Copyright © 2004 TC Associates Teaching and Learning Programme – Recycling and Rubbish Reduction in East Riding of Yorkshire Lesson texts

Copyright © 2004 TC Associates

Teaching and Learning Programme –

Recycling and Rubbish Reduction in East Riding of Yorkshire

Lesson texts


Module 1 – Don’t drop litter. Why not?

Module 2 – What a load of rubbish

Module 3 – What’s in your rubbish?

Module 4 – Produce less. Create more!

Module breakdown


MODULE TWO

What a load of rubbish!


ERYC waste facts

To hit this target we all need to help!

2005/6 records show that:

In 2005/06 East Riding of Yorkshire Council collected 200.000 tonnes of household waste. This doesn’t include waste produced by factories and businesses - that is called commercial waste.Almost all of the household waste was buried in landfill sites.

Councils all round the country have been set targets for recycling waste

50.000 tonnes of household waste was recycled. That was 25% of the waste collected

East Riding of Yorkshire Council must recycle 45% of household waste by 2010.


Amount of waste collected by ERYC in 2005/06


Amount of waste that needs to be recycled by ERYC by 2010


How you can help ERYC achieve their

recycling targetThink about places in East Riding of Yorkshire where you can take your rubbish to be recycled.

These are called bring sites – ERYC has 143 bring sites

Some supermarket car parks, leisure centres, pub car parks, outside schools

Do you know where your nearest bring site is?


Recycling with ShoppingUsing Bring Sites


How you can help ERYC achieve their

recycling target

What else can you do?

Household waste recycling sites (the tip) – ERYC has 10 of these sites.

What can you do at home?


Recycling our rubbish

Most of you now have a blue wheelie bin at home to use for recycling. This is called kerbside recycling.

Use your blue wheelie bin for rubbish that can be recycled - paper and magazines, food and drink cans and plastic bottles Take glass to the glass banks (at most bring sites).

Garden and kitchen waste can also be recycled (composted) at home. ERYC sell home composting bins at a reduced price.


Records show that:7,756 tonnes of this recycled material was paper and magazines.

529 tonnes was food and drinks cans.

529 tonnes was plastic bottles.

Kerbside recycling facts

In 2005/06 East Riding of Yorkshire Council collected 8,814 tonnes of waste material from kerbside blue wheelie bins for recycling.


Home Composting

Composting kitchen and garden waste is natures way of recycling.

Compost returned to the soil is good for growing

more healthy plants.

Reduces need for artificial fertilisers that can damage the environment.


ERYC Kerbside Recycling during 2005/06


Recycling our rubbish

Use your blue bin for kerbside recycling.

Start home composting – its great for your garden and the environment.

Remember, only use your green wheelie bin for rubbish that can’t be recycled like polystyrene and tissues.


Facts and figures

ERYC’s 2005/06 Household Waste Figures

Total Collected Landfill Recycled % Recycled

200,000 tonnes 150,000 tonnes 50,000 tonnes 25%

Just look at these figures.

What percentage is recycled?

Do you think this is enough?


Waste sites in East Riding of Yorkshire


Landfill

If you don’t recycle where does the rubbish go?

It goes to landfill


Facts about landfill

Landfill – is when untreated rubbish is tipped into holes in the ground. When the hole is full the top is covered and the ground is returned to other uses.

New landfill sites are becoming harder to find.

In East Riding of Yorkshire there is plenty of beautiful countryside - but do we want to pollute it with rubbish and create lots of ugly tips across our area?

What do you know about it?


Facts about landfill

So what can we do insteadof sending our rubbish tolandfill?Here is a landfill site in the

East Riding of Yorkshire.


Imagine what the Humber Bridge would look like piled high in a year’s worth of rubbish.


MODULE TWO

Activities


Facts and figuresActivity

3

Task 3

Using the figures provided on factsheets 1 and 2 create a pie chart or graph showing the amount of waste sent to landfill and the amount of waste recycled (in tonnes).

