Waste Free Lunch Competition
We invite every class visiting the centre for an education day to take part in our Waste Free Lunch Competition. The competition, started in September 2000, aims to encourage children and teachers to think about the rubbish they create and what happens to that waste depending on how they choose to dispose of it. We aim for each child and adult alike to experience recycling and waste reduction in a simple and practical way that can easily be transferred back to homes and schools.You can take a look at the kids' version of this page by clicking here
How it Works
The competition revolves around the children's packed lunches, and the waste created from them. Before lunchtime we'll go over how to sort the rubbish between a recycling bin, a compost bin and a rubbish bin. Then after lunch we weigh the rubbish bin, make a record of how much waste was produced (we work out weight per child for a fair comparison with other classes) and give you a certificate to take back to school.We run the competition termly and we'll let the winning class teacher know they've won close the to end of term.
What can go into the Recycling Bin?
We model what can go in our recycling bin on what can go into the green recycling bins supplied by Leeds City Council to residents of the Leeds area. We hope that this will make it easier for children to remember what they can easily recycle at home (although other products can also be easily recycled through glass bottle banks etc.)- Paper & Card
- Plastic bottles
- Plastic bags
- Drinks cans
- Food cans
Tips
Before your visit to the Centre you will recieve an information pack further explaining the competition and including a photocopiable sheet for the children to take home for their parents/guardians, giving them some ideas about how they can help when planning their children's packed lunch.Questions for class discussion
On the “Information for Teachers” letter, which we mail out when you book a session, there are a number of questions for discussion with the class in your preparation for your visit. Here are some ideas for livening up your discussion.What is waste?
This is a quite deceptively difficult question to answer. The general use of the word could be defined as:Waste is things that we don't want any more: things that are no longer useful to us.
In answering later questions this is the definition we shall be working around since it is what is generally understood by the term waste. For the philosophically inclined however, let's delve a little deeper into the question.
The problem with the above definition is that what is useful to us depends upon our own values and decisions:
For example, if we buy a plastic bottle of pop, once we have finished it then it could be considered as waste. But what if we decided to fill it up and use it again: that same bottle could be used over and over again. Is that bottle still waste? No: it is useful and indeed it would be a waste to throw it away.
This leads us to another idea for a definition of waste:
The problem with the above definition is that what is useful to us depends upon our own values and decisions:
For example, if we buy a plastic bottle of pop, once we have finished it then it could be considered as waste. But what if we decided to fill it up and use it again: that same bottle could be used over and over again. Is that bottle still waste? No: it is useful and indeed it would be a waste to throw it away.
This leads us to another idea for a definition of waste:
Waste is whatever we want it to be.
This means that whether something is waste or not is not objective, but is the result of a decision by the observer (this is summed up in the phrase “one man's trash is another man's treasure”). Upon my travels through Leeds on a bike I see loads of things thrown away in bin yards and in skips that still work and in my opinion are definitely not waste, yet the people who put them in the skips clearly decided that they were waste.
So whether or not something is waste is something that we humans decide upon. Lets compare this with waste in nature.
Take a deciduous forest ecosystem for example: The leaves that fall off trees in autumn could be described as the waste of the tree. These leaves become the food for micro-organisms and worms. The droppings of worms, worms' waste, are then broken down by the micro-organisms in the soil, providing food for the micro-organisms. The micro-organisms' waste, the nutrients, are then taken in by the roots of the tree and the tree uses them to make more leaves.
In this system, although each element of the system could be said to produce a waste, when we look at the system as a whole we see that nothing is wasted, i.e. there is no waste.
So we could conclude:
So whether or not something is waste is something that we humans decide upon. Lets compare this with waste in nature.
Take a deciduous forest ecosystem for example: The leaves that fall off trees in autumn could be described as the waste of the tree. These leaves become the food for micro-organisms and worms. The droppings of worms, worms' waste, are then broken down by the micro-organisms in the soil, providing food for the micro-organisms. The micro-organisms' waste, the nutrients, are then taken in by the roots of the tree and the tree uses them to make more leaves.
In this system, although each element of the system could be said to produce a waste, when we look at the system as a whole we see that nothing is wasted, i.e. there is no waste.
So we could conclude:
There is no such thing as waste in nature.
So what is the difference between nature's use of waste and the way humans use waste?
The fundamental difference is that in nature everything is treated as a resource (in fact organisms have evolved to exploit every spare resource within natural systems), whereas humans have introduced the concept of waste to describe things that they can't or won't find a way of using again. So, where in nature everything is in part of a cycle, humans have stopped dealing with the resources they use in cycles and have instead created a linear movement of resources i.e. there is a beginning (extracting raw materials), a middle (creating a product), and an end (disposing of the product in a landfill site where it is effectively taken out of the system).
The problem with having a linear use of resources is that over time it requires an infinite supply of raw materials to supply people's need for products since resources are used only once. Planet Earth is of finite size and so this will inevitably cause a problem in the future. So the the concept of waste is a human creation and is inherently unsustainable.
