General Waste

Rubbish Check

Do you know how much rubbish is thrown away in your school each week?

This activity will help you find out.

There are lots of different types of rubbish.  In your school, rubbish will usually be thrown away from the following places and could include all sorts of different materials:

• Canteen – food scraps and rubbish packaging
• Classroom – scrap paper, empty paint pots, old pensPlayground – snack wrappers, drink cans and bottles

What you need:

• bin bags
• gloves
• tongs
• magnets
• rubbish bins
• plastic sheets

What to do:

1. Design a ‘tally sheet’ to put by the classroom bin for a week – every time someone throws some rubbish in get them to mark it on the sheet.

Example Waste Tally

2. Use a tally to do a rubbish check of the playground bins and school canteen bins.  Find a space, wearing rubber gloves and being careful to avoid sharp rubbish, empty the bin onto a plastic sheet to record the waste type.

3. Sort the rubbish into the following categories:

• Paper and cardboard
• Plastic
• Aluminium
• Steel
• Glass
• Organic (food, leaves)
• Textiles
• Mixed/not sure

4. Which type of rubbish is thrown away the most?

5. Which rubbish can be recycled?

6. Where are the bins in your school?  Draw a plan of the school showing the bins.

7. Are these bins in the best place?  Are they used too little or too much?  Do you have room for different bins for each material?  Look at your plan and decide whether you could move them or add some more.

8. * Look in Local Council for recycling information for your area

9. Tell everyone!  Let the rest of the school know where and how they can recycle their rubbish – make posters, organize a bulletin board or a school assembly on recycling.