Managing Waste in your Community Managing Waste in your Community – Education Kit This information kit has been adapted by the Southern Waste Strategy Authority from fact sheets developed by the Gould League in consultation with EcoRecycle Victoria. The kind permission of EcoRecycle Victoria is acknowledged in publishing this material. Contents Page 1. Introduction 2 2. How to Use the Package 2 3. Fact Sheets 3 3.1 Garbage 4 3.2 Recycling Snapshot 7 3.3 The 3 R’s – Reduce, Reuse & Recycle 11 3.4 Waste Tips 14 3.5 Paper Recycling 16 3.6 Plastic Recycling 19 3.7 Glass Recycling 23 3.8 Steel Can Recycling 25 3.9 Aluminium Recycling 27 3.10 Milk & Juice Carton Recycling 29 3.11 Home Composting 31 3.12 Resources 38 3.13 Key Contacts 40 4. Appendix 42 A. Managing Waste in your Community – Lesson Guide B. Managing Waste in your Community – Student Worksheet C. Managing Waste in your Community – Teacher Worksheet D. Managing Waste in your Community – Cue Cards Managing Waste in your Community – Education Kit ________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction What is the Southern Waste Strategy Authority? The SWSA is a Local Government Joint Authority, formed by the twelve southern Tasmanian councils, to implement a comprehensive waste management strategy throughout the region. Based on the widely recognised principles of 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle', better known as the Waste Management Hierarchy, the strategy aims, amongst other things, to raise community awareness of, and participation in sound waste management practices. Schools can play an important role in this awareness and participation process, through the dissemination of information to students, who will in turn, spread the message into the home and greater community. This kit aims to offer a snapshot of waste management practices in Australia, and provides educators in southern Tasmania the resources to tailor a program to local conditions and to the needs of their students. 2. How to Use the Package Included in this package are a variety of resources designed to give educators flexibility with regard to teaching styles. The package can be adapted for use across the K - 12 curriculum, with the scope for use only limited by the teacher’s imagination. Detailed information is available on the fact sheets, which can either be photocopied and distributed amongst the students, or used as background information by the teacher. A laminated set of cue cards, depicting photos of common household items has been included. These work in conjunction with the “Managing Waste in your Community” worksheets that are included. The package can be downloaded from the SWSA website www.southernwaste.com.au, which contains other information relevant to schools in southern Tasmania, including Case Studies, Links, Programs, etc. Teachers are invited and encouraged to submit their own lesson plans to the SWSA, which incorporate aspects of this package. These will then be made available via the Authority’s website, for use by all schools. 2 Managing Waste in your Community – Education Kit ________________________________________________________________________ 3. Fact Sheets 3 Managing Waste in your Community – Education Kit ________________________________________________________________________ 3.1 Garbage Did you know? In Australia • Australians create about 28 million tonnes of garbage every year. Just over one third of this material is recovered for recycling. (WCS Market Intelligence 2001) • Australia is also one of the highest producers of waste per head of population in the world. In 1999, Australia ranked second, behind the USA, in terms of domestic waste generation. (Australia State of the Environment Committee 2001) We all produce garbage as a part of everyday living but we do not normally think too much about it. We just put our bins out every week and the council arranges for someone to pick up the garbage and take it away. However, we all need to start thinking about the things we throw away because garbage disposal has become a major economic and environmental problem for us in the 21st century. The history of garbage in Australia The original inhabitants of Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, produced very little garbage. In coastal regions, archaeologists have found piles of debris at Aboriginal campsites, called shell middens. All that is found today in these middens are bones, shells and discarded bone and stone tools. The wet organic waste rotted away naturally. The early European settlers in Australia also produced little garbage; things were too hard to get in the first place. Most food scraps were either fed to dogs, pigs and chickens, or used as compost in the gardens. Until a few generations ago, garbage