Being Bin Wise

Year 8 science at St Agnes Rooty Hill

Year 8 students, as part of their science lessons for the Unit of Earth and Space, had a guest speaker speak to them about 'Material Matters'. This discussion focused on the importance of conserving natural resources by using our household bins.

Students learned about some facts, such as:

Recycling everything in the yellow bin effectively leads to 75% reduction in the amount of rubbish send to landfill.
Every tonne of paper recycled saves 13 trees. Glass recycled (no ceramics) is used to make bricks and road surface.
Energy saved from recycling just one glass bottle is enough to power a computer for 25 minutes.
1 recycled plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60 watt light for 3 hours. 125 milk bottles are used to make one bin at home.
Steel cans are recycled to make paper clips, cars or new cans and this saves 60-70% of energy.

This science incursion has helped the school community to become bin wise and be informed regarding the global and local issues faced by us. Students learned about challenges faced currently and in future. They were able to come up with solutions to some of these problems. We hope this initiative continues beyond our school.

Student Reflection:

Do you care about our environment and all the living organisms in it? Then you best read this. One person produces 3.5 kilograms of waste every week. If the rubbish is not segregated properly, we will run out of landfill space (landfill is how we choose to dispose of our waste instead of incinerating it, it is basically a huge pit of rubbish) by 2017 - in two years!

Recycling as much as possible can help reduce 75% of what we send to landfill. Australia is the second highest producer of waste in the world. This is because we are a throw-away society, which means that every time something breaks, we don't bother fixing it but throw it away, or when a new model of something comes out, we buy it and throw away the old model, even if it isn't broken. To know what type of plastic to place in the recycling bin use the crunch test. If you can crunch the plastic in your hand you can put it in the yellow recycling bin BUT NEVER put plastic bags, biscuit trays and lolly bags in the yellow bin. Plastic bags, biscuit trays and lolly bags can be returned to our supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworths.

By returning these, we can help make plastic chairs and the reusable bags that you buy at the supermarket. Some councils have a red bin and a green bin to sort their rubbish into. A green bin is to put organic wastes in such as food scraps, garden scraps and dog or cat litter. In the red bin everything else can be placed. It is important to put the right rubbish in the right bin so unnecessary items don't go to landfill and you make the lives of the people working at Cleanaway (Blacktown Council's chosen recycling company) easier. The effects of not putting rubbish in the right bin can be catastrophic because greenhouse gases will create global warming and melt the polar caps and may cause polar animals to be extinct in the wild. So it is important to put rubbish in the right bin not just to save money and space, but to save lives as well.

More information on Recycling