Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Part A: The waste hierarchy

20 minutes

Part B: Identifying our impact

15 minutes

Part C: The reduce and re-use home challenge

5 minutes

Reflection

Part A: The waste hierarchy

Step 1

Begin this lesson by posing the following question to students:

What is the problem with waste?

Work with students to create a mind map to explore the answers to this question. For example:

Step 2

Show students this image:

Discuss students’ understanding of this lifecycle of materials.

The main points are:

Raw materials have to be continuously extracted from the environment.
Single-use items, especially plastics, as well as items that are thrown into landfill and not recycled end up in the environment for a very long time. These resources are lost to the system while also negatively impacting the environment.

Step 3

Compare this to a closed-loop waste management system, also known as the circular economy.

Provisions for Learning Extension: Visit the Australian Circular Economy Hub website (https://acehub.org.au/) for a more complicated but engaging explanation of this model.

In this case products that are no longer needed are put into the recycling bin and are then remanufactured into new products that can be used. In this way we don’t need to extract new resources from our environment and we don’t create waste that pollutes our environment.

Step 4.

Briefly introduce the concept of the ARL to students, showing them these images:

The Australasian Recycling Labels with text to explain their meaning

We will be going into much greater depth in following lessons, but for now explain that Planet Ark has created an evidence-based system called the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) to help us know how to dispose of and recycle our packaging correctly. They know Australians and New Zealanders care about the environment and want to do the right thing. But with hundreds of recycling labels out there, getting recycling right can be confusing and even recycling gurus get it wrong.

The ARL removes recycling confusion by explaining what we should do with different types of packaging.

This reduces the amount of material that ends up in landfill from being improperly recycled.

Step 4

However, recycling is not at the top of our waste hierarchy. It’s a good option, but it’s not the first one our minds should go to when we think about how to reduce our impact on the environment.

Create another mind map, but this time focused on some ways we could create less waste.

For example:

Step 5.

Show students this image:

The suggestions from students above will fall into the first two categories:

Reduce as much of your consumption as possible. That is, how can we create less demand for materials through our usage and purchasing habits?

Re-use if possible. Do we need a fresh new water bottle from the supermarket every time we want to drink water? Even if we recycle the bottle every time, it is better to use a bottle that has been designed to be re-used over and over so that waste is not generated in the first place.

Re-usable products, such as water bottles, lunch boxes and green bags, are typically made of stronger materials than those that are made to be used just once. They need to be stronger if they are going to withstand cleaning and re-use. The important thing to think about with these products is that when we buy these re-usable products, we need to make sure we use them as many times as possible. Not using these items as many times as possible means we can't justify the expenditure in heavy-duty materials to make them; in other words, we are still wasting materials.

Only then do we recycle.

Remember: Recycling isn’t bad, but it’s not our preferred option.

Step 6

Discuss with students where these items fit within the hierarchy:

Water bottle.
Straws (plastic and paper).
Lunch boxes.
Plastic takeaway containers.
Cardboard boxes.
Plastic food wrap.
Fresh printer paper.
Coffee cups.

Many of these have been kept deliberately vague, and you’ll be able to assess your students’ understanding of this lesson by determining their responses to such open-ended prompts. Hopefully they will be able to discuss how many of these items have been replaced with more durable, re-usable alternatives and that many are still recyclable even if they are single-use.

However, what was at the top of the hierarchy and considered best practice?