Talking about Waste Upper School Presentation

By Tanya Crewe and Elizabeth

Fox

Since the 1950s almost every single plastic item we have made remains in

our environment in some form

In 2002 around 50 to 80million bags

ended up as litter in our environment

This is devastating to everything that depends on

the ocean and water, including us!

Plastic and rubbish that is not being recycled or in the tip usually finds it way to our rivers, lakes and oceans.

Go to www.chrisjordan.com for some amazing pics of birds filled with plastic

• Animals Save the Planet – OctopusClick for short YouTube clip

Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Click for 1min YouTube clip- narrated by Oprah)

It takes only four grocery shopping trips for an average Australian family to

accumulate 60 plastic shopping bags. (source – CUA)

Can you guess what this is?

Each year more than one million tonnes of plastic are used in Australia.(100 million used in the world!!)

.

At the Perth Zoo our

elephants weigh 2 – 5 tonne ea. That is the

equivalent to 200 000 large elephants!

Of the plastic used in Australia, 320,000 tonnes goes to landfill.

Most of this plastic consists of packaging.

That is the same as 64 000 large elephants!

In WA about 13,360 tonnes of plastic are recycled each year.

(That is 2 672 large elephants)

• Recycling one tonne of plastic saves enough energy to run a refrigerator for a month!

The styrofoam cups used in Australia in a year would circle the earth at least 5 times!

Have you worked out what this is?

This depicts 1 000 000 cups.

The amount of cups used on airplane flights in America every 6 hours!

Have you worked this one out yet?

Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in

the US every thirty seconds!

For every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin.

At Coolbinia, the canteen sells about 24 plastic water bottles per day.

How many is that per week?120Per year? (approx 40 weeks) 4800

Using the average, how many would be recycled? 800 How many to Landfill? 4000

Plastic bags are produced from polymers derived from petroleum. The amount of petroleum used to make a plastic bag would drive a car about 11 metres! (source - CUA)

+ =

A plastic water bottle uses approximately 200ml of the oil/petroleum products.

It is called PET or Polyethylene terephthalate and it is made by combining terephthalic acid and

ethylene glycol

Discussion

Where else would you find these products used?

Converting plastics back to oilClick for subtitled YouTube presentation

So what is litter?Litter is anything

that is left where it is not meant to be,

whether it’s put there by

accident or deliberately.

It is rubbish in the wrong place

Where does it come from?

Litter can come from many places. It can be: Rubbish dropped by someone

Material thrown from a car window Rubbish from overflowing recycling containers & bins

Rubbish left after an event (e.g. Perth Skyshow or a football game)

Garden waste that blows off a poorly secured trailer

Waste blown off industrial sites Illegally dumped items left on vacant land or at

charity bin sites

So what’s the problem?

• Litter costs money• Litter looks bad• Litter is a fire hazard• Litter can cause accidents• Litter harms wildlife• Litter is bad for our health

Litter can be moved from place to place by

WIND

WATER

TRAFFIC ANIMALS

Which of these are litter?

lunch wrappers food scraps

cigarette butts fallen leaves or twigs

drink bottles and cans dog poo

an old car in a paddock

So what can we all do?

How can each of us make a difference?

The 5 R’s

The 5 R’s

• Refuse

Animals Save the Planet – Shopping Bags

Click for short YouTube clip)

The 5 R’s

• Refuse• Reduce

The 5 R’s

• Refuse • Reduce• Reuse

The 5 R’s

• Refuse • Reduce• Reuse• Recycle

The 5 R’s

•Refuse•Reduce•Reuse•Recycle•Restore

Can you think of some other synonyms

beginning with R that can relate to helping

our environment?

• Replant• Replenish• Rethink• Rebuild• Renew• Re- source•

•

China, Ireland, South Africa, Russia, Hong Kong, Uganda and San Francisco have already banned the use of free plastic bags and banned thin plastic bags

In Australia, so far South Australia and Tasmania have banned the use of thin plastic bags.