Create a second pie chart or graph to show how much waste will have to be recycled to meet the 45% target for 2010.


ERYC waste facts

To hit this target they need everyone’s help!

In 2005/6 East Riding of Yorkshire Council collected 200,000 tonnes of household waste. This doesn’t include waste produced by factories and businesses - that is called commercial waste.Almost all of the household waste was buried in landfill sites.

In 2005/06, records show that:

Fact sheet 1

50,000 tonnes of household waste was recycled. That was 25% of the waste collected

East Riding of Yorkshire Council must recycle 45% of household waste by 2010.

Councils all round the country have been set targets for recycling waste


Facts and figures

2005/06 Household Waste Figures

Total Collected Landfill Recycled % Recycled

200,000 150,000 50,000 25%

Discuss in groups what percentage of waste collected is recycled.

Fact sheet 2


REFERENCE MATERIAL


Glossary 1 (Primary)

Biodegrade – when a product breaks down, safely and disappears into the environment.

Bring sites – a place where people take their rubbish to be recycled.

Civic amenity site – a place where people take their bulky waste.

Collection facilities – all of the organised collection networks available to people.

Contaminants – materials that have been mixed with other materials when they shouldn’t have been.

Controlled waste – industrial, household and commercial waste.

Disposal – getting rid of rubbish.

Home composting – the breaking down of kitchen and garden waste to either produce a soil conditioner or to achieve a reduction in their collected waste.

Household waste – all wastes covered by Schedules 1 and 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992.

Household waste recycling sites – see ‘bring sites’.

Kerbside recycling – a system where the householder puts their waste or recoverable materials into a container or bag and places it, on a specific day, outside of their property, for collection.


Landfill site – a place where rubbish is tipped into the ground.

Municipal waste – all waste collected by or on behalf of local councils and includes all household waste, street cleaning waste and some business waste.

Processing – the treatment of recyclable, compostable or otherwise recoverable materials at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) or other facility, prior to reprocessing.

Recover – to transform material by using it again for the original purpose or for other purposes.

Recycle – to reprocess rubbish for the original purpose or for other purposes.

Recycling – the reprocessing of rubbish into new products e.g. paper, glass, cardboard, plastics and scrap metals can be recycled.

Reprocessing – the treatment of recyclable or compostable materials, after collection and processing, to prepare a secondary material that meets market specifications.

Reduce – to reduce the actual amount of rubbish produced.

Residue – materials sent for final disposal after collection and processing.

Reuse – involves products designed to be used a number of times in the same form, such as glass milk bottles or returnable plastic crates.



Special waste – defined under the Special Waste Regulations 1996. In broad terms, any wastes on the European Hazardous Waste list that have one or more of 14 defined hazardous properties. Controlled waste, which consists of, or contains, substances which are ‘dangerous to life’ as defined in UK regulations.

Sustainable development – development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Waste (rubbish) – products which have been discarded by the householder, business, or other waste generator, as having no further use.

Waste management – management of the collection, recovery and disposal of wastes.

Waste minimisation – the reduction of waste.

Further sources of information:

- Waste not, want not – A strategy for tackling the waste problem in England (November 2002)

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/su/waste/report/01.html

- Review of environmental & health effects of waste management (May 2004)

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/health-effects/index.htm



Glossary 1 (Secondary)

Biodegrade – when a product breaks down, safely and relatively quickly, by biological means, into the raw materials of nature and disappear into the environment.

Bring sites – a place where people take their waste and/or their recyclable, compostable or otherwise recoverable materials.

Civic amenity site – facility provided by a local authority for householders to take bulky household waste, garden waste and other household wastes, which are not normally taken by vehicles on domestic collection rounds.

Collection facilities – all the collection infrastructure available to the householders for the collection of waste and recyclable, compostable or otherwise recoverable materials, civic amenity sites and mini recycling centres.

