't eat any more. What could we do with these?
Broken toy – The toy is broken and we can't play with it anymore. What could we do with these? Can we repair the toy or use it in a different way?

If items can't be used in a new or different way, invite children to suggest where each of these items should go. For example:

I wonder where we should put our rubbish?
I wonder if we should leave it on the floor, on the table or outside?

You can use the Litter Flashcards to stimulate further discussion around why leaving our rubbish outside can be harmful to our environment.

You could then invite children to suggest answers to the following:

I wonder if we should put the rubbish in the bin?
I wonder which bin we should put it in?

Explain to children that there are many types of rubbish that we can recycle. Recycling means turning our rubbish into something new that we will want and need. However, in order for this to happen, we need to make sure our rubbish goes into the correct bin, otherwise, our rubbish might just end up going into a big rubbish dump (you can use this landfill Image to show children what a rubbish dump looks like).

Now lead children to your bins and invite them to place the waste materials you collected into the correct bins, talking to them about what types of rubbish go into which bins. Use the Recycling Factsheet or this poster to help you understand what we can and can't put in the recycling bin.

Provocations:

I wonder what rubbish is?
I wonder where we should put our rubbish?
I wonder if we should leave it on the floor, on the table or outside?
I wonder if our rubbish is good or bad for our environment?
I wonder if we should put the rubbish in the bin?
I wonder which bin we should put it in?
I wonder why we should try to recycle our rubbish?
I wonder which bins we should put our different types of rubbish into?

Possible lines of development:

Being safe with waste.
Go for a walk in your local park to collect rubbish - can any of the materials you collect be recycled?
Reuse some of your waste items for craft activities - Reusing Materials Activities.
Identify toys or other equipment at your centre that are broken or nearly broken, and involve children in repairing these items rather than throwing them away.
Watch Busta and Pong's Recycling Song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR3eHSADIsE) with children.
Investigate waste and recycling further with these activities: What is it made from? And What is recycling?

Evaluation

Complete an analysis of learning listing evidence about:

Belonging	Finding something of interest
Communication	Expressing an idea or feeling
Exploration	Engaging with challenges and persisting when difficulties arise
Wellbeing	Being involved

Embedding into daily practice

Contact your council to find out what materials your council collects through kerbside collection
Provide families with tips or suggestions on ways to increase recycling rates at home
Review your purchasing habits and buy products with recycled content (e.g. toilet paper and paper towel)
Work with other rooms at your service to ensure your bin system and recycling policy is consistent throughout
Arrange for families to take your food scraps home for chooks or for composting.

The information and statistics included in this document are approximate and have been simplified for educational/illustrative purposes. They should not be relied upon for any other purpose.

Visy Education - What Goes in That Bin?

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