Leaflet no. 81. What a waste!

When you eat a fruit, do you eat every part of it? Do you eat the skin of a banana or the pit of an orange? You probably throw these away. Can you think of other things that you discard?

When something is used up or no longer serves a purpose, it is generally thought of as waste and is thrown away. Throwing away rubbish - from homes, from mines and factories, from shops, hospitals and farms - can create eyesores and health hazards, and can waste valuable natural resources.

In this leaflet, you will identify the types of waste you and other people in your neighbourhood throw away, and the problems that this waste creates. Armed with this information, you may consider ways to reduce the amount of waste produced by your community, and think of ways to make use of local waste materials. You may also decide to help organise local clean-up projects.

Activity 1: A Survey of Household Waste

In this activity you arc going to find out what type of waste you and your family throw out. Before you begin to collect and sort the household trash, make a guess as to which items you think your family throws out most. (Make your selection from the following items: food; paper, glass; wood; plastic; metal; cloth; other.) Record your guesses here:

The biggest pile of rubbish would be __________________
The second biggest pile of rubbish would be ____________
The third biggest pile of rubbish would be ______________

To carry out this activity you will need:

* some newspaper,

* gloves (or plastic bags to put over your hands and elastic bands fixed at your wrists to hold the bags in place);

* a plastic bag;

* a large bag or cardboard box;

* paper and pencil to record results.

(Warning: Do not touch any materials or containers such as corroded batteries or pesticide containers, that you think are harmful to your health. If hazardous materials are seen, tell an adult who can arrange for its safe disposal.)

1. Have everyone in your household keep all items that would normally be thrown away. Place all food scraps in the plastic bag. (Keep the bag away from animals and young children.) Place all other rubbish in the large bag or cardboard box.

2. At the end of the week (or before if the food scraps are beginning to smell too much!), empty the contents of the rubbish container (not the food scraps) onto sheets of newspaper. (Remember to wear gloves.)

3. Sort the rubbish into piles of different types. For example, cardboard boxes would be paper products, tin cans would be metal, and so on. The categories you chose may be similar to the ones in the following chart.

4. Rank the piles of waste material (including the food scraps) from the biggest to the smallest in size. Record your results on a chart similar to the one below:

Waste piles ranked in order of size (by volume)

	A week's trash
food waste
paper metal
plastic glass wood
rubber
cloth
other (e.g. things made of a combination of the above)

Were your guesses accurate? Can you think of a way to work out the volume of each pile of waste. (Hint: You could use a cardboard box.)

Once you have completed your investigation of household waste, put the rubbish where your family normally disposes of it. Then, clean your hands with soap and water. (Why is this so important?)

Compare your results with those of your classmates. Discuss ways you and your classmates might reduce the amount of waste your households produce.

Activity 2: Studying waste in your neighbourhood

You can investigate the waste that is dumped in your community. Draw a map to define the area where you live. Mark the following features on the map: houses, shops, factories, farms, roads, railways, watercourses (canals, streams, rivers, drainage ditches etc.) and open spaces.

Figure

You may select all or part of the area to survey. Carry out the following tasks in your survey site. You will need paper and a pencil.

(a) Where waste occurs

Walk around the district, and note on your map where waste has been thrown away. Look on the streets, at the back of shops, in factory yards (a glance through the fence should tell enough), in drainage ditches and so on. Visit the official community dump.

(b) Types of waste

List the waste items that occur at the various places where waste is found. You can probably find out more information by talking to people at the sites such as factory workers and dumpsite collectors.

Are there any unusual items found amongst the rubbish? Can you think of new uses for some of the items you discover?

(c) Be a dump detective

At the dumps or in the streets, can you find information that tells you where a particular type of waste has come from? Labels on cans or drums, letters or boxes with a trade name printed on them are some clues you may discover. Perhaps, you can identify local businesses as the culprits of waste dumping. Find clues about the people who have dumped the trash. (For example, do they read? Are they heavy smokers?) Write stories about the people who have dumped rubbish at a particular location.

(d) Waste Hazards

Can you spot any waste problems? For example, is waste clogging up drainage channels and forming pools of still water that serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes? Is there rotting food that is attracting flies? Mosquitoes and flies transmit a variety of diseases. Are children playing near the rubbish piles? Is there waste that is harmful to people and animals? Think about what can be done to reduce these hazards.

(e) Waste over time

Study the area over time to see if the waste is collected or if more waste is added.

After these surveys have been completed, groups should gather together all their findings about neighbourhood waste and present them to community leaders.

Activity 3: Tackling waste

1. If you have identified waste materials that could be recycled, collect these items and pass them along to people who could make use of them.

2. If you can identify who the 'dumpers' are, you can run a campaign that is directed at these people to inform them of the hazards of dumping or to suggest more appropriate ways to get rid of rubbish. Your message to the dumpers may be presented in posters, leaflets, plays or through letter-writing campaigns.

3. Organise your friends to clean up a waste site. You may need to recruit some grown-ups to help you. Perhaps, you can 'adopt' your survey area, and take responsibility for always keeping the area litter-free.

Activity 4: Are you a litter-bug?

How aware are you of the cleanliness and appearance of your environment? Test yourself, your family and friends. Answer the questions truthfully. Circle the relevant numbers:

	Never	Rarely	Don't know	Sometimes	Always
Do you drop wrappers in the street?	5	4	3	2	1
Do you leave litter around because you think it is not easy to find a receptacle to put it in?	5	4	3	2	1
If you see discarded litter, do you pick it up?	1	2	3	4	5
Does the sight of litter offend you?	1	2	3	4	5
Are you prepared to take part in a litter-clearing campaign?	1	2	3	4	5
Do you live by the principle: Leave a place cleaner than you found it?	1	2	3	4	5

Add up the points you have scored for each question:

* 30 - 28: You are highly litter-minded
* 27 - 24: You are concerned about the cleanliness and appearance of the environment
* 23 - 21: You could improve
* 20 and below: You must do something to improve your litter mind!

(Adapted from an idea of Community Service Volunteers, UK)

OUTREACH pack 95 pp 1-2. Other Learning-By-Doing Leaflets and Information packs are available from Dr. James Connor, OUTREACH Director, Environmental Education Center, 200 East Building, New York University, New York NY 10003, U.S.A. or Richard Lumbe, OUTREACH Coordinator, Information & Public Affairs, UNEP, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, KENYA