Contaminants – misplaced materials that are not targeted (including dirty materials) but which are set out by the householder in the programme facilities. Contaminants can also be the result of failure to maintain the separation of the targeted materials during the collection and processing.

Controlled waste – Industrial, household and commercial waste, as defined in UK legislation.

Disposal – getting rid of rubbish as a last resort.


Home composting – the aerobic decomposition of kitchen and garden putrescible waste organised by householders in private gardens or allotments, to either produce a soil conditioner or to achieve a reduction in their collected waste.

Household waste – all wastes covered by Schedules 1 and 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992.

Household waste recycling sites – see ‘bring sites’.

Kerbside recycling – a system of waste recycling in which the householder or other waste generator places their waste or recoverable materials into a container or bag and places it, on a specific day, at the curtilage or in the immediate vicinity of their property, for collection.

Landfill site – site used for waste disposal into/onto land.

Municipal waste – all waste collected by or on behalf of local authorities and includes all household waste, street cleaning waste and some commercial and trade waste.

Processing – the treatment or upgrading of recyclable, compostable or otherwise recoverable materials at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) or other facility, prior to reprocessing. Upgrading operations include sorting, densification, shredding, bulking.

Recover – to transform material by extracting value from it through reprocessing the material in a production process for the original purpose or for other purposes, including energy recovery. This is also referred to as ‘to valorise’.



Recycle – to reprocess waste materials in a production process for the original purpose or for other purposes, including composting but excluding energy recovery.

Recycling – the reprocessing of wastes into new products. Many non-hazardous wastes such as paper, glass, cardboard, plastics and scrap metals can be recycled. Certain special (hazardous) wastes such as solvents can also be recycled.

Reprocessing – the treatment of recyclable or compostable materials, after collection and processing, to prepare a secondary material that meets market specifications. For example, composting, the production of recycled plastic pellets, recyled paper or clean glass cullet.

Reduce – to reduce the actual amount of waste produced.

Residue – materials sent for final disposal after collection and processing. Residues comprise both contaminants and targeted materials that have been either missed during sorting, or contaminated so they cannot be sorted to the specification.

Reuse – involves products designed to be used a number of times in the same form, such as glass milk bottles or returnable plastic crates.

Special waste – defined under the Special Waste Regulations 1996. In broad terms, any wastes on the European Hazardous Waste list that have one or more of 14 defined hazardous properties. Controlled waste, which consists of, or contains, substances, which are ‘dangerous to life’ as defined in UK regulations.



Sustainable development – development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Waste (rubbish) – products which have been discarded by the householder, commercial outlet, institution, industry or other waste generator, as having no further use.

Waste management – management of the collection, recovery and disposal of wastes, including options for waste reduction.

Waste minimisation – the reduction of waste at source, by understanding and changing processes to reduce and prevent waste. This is also known as process or resource efficiency. Waste minimisation can include the substitution of less environmentally harmful materials in the production process.

Further sources of information:

- Waste not, want not – A strategy for tackling the waste problem in England (November 2002)

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/su/waste/report/01.html

- Review of environmental & health effects of waste management (May 2004)

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/health-effects/index.htm



Useful websites

www.eastriding.gov.uk/environment

www.ciwm.org.uk

www.compost.org.uk

www.crn.org.uk

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste

www.encams.org

www.environment-agency.gov.uk

www.esauk.org

www.foe.co.uk

www.globalactionplan.org.uk

www.letsrecycle.com

www.ollierecycles.com

www.othas.org.uk/ccn

www.recoup.org

www.recycle.net

www.recyclingglass.co.uk

www.remarkable.co.uk

www.rethinkrubbish.com

www.scrib.org

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk

www.textile-recycling.org.uk

www.wastewatch.org.uk

Documents

Copyright © 2004 TC Associates Teaching and Learning Programme – Recycling and Rubbish Reduction in East Riding of Yorkshire Lesson texts