Where does waste come from and where does it go?

Year level: Upper primary/Lower secondary Learning outcomes Students identify a waste stream. Rubbish bin audit Conduct an audit of your household or school waste for two weeks. List and categorise items into materials, for example steel, aluminium, glass, paper, food waste, etc. Take special care when handling waste. Wear protective clothing to reduce risk of injury or contact with putrescible waste such as food scraps. Make a bar graph to show amounts of each category. Make an action plan to reduce some of this waste by using alternatives that can be reused, refilled or recycled. Komiti Tumama activity This activity is used by the Komiti Tumama in Samoa to educate people about waste in the environment. Pick an area in the local environment that attracts rubbish. Visit it every day for a week. Write down all the different pieces of rubbish you can find and collect the inorganic rubbish and identify its origins. What is it made of? What happens to this rubbish? (for example rot, rust, pollute) What can you do with it? What should happen to it? How did it get there? Why might it have been left there? What solutions can you think of that would stop waste being dumped in this place? What can you do about the problem? Building a waste map Organise a series of field trips and visiting speakers for the class. Visit a local landfill site, waste transfer station, recycling factory, local council depot. Invite local environmental officers or activists, council officers, industry representative to speak about local waste issues including environmental impacts such as those from old dump sites. Create a map or mural that tracks community waste from beginning to end. Include all aspects of the waste stream from large items or quantities, such as cars and appliancesor building materials, chemicals, food and paper. Map from the origin of the material, for example mining or forestry to its final resting or recycling place. Organise for the map or mural to be displayed in the local library. Assessment task Give one recent improvement in waste management and one problem you have identified that is yet to be addressed and state why these are important.