What is waste?

Waste is anything that you throw into a bin, something you don’t want
anymore, or something that you have too much of.

Waste can be solid for example; plastic bottles, an old tyre,

Examples of solid waste 1 ____________________________

2 ____________________________

3 ____________________________

Waste can also be liquid or a gas. An example of liquid waste is the oil from a car when the
mechanic does an oil change. This is not just thrown down a drain it is placed into a special
container and it is taken away and disposed of correctly so that it doesn’t affect the
environment.

There are Three areas that waste is collected from

1. Households – the rubbish that is put out each week in large bins.
2. Businesses – this is rubbish that is collected from construction sites and
other businesses.
3. Factories – this sort of waste is often dangerous which can affect other
people’s health or the environment. These are often liquids and gases.

These are also known as waste streams

What did Australia do with its waste?

Australia uses landfill as a way to dispose its waste or rubbish (but this is not the only way).
A landfill is also known as the ‘tip’ or ‘rubbish dump’. This is the oldest way to dispose of
rubbish and some countries still use landfill as the only way to deal with their country’s
waste.

This way of removing waste has become dangerous and very

bad for the environment. So Australia along with other
countries have needed to come up with better ideas for
removing waste.

Twenty years ago Australia focused on recycling. This had

some success reducing the amount of landfill, but not enough.

Questions

1. What is waste? _____________________________________________________

2. What three areas is waste mainly collected from? ______________

_________________________ ____________________

3. What is a landfill? ___________________________________________________

 Recycling

You may have seen these symbols or pictures. They mean to recycle
or that the product can be recycled
 Recycling waste
The highest goal for waste management is to create no waste. Between recycling and
landfill there are also different ways we can reduce waste.

Councils now have different bins for different waste. One of these is for everyday rubbish,
another is for recycling and some councils even have bins for things such as grass and
leaves.

You can even recycle your vegetable and fruit scraps. How? Worm farming is a simple way
of converting food scraps into compost. This is a rich fertiliser that can then be placed onto
your vegetables or flowers which help them grow.

Name three things you would place into your general garbage bin.

1. ______________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________

Name three things you would place into a recycle bin.

1. ______________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________

More than 30% of our waste is packaging materials. Where does it all go? Some 85% of our
garbage is sent to a dump, or landfill, where it can take from 100 to 400 years for things like
cloth and aluminium to decompose. Glass has been found in perfect condition after 4,000
years in the earth!

We are quickly running out of space. It's time to

learn the three R's of the environment: Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle.
Don't buy things you don't need or items that come
in wasteful packaging or that cannot be recycled.
Reuse and recycle whatever you can.
 Vocabulary and meaning
Recycle – to reuse waste or rubbish so it can be used again

Packaging – The wrapping or container used to store an item in

Landfill – a site where rubbish is buried

Strategies – a plan of action to solve a problem

Waste – unwanted or unusable items that is thrown away

Environment – the natural world

Fertiliser – Is usually added to dirt to make plants gow

Technology – the knowledge, skill, machinery or equipment to cerate

something

Cyber – The internet

e-waste – waste that comes from old internets and other technology

radioactive waste – radiation is a substance that comes from nuclear energy

natural resources – are things that happen naturally, for example water is a
natural resource

Plantation – a large area that has been planted with certain trees or plants .

Non – renewable resource - a natural resource which cannot be produced,

grown.

Litter – rubbish that has been left on the ground, usually in public places
 Know your 3 R’s!!
Directions:
First, find the letters that match the symbols in the Secret Code
Box.

Next, write the matching letters below the symbols. Good luck!

Secret code box

R= S=
A = U= 

Secret Message
edce,  Ee, ecycle tody
_ed_ce _ e _ _ e, _ ecycle tod_y
When yo throw le w y
When yo_ throw le_ _ _w_ y
The Plnt nd niml hot
The Pl_ nt _ _nd _NIM _ L _ _HO_T
HOO Y!
HOO_ _Y!
 Write out the sentences below in the correct order. The first one has been started to help you.
From the recycling centre they go to factories to be
made into new, recycled things.
At home you put things like cans, plastic bottles and
paper in your recycling.
You can buy the recycled things in the shops.
The materials are taken to a recycling centre.
Recycled cans, plastic bottles and paper can be
recycled over and over again.
The box or bin is emptied.
The new cans, bottles and paper go to shops
At home_______________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
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 Paper recycling
In Australia we use 7 million tonnes of paper every year and half of that us
collected for recycling.

Nearly all types of paper can be recycled, but there are some that cannot.