So in conclusion, our fuller definition of waste could be:
The fundamental difference is that in nature everything is treated as a resource (in fact organisms have evolved to exploit every spare resource within natural systems), whereas humans have introduced the concept of waste to describe things that they can't or won't find a way of using again. So, where in nature everything is in part of a cycle, humans have stopped dealing with the resources they use in cycles and have instead created a linear movement of resources i.e. there is a beginning (extracting raw materials), a middle (creating a product), and an end (disposing of the product in a landfill site where it is effectively taken out of the system).
The problem with having a linear use of resources is that over time it requires an infinite supply of raw materials to supply people's need for products since resources are used only once. Planet Earth is of finite size and so this will inevitably cause a problem in the future. So the the concept of waste is a human creation and is inherently unsustainable.
So in conclusion, our fuller definition of waste could be:
Waste is a human concept which was invented as humans chose to use use their resources in a linear fashion. Waste describes things that humans cannot or will not find a way to use again.
In 200 years will people be able to understand how we could produce so much waste?
In times of hardship, war etc., are people wasteful?
Is waste a luxury of the rich?
In times of hardship, war etc., are people wasteful?
Is waste a luxury of the rich?
Where does our waste end up?
In Britain about 20% of our waste gets recycled. Most of the rest is taken to landfill sites where it is buried and left to rot. A small amount of waste is burned or incinerated.Why is waste such a growing problem?
In the past most materials were biodegradable and so would easily rot away. People had fires in their homes and burned waste too. After the clean air act of 1956 and the introduction of gas central heating systems people began to put more waste into their bins. This coincided with the introduction of plastic into many products and packaging. Plastic is not biodegradable. There has also been a large increase in consumerism, with ever more powerful and influential media encouraging people to buy more and more things, while manufacturers have been designing products in such a way that they have built in obsolescence, are difficult or impossible to repair, and are using cheap labour from distant countries to enable then to offer products at unrealistically low prices.Also many items such as food now come in 'disposable' packaging or are designed to be disposable (e.g. nappies, plates, toilet brushes), where in the past they would be designed to use again and again.
There is now a shortage of sites suitable to built new landfill sites in the UK which, in conjunction with imminent fines due to EU law, is helping the Government and local councils to focus their energy on tackling the waste problem in the UK.
What else could we do with our waste apart from throwing it away?
If the waste is still useful we can re-use it, for example, plastic bottles can be filled over and over again as can plastic bags. Imagination is the only limit to what can be done with our waste. At Skelton Grange we have a potting shed built entirely from things others had thrown away, we have used old tyres to grow plants in and we have a music garden built of waste wood and plastic pipes.If we really can't think of another use for something then we recycle it.
Is it possible to produce less waste?
YES!!!In waste we talk about the three R's: Reduce, re-use, recycle.
Reduce
Reduce means that we try and cut down on what we buy in the first place. This means:Just buying less stuff
Interestingly, the happiness quotient in the UK hasn't gone up significantly since the early 1970s even though consumption has increased massively. It has been shown that once basic food and shelter need have been met, it is family, friends and the chance to be creative that make humans the most fulfilled, none of which involves buying lots of new things.
Buying things that have less packaging
Every time we go to the shops we have many products to choose between. If you have the choice between buying some loose apples or some apples in polystyrene pack then go for the loose apples. Each time you consider picking something up consider how much packaging does this product have, is it really necessary? It is good to withdraw your support from a product if you feel that it has too much packaging by refusing to buy it. There was a successful campaign in Germany where shoppers removed unnecessary packaging from products at supermarket checkouts so that the supermarkets had to dispose of the unnecessary waste themselves.
Buy things that will last a long time
Finally when you do have to buy things, try to think about how well they are made. Many products are only just fit for the job that they are supposed to do and so easily break. It is less wasteful to buy one thing that will last for years than many things that will last for a couple of months. In the same vein, avoid all 'disposable' products. They are only 'disposable' because the manufacturers would like you to run out of them soon and buy some more.
Re-use
See the above answer to “What else could we do with our waste apart from throwing it away?”
Recycle
Everything that you can't re-use should be recycled. In Leeds you have three main types of place where you can recycle your waste.Green bins should be outside almost all houses in Leeds. Into them you can put:
Paper, card, plastic bottles, plastic bags, food cans, drink cans.
“Bring sites”
These are normally bottle banks and can be found in car parks outside pubs, shops and in neighbourhoods. You can normally take glass bottles and sometimes old clothes and shoes to them.
“Household waste sorting sites”
Formerly known as “the tip”, these are council run sites that accept almost all types of waste and will dispose of all of them properly. They take garden waste, metals, card, paper, food cans, plastic bags and bottles, batteries, oil, rubble, shoes, clothes, spectacles, glass bottles, books, computer cartridges and mobile phones.
