Recycling Talk at a Secondary School

[Kilala]

I have been asked to give a talk about waste issues in a secondary school by an organisation keen to promote the reduction and recycling of waste. Does anyone have any suggestions? Obviously I am doing my research into the facts and figures involved, but ideas on how to get the students involved and enthusiastic would be appraciated.
I don't want to just sit there and talk at them!
Thank you for your ideas in advance!

[hazy123]

Dont no if this is any help but when i was younger i had a similar talk and what i found cool was people in africa used cans like pepsi to make bags and purses and stuff. not a lot of help but might be something u wanna drop in.

[Buenchico]

(Multi-part post):

It's 16 years since I was in teaching, so I might be a bit rusty but here goes anyway:

I'd ask 'who wants a free bar of chocolate?' This will bring a volunteer to the front and you hand him/her the bar of chocolate telling him/her that he/she can have it as long as he/she takes a bite out of before returning to his/her seat. Of course, the only slight snag is that you've wrapped the chocolate in several extra layers of paper, foil, cardboard, etc and topped it off with a big bow of ribbon. (Don't go too mad or the youngster will never get it undone!). Then stand back for a minute or two while your volunteer struggles to get to the chocolate. This should get the interest of your group.

[Buenchico]

Your point, of course, is that excessive packaging can be a real pain in the @rse! Use this to feed into a more serious discussion about unnecessary packaging which, hopefully, you can illustrate by having some over-packed items to hand.

You've already realised that straightforward lectures aren't the best way to approach things, so be ready to ask some questions. e.g. "Can someone suggest a better way that this could have been packaged?", "How much of this packaging is really necessary?", etc. (Hint: Don't always take the first hand to go up. In some groups, boys tend to volunteer answers ahead of girls; try to make sure you involve both sexes, otherwise half your audience might 'switch off' and decide that it's got nothing to do with them).

[Buenchico]

Once you've established that we use too much packaging, the obvious question to be asked is 'Does it matter?' At this point your research needs to come into play. You'll need to throw a few facts and figures in but you've got to find ways of keeping them relevant to your group. While teenagers are able to grasp environmental issues with varying degrees of confidence, the one thing which they can all get to grips with is (as any parent will know) is money!

I suggest that, initially, you forget about talking about pollution and global warming. Just tell your audience that every time a lorry empties its load at a landfill site it costs the council �350. (That's what Mid-Suffolk District Council keep telling us local residents the charge is).

[Buenchico]

Correction: Initially, don't tell your audience how much it costs. Ask them to guess. Once you've had a few suggestions and told them the real answer, ask them where the council gets its money from. When you've established that the money comes out of their parents' pockets, remind the group that, in a few years time, the money will becoming out of their pockets! (Teenagers aren't usually too worried if their parents have big bills. They start taking notice when you tell them that they'll have big bills!).

[Buenchico]

Now that you've brought up the subject of landfill charges you can ask your audience two questions:
Q1. Why do governments all around the world think that it's a good idea to try to make landfill an expensive thing to do? (Here you don't need to go into a great deal of detail. Forget about pollution to water courses and similar issues. Simply establish that the world is rapidly being swamped by amounts of waste which we just can't cope with).
Q2. If we can't bury our waste into the ground, what else can we do with it? (If someone suggests incineration, remember that you shouldn't be seen to criticize their answer. Otherwise you probably won't get any more answers from most of the group! Your response should be along the lines of, "That's a good answer. In fact that's exactly what a lot of councils have been doing for years. But people are starting to realise that there are problems with incineration. Can anyone say what they might be?"). Make sure that,one way or another, you arrive at the answer "We can recycle it".

[Buenchico]

You've now reached a point where you can introduce the idea of recycling. Ask your audience in which year they think the idea of recycling first came about. (You'll probably get guesses from 1970 to 2000). Then point out that man has been recycling things for thousands of years. Use some reference to the way that farmers have used 'what comes out of the back end of a cow'. Talk about 'hand me down' clothes. (e.g. "For thousands of years, children who weren't the oldest in a family probably never had any new clothes. They had what their brothers and sisters had worn before them. Even the oldest children in families probably didn't see many new clothes; they had what their cousins, uncles or parents had worn. Even if someone did get something 'new' it was probably made out of bits of other old garments". Your aim, of course, is to establish that recycling isn't something new, it's just something that we've forgotten how to do over the past 50 years.