These are paper that has a wax coating on it, tissue paper, fax paper, and
paper used in plasterboard.

In 2004 Australians used over 700,000 tonnes in newsprint (magazines and

newspaper). Australia has one of the highest newspaper recycling rates in the
world. Australia recycles around 75% of it newsprint.

Every tonne of recycled newsprint saves

 2.5 barrels of oil

 4100 kilowatts of electricity
 4 cubic metres of landfill
 31,780 litres of water

Most of the recycled newsprint are de-inked and made

into fresh newspapers or magazines; the rest is used to make things such as
cardboard, egg cartons or other similar products.

Paper is made from a natural resource: TREES.

Australian made newspapers have between 20-40% recycled paper and the
rest comes from the Radiata pine or the Eucalypt plantations.

Recycling 1 tonne of paper saves 13 trees.

17 trees can absorb the gases that come out of 1 car

each year.
One paper mill company in Australia that is helping to reduce paper
waste is Visy. This company collects about 850,000 tonnes of paper
and cardboard every year. This company mainly makes recycled
cardboard boxes. The mill makes 300,000 tonnes of pulp (crushed
wood and other materials that is used to make paper). 240,000
tonnes of this from tree plantations, while the other 60,000 is made
from recycled paper

What can I do to help with paper recycling?

What is paper made from? ______________________

What things made from paper are most commonly

recycled?
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________

Where do you paper to be recycled?

____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________

What are they recycled into?

____________________________________________
______

What paper can’t be recycled?

____________________________________________
______

By recycling paper we -
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________

How much pulp does the mill produce?

___________________
How much water does recycling one tonne of paper save?

What is a benefit of saving trees?

____________________________________________
______

Recycling plastic bags.

Plastic bags are made from non-renewable resources. Plastic bags are also
non-biodegradable which means they can’t be recycled or are not
environmentally friendly. Plastic bags can last from 15-1000 years in the
environment.

80 million plastic bags end up as litter, and cost Australia around $200 million
to clean up. The damage this causes the environment is quite terrible. In the
oceans they are deadly to many sea animals. For example turtles confuse
plastic bags for jelly fish which is their favourite food.

On page 236 there are two animals that suffered due to plastic bags.

1. What happened to Pete the pelican?

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
2. What made Pete the platypus lucky?
 ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

Interesting facts

Platypus - Platypuses spend most of their time alone, sleeping or eating. They feed in the
water at night, frantically swimming around with their eyes and ears closed, using their bill to search for their favourite
foods: insect larvae, shellfish, and worms. Their mouth has no teeth. Instead, a pad of rough skin near their throat grinds
up food before swallowing.

Pelican - Australian pelicans are large, black and white birds with massive pouched
bills. The bird’s pouch is used mainly as a ‘scoop net’ for catching small fish and shrimps, rarely for carrying
them

SO what can we do?

As with any issues there are many opinions and strategies about plastic bags
that have been discussed.

Look at page 237 and what different people in different companies have said.

Phillip Weickhardt from the Productivity Commission says that the facts are
not really clear about what happens to the animals because of plastic bags.

John Dee from Planet Ark says plastic bags are the only kind of litter that kills
animals in the ocean and that it is the only sort of litter than can also kill cows.
So John Dee thinks Phillip doesn’t know what he is talking about.

Alex Hills from Anti-Bag Campaigner says that he has seen other countries put
total bans on plastic bags and has seen how well this improved the
environment.

Michael Catchpole from Plastics & Chemicals Industry says that bags have
been made to look bad by making people feel bad for the animals. He believes
that plastic bags have a use and shouldn’t stop using them.

What do you think?

Write a sentence on which opinion you think is the best one and why
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Steps you can take to reduce plastic bags.
1. Reuse plastic bags
2. Reduce the number you use
3. Reuse the bags you have
4. Recycle those you can’t use.
Action taken by groups and governments
1. In 2002 Coles Bay in Tasmania became the first plastic bag free town in
Australia
2. In 2003 Kangaroo Valley a town down the south coast of New South
Wales BANNED plastic bags
3. In 2004 Oyster Bay became the first suburb in Sydney to announce it
would become plastic bag free.

How many plastic bags end up as litter each year?

________________________________________________________

Which was the first plastic bag free community in Australia?

________________________________________________________

How long do plastic bags last in the environment?

________________________________________________________

On page 237 there is a box called Geography focus, what killed the
whale?

________________________________________________________
Give an example of what you can do to reduce plastic bag waste

________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________