China’s ban on super thin plastic bags cut the use of 40 billion bags

According to recent government

estimates, Worldwatch reports.

Reduced plastic bag usage by 66 percent

Saved China 1.6 million tons of petroleum (there are approx 8 barrels to a ton)

Please share some ideas of things you could do to help make a difference.

Worm farms

Composting

You can achieve1 tonne reductionof carbon emissionwith 1 compost binper household per year

Growing vegies and fruit

No waste lunch boxesMrs Caplin, in the canteen,

is very happy for you to bring your own

containers when ordering lunch.

There will be a range of items for sale in the canteen that can help reduce lunch waste

When you go shopping, most items are packaged in one form or another, and it is this packaging that often becomes waste. Therefore one of the best ways that you can make a big difference to the amount of waste that you and your family create, is to become Shop Smart and think hard about the things you buy at the shops.

.

One of the major sources of most household waste is packaging from around groceries, clothes, toys, etc.

Try to buy items that will result in less waste creation and have minimal impact on the environment.

There are many ways that you can be Shop Smart

By purchasing the one large tin (that actually has more spaghetti in it than all three of the small tins combined) you are only creating three pieces of rubbish.

Which has less packaging?

For example, instead of buying a 3-pack of little, single serve tins of spaghetti, the more shop smart option would be to buy one large, 800g tin.

If you consider that every tin has three pieces of rubbish (ie the lid, the tin itself and the paper wrapper) then by purchasing the 3-pack you are actually bringing home 10 pieces of rubbish (if you include the piece of plastic used to hold the three tins together).

Buying in Bulk• This simply means buying a product in a large size

instead of many little items to make up the same quantity. By doing this you are reducing the number of times that you have to replace the item and hence reducing the amount of packaging that needs to be disposed of.

• In addition to reducing waste when you buy in bulk, you will also save a lot of money because larger items are cheaper than if you bought the same quantity of the product in smaller packages.

Taking Your Own Bags to the ShopsAcross the country,

Australians use and bring home from the shops approximately 6.5 billion (6 500 000

000) plastic bags EVERY YEAR. That works out to almost one plastic bag for every person in this

country for every single day of the

year.

Unfortunately, most of these bags simply become more waste. People use them to line their rubbish bins which are then disposed of in landfills. Worse still, many plastic bags are let loose into the environment as litter. As plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to break down they have a great potential to cause disastrous effects on the environment, particularly wildlife.

Did you know….

If just 1 in 5 Australians stopped using plastic bags, we would save approximately

88,704,000,000 bags!!!

Taking Your Own Bags to the Shops

•Fortunately it is very easy to be Shop Smart and avoid using plastic bags. Simply by taking your own bags (eg green or calico bags) OR using a cardboard box or basket to bring your shopping home you are immediately and significantly reducing the amount of waste that you create.

According to Planet Ark, thousands of turtles, birds and other marine animals are killed each year after mistaking the millions of bags in the world's oceans for squid and jellyfish and eat them. Discarded plastic bags do more than just kill animals. In Bangladesh they were blamed for clogging drains in the capital Dhaka, contributing toward deadly flooding in the low-lying country. The government has since banned the 10 million plastic bags used each day in the country in a bid to alleviate the problem.

Buying Environmentally Friendly Products Environmentally friendly products are

items that are either made from recycled materials, are recyclable or

have minimal impact on the environment when they produced,

used and disposed of.

Another example is tinned tuna. Tuna that carries the Dolphin Safe logo

indicates that the fish was caught in an environmentally friendly way. Other marine animals such as

dolphins, turtles, sharks and stingrays were not inadvertently killed by using

drift nets.

Many common items that we purchase at the shops have an environmentally

friendly option. One example is toilet paper. Toilet paper made from

recycled paper and packaged in recycled

paper is far more environmentally friendly than toilet paper made from virgin paper and

wrapped in plastic.