[Buenchico]

Time for some more questions: "OK, I'm not suggesting that you should all be wearing your great grand-dad's clogs and your aunty Ethel's woollen cardigan. So what types of things can we recycle today?". (A sideways glance at that surplus packaging you were talking about earlier should ensure that you get the right response. I suggest that, unless someone mentions things like electrical goods, you should just stick to the one main theme of packaging).

The obvious question to follow "what?" is "how?" Hopefully you'lll get answers about the different coloured bins outside the pupil's homes. You might have to find a question which will prompt a reply about bottle banks. (e.g. "I love drinking wine. How does that affect the things I recycle?". "OK, you've said I should recycle my wine bottles. How can I do that?"

Now it's time for some props. Open up the big box (which you just happen to have brought with you) and pull out items one by one. "Can I recycle this?" "What about this". Make sure that you've got a few items which can't go into the recycling bin (or that should be taken to specialist sites, such as bottle banks) but ensure that you've got mainly recyclable items. Remember to include some things which can be recycled but should be washed first. (If you can find a few items which can amuse your group, so much the better. Be prepared for some strange looks at your local charity shop when you ask them if they've got any Union Jack underpants, brightly coloured bras, etc!). Don't have too many items or your group will become bored. I'd suggest up to 15 if you pull them out of the box, and ask questions, quite quickly.

[Buenchico]

Kilala:

I'm a former teacher and I've prepared a suggestion for you which I think you might find useful. Unfortunately, it's very long. I've just tried to post it in several parts but the Answerbank server is set to reject posts where the same person repeatedly posts answers over a short space of time. I got about two thirds of it posted but, when I tried to post the last part, AB simply deleted the whole lot.

If you'd like to view my ramblings, please e-mail me:
[email protected]

Chris

[Buenchico]

Er? Odd!!!

Cancel that last bit. My posts have suddenly re-appeared! (Although you're still welcome to e-mail me if you want to!)

To continue where I left off:

By now, you should be getting ready to wind up. Return to that question of cost.
"Who can remember? How much did we say it cost every time a lorry drops its load into a landfill site?". "
OK, so it costs your parents money if we don't recycle. It will cost you money, in the future, if you don't recycle. And there are massive costs to the planet, as well, if we fail to recycle. So what does it cost just to put our rubbish in the right bin?"
"Yes, that's it. Nothing. OK, perhaps a small amount of our time but, otherwise, nothing. Recycling helps the planet. Recycling is easy. Recycling takes hardly any time. Recycling won't cost you anything - In fact,when you're older it will save you money on your council Tax. But it's not something I just want you to do when you're older, it's something I think you should all be doing NOW. And don't just do it yourself, nag others to do it. Nag your parents if they don't recycle things. Look around this school and nag your teachers if you see things which ought to be recycled but aren't. But, at the end of the day, remember that recycling isn't just something to talk about, it's something to DO".

OK, my teaching style is probably different to yours. I wouldn't expect you to follow this like a script but I hope that it might suggest a suitable approach for your presentation.

Chris

[Hapus]

Hi- why not pick certain items and ask them to make a list of things that could be done with these products rather than just throw them out. Maybe make it a competition.
Also, why not look at other greening issues, and get them involved in how they could make the school greener - double sided printing, switching things off when they leave and not leaving them on standy. Energy efficient lightbulbs etc. Perhaps they could enter a bigger competiton to design the most energy efficient classroom - submitted a few weeks after the talk - that way they'd have to pay attention.

[Kilala]

What fantasic answers!

As for you, Buenchico, I'll have to send you my wages! What a fantastic post! I have been getting quite nervous about it, as it will decide what route my career takes- if this talk goes well, a job in the Rethink Rubbish department of my council is available- and it is something I am passionate about- getting kids to WANT to recycle and be aware of packaging etc.

I can't tell you how helpful you have been- truly a star!

[Postdog]

Or you could just talk any old rubbish.

