Preparation:
Key questions on the board:
"What is waste?"
"What happens to our waste?"
"How much waste do we produce in school?"
"What could/should we do to reduce the amount of waste we make in school?"

Prepared display or OHT of percentages of types of waste in our dustbins:
Click here to download a
Information sheet on types of waste in present day and Victorians dustbins.
(Microsoft Word Document)

Example of display showing information about the contents of a typical dustbin in Kent.

The contents of a typical dustbin in Kent: kitchen and garden 31% paper and card 21% soil 13% plastics 9% miscellaneous 7% glass 6% metals 6% nappies 5% textiles 2% (Source: Wastebusting Schools Pack KCC 2001)

Remember to ask your Site Manager to put all of the school's rubbish from the previous day in your room ready for weighing.

Resources: Recording sheet: low impact lunchbox investigation 1 (Microsoft Word document) Digital scales/bathroom scales Kilogram weights Ream of paper (pack of 500 A4 sheets)	Related texts: 'Viewpoints on waste' by Rodney Martin (Magic Bean Big Book) 'Dinosaurs and all that rubbish' by Michael Foreman (Picture Puffins) 'What a load of rubbish! by Steve Skidmore (Spaceship Earth series by Cassell) 'Green Poems' edited by John Foster (OUP) Wastebusting Schools Pack KCC 2001
		This resource folder was produced for and distributed to all schools in Kent.

Diary: Morning Session
1) What is waste? Brainstorm definitions of the term - ask for synonyms. As an extension, some pupils could check in a dictionary and thesaurus to compare their ideas.

2) What happens to our waste? Imagine the story of a crisp packet, ask pupils to say what happens to it once the crisps have been eaten. Draw a flow diagram with two alternative endings - landfill site or recycling centre.
Click here for photos of a household recycling centre.

'What are the problems with landfill sites?'
(Elicit...smelly, encourage rats/flies/health hazard, toxins leach into soil, then water, then foodchain, uses valuable space etc.) 'Would you like to live next to one?'

Study the breakdown of a typical household's dustbin, use information from display or OHT highlighting the contents of a typical Kent dustbin.
'Which items could have been recycled?' (Elicit... most of them.)

Click here for photos of a household recycling centre.

Highlight the problem of items that don't biodegrade, e.g. use disposable nappies as a case study:

'How long do you think it takes for a nappy to rot away?'
Encourage children to make their own predictions, they may range from a few days to several years if they're feeling bold!
'If you said 5 years you were quite close… except you forgot to add a zero! Oh, and another zero!'

Most children will be shocked by this estimate of 500 years and the fact that we will all be long gone before the nappy is!
To explore this further try out some more number crunching (using a calculator if necessary).

'It has been estimated that babies, on average, wear 6500 nappies in their nappy-wearing lifetime and that 15,000 babies are born in Kent every year. How many nappies does that mean will be used in total?'
A shocking 97,500,000 by one cohort of babies alone!
'In addition, to make one disposable nappy, one cupful of crude oil is used - where does this come from? What will happen when it runs out?
What is an alternative to using disposable nappies? Why don't many people choose this option?'

(Source: Wastebusting Schools Pack KCC 2001)

3) How much waste do we produce in School?
(Remember, you will have needed to ask for all of the previous day's rubbish to have been left in your room for this!)
Ask the children to predict how much rubbish is made in one day at school.
Weigh the binbags (you might find it easier to ask a child to hold each bag in turn and then deduct their weight, and it involves more mental maths!)
'How could we work out how much we might make in one week?' (remember to multiply by 5 only.)
With older pupils you could discuss why this may not give a true reflection of what you actually produce (your sample day may have been unusually light/heavy)
'Do you think that our school bins will have a similar mix as our home bins?' (probably not - much more paper thrown away at school.)
'How much does paper actually weigh?' (under 5g per sheet)
Let the children hold a kg weight. Try weighing a ream of paper and working out approximately how many sheets of paper were thrown away yesterday.

4) What could/should we do to reduce the amount of waste we make in school?
Let the children brainstorm ideas with a partner and then feed back to the rest of the class.e.g.:

• Use both sides of the paper (including teachers if they photocopy worksheets)
  
• Shred paper for use as hamster bedding
  
• Buy things loose or with as little packaging as possible
  
• Switch off lights/taps when not in use
  
• Only use one or two paper towels when drying hands
  
  See www.wastewatch.org.uk/school-k/kidssmain.html for more ideas.
  
  

Possible follow-up activities:

Literacy links
Ask pupils to produce a persuasive poster to encourage people in school to reduce the amount of paper they use. Produce a non-chronological report or information leaflet highlighting the problems and offering some possible solutions.

Examples of children's posters which were displayed around the school to encourage everyone to be more environmentally friendly.

History links: WWII Make comparisons with WWII campaigns e.g. 'Make do and mend' 'The Squanderbug' and 'Waste not, want not' - study propaganda posters and produce a modern-day equivalent.
	Example of children's modern day propaganda posters.

History links: Victorians
Make comparisons with the refuse thrown out in Victorian times
Click here to download a
Information sheet on types of waste in present day and Victorians dustbins.
(Microsoft Word Document)
Click here to see
Victorian waste activity sheet (Microsoft Word Document)

	The contents of a typical victorian dustbin: Fines (dust,ash,cinders) 57% Paper 15% Kitchen and Garden Waste 13% Miscellaneous 6% Metal 4% Glass 3% Textiles 2% (Source: Wastebusting Schools Pack KCC 2001)
Display showing information about Victorian bins and key questions: Did the Victorians make as much rubbish as we do now? Which materials do we throw away more of? Which materials appear in our bins and not in the Victorians' bins? Why did the Victorians have so much ash and cinders in their bins?

Diary: Afternoon Session

Low impact lunchbox investigation
Click here to see detailed information on the
Low impact lunch investigation
(Microsoft Word Document)

Children sort the waste to be thrown away...	the materials that can be reused or recycled...	and then weigh each group and record the data.