Use non-toxic cleaning products in your home

Buying Items that can be Reused, Refilled, Recharged or

Recycled Unfortunately not all items

available for purchase at the shops can be reused, refilled,

recharged or recycled. However there are almost

always alternatives that are. By choosing these alternatives

we will considerably reduce the amount of waste that we

create.

For example, plastic sandwich wrap is commonly used but rarely reused more than once because it gets dirty and unhygienic. A Waste Wise alternative is to buy or reuse a strong plastic container to carry your sandwiches in and keep them fresh. When the container becomes dirty you can wash it and no waste will be created.

Buying Items that can be Reused, Refilled, Recharged or

Recycled

Standard, non-rechargeable household batteries (eg AA, AAA, C and D size) are the most common form of hazardous waste disposed of by Australian households, with 94 percent of those disposing of them via their usual rubbish collection. Simply by purchasing the rechargeable alternatives, you will reduce the amount of harmful hazardous waste being created and also save a lot of money.

Avoid buying drinks in containers that can not be refilled. Examples of these include juice boxes and pop-tops. These are single use containers that must be thrown out after their initial use. The Waste Wise option is to buy drinks in standard plastic bottles that can be refilled or recycled use your own refillable bottle.

Buy Loose Fruit and VegetablesAvoid purchasing vegetables

that are already packaged in plastic (eg bags of

tomatoes or potatoes).

The Waste Wise alternative to this is to place your vegetables directly into your basket, trolley or reusable shopping bag instead of tearing off a plastic bag from the roll in the supermarket.

This reduces waste by minimising your consumption of plastic bags.

Buying Items that will Last

By buying good quality products that are less likely to break down you will not only

create a lot less waste, but also save money by not having to pay for repairs or

replacements.

Purchasing poor quality or cheaply made items usually results in premature malfunction or breakdown.

With the cost of repairing these items often being much greater than the cost of replacement, people are more inclined to choose to replace them.

This results in a great deal of waste (particularly electronic or E-waste) being created.

Avoiding Single Use or Disposable Items

Also consider products that can be stored in reuseable containers, second hand/refurbished products

These types of products are not designed to be reused or to

last a long time and quickly result in the production of large amounts of waste when they

have been used.

Sharing with friends or family or hiring rather than buying.

http://yoink.com/http://www.freecycle.org/group/AU/Western%20Australia/Perthwwwwww.gumtree.com.auhttp://www.bookcrossing.com/http://recyclingnearyou.com.au/

Give your old items to charity

Contacting Manufacturers

The more people that respond in this way the more likely it is that change will be made.

Actions by consumers will result in change by manufacturers.

If you believe that products you've purchased are over packaged or result in

environmental damage during manufacturing, packaging, sale or use

contact the manufacturer to express your concerns.

Click for 4 min movie

Some one needs to lead the pack into the ‘Sustainable Revolution’ - it may as well start with me

Some great sources of information• Environment House 125 King William St, Bayswater http://www.environmenthouse.org.au • Earth Carer’s Course – Free and very interesting. Run by

MINDARIE REGIONAL COUNCIL. They are responsible for waste management for seven local government councils: Wanneroo, Joondalup, Stirling, Vincent, Perth, Cambridge and Victoria Park. Ph 9306 6348 (Can ask Elaine or Tanya more)

http://www.mrc.wa.gov.au/ • http://recyclingnearyou.com.au/ • City of Stirling – www.stirling.wa.gov.au• http://www.ted.com/speakers/chris_jordan.html

well worth watching!

References• http://www.zerowastewa.com.au/communication/

education/shopsmart/ • http://www.det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/

sustainableschools/ http://www.wastewise.wa.gov.au/resources/index.html

• www.kabc.wa.gov.au • Mindarie Regional Council – Earth Carer’s Pamphlet

www.mrc.wa.gov.au • Google images• Thanks to Elaine Lewis for her support and assistance

and Zahra, for helping with the powerpoint.