was not a major problem in Australia, mainly because people did not produce much garbage and there were plenty of places to dispose of what was produced. In those days, people did not throw out much garbage for a number of reasons. • there was little unnecessary packaging • bottles for milk, beer and soft drink were refilled • food scraps were either fed to the dogs and chooks or composted with garden waste • a lot of garbage was burnt in backyard incinerators • children’s clothes were passed on to younger children • broken shoes, toys, tools and utensils were repaired rather than thrown away. Any garbage that could not be reused, refilled, recycled, burnt, given away or fixed was placed out in metal bins (called dustbins), collected by ‘dustmen’ and taken to council landfill sites. These ‘tips’ were usually old quarries and, when filled, were often converted into recreational areas. Garbage today Since the 1970s garbage has become an increasing and major problem, mainly due to lifestyle changes and people throwing away more and more. Going to the supermarket has replaced home delivery from small neighbourhood shops, resulting in the use of more packaging and non- refillable containers. Disposable products have replaced reusable products, for example, tissues replaced handkerchiefs. Convenience and takeaway food and drinks with disposable packaging also result in more garbage. 4 Managing Waste in your Community – Education Kit ________________________________________________________________________ More efficient manufacturing practices have produced cheaper household appliances and tools, so it is often cheaper to buy a new product than fix a broken one. Fewer people keep chickens and most pets are fed on packaged pet food rather than family scraps. With concerns over air pollution, many councils have banned backyard incinerators. A survey conducted by the Southern Waste Strategy Authority (SWSA) in 2002, estimated that in metropolitan Hobart, each household disposed of 2.5kg of recyclables and 7.5kg of garbage per week at the kerbside (Nolan-ITU, 2002). This equates to approximately 11,500 tonnes of recyclables being collected across southern Tasmania per year, and 35,000 tonnes of garbage per annum at the kerbside alone(Nolan-ITU, 2002). Australia's growing population and a lack of suitable landfill sites are adding to the problem. Potential landfill sites in close proximity to urban areas are scarce and face opposition from local communities. It can be difficult and expensive for councils to establish new landfill sites because waste management authorities have strict regulations governing their establishment and operation to protect public health and the environment. Often the only choice to councils without landfill sites in their municipality is to transport their garbage to a landfill site in another area. This may involve building a transfer station—a facility where garbage is off-loaded into pits, transferred to large trucks and transported to landfill—all of which can increase the cost of disposing of waste. Garbage in Australia Australians threw out over 21 million tonnes of garbage in 1996/97, which cost about $1,256 million for collection and disposal, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). About two thirds of garbage going to landfill in capital cities consists of commercial and industrial waste. Half of this amount is construction and demolition waste. The remaining third is domestic and council waste such as litter bins and street sweepings. 5 Managing Waste in your Community – Education Kit ________________________________________________________________________ Household garbage The makeup of household garbage in 2002 in Tasmania is shown in the following diagram. Composition by weight of household garbage 2002 (Nolan-ITU 2002) Material Type Tasmania % Food Waste 32.1 Green Waste 6.3 Other Non-Recyclables 10.4 Paper/Cardboard 23.6 Glass Containers 14.1 Steel 2.8 Liquid Paperboard 0.4 PET/PVC/HDPE 3.2 Other Plastics 6.5 Aluminium 0.6 What is the solution? Limiting the size of household bins helps reduce the garbage problem by encouraging people to recycle more. However, there also needs to be a change in consumer behaviour. Consumers can help to reduce garbage by choosing products that are long lasting and have minimal packaging. Shopping more carefully is one strategy that will help minimise waste and other strategies are described in the other information sheets in the series. Fact sheets developed by the Gould League, in consultation with EcoRecycle Victoria, http://www.ecorecycle.vic.gov.au Sources Armstrong, P and Laffin, J 1993, Waste Matters, Environmental Education Activities About Waste, Gould League of Victoria, Victoria. Beverage Industry Environment Council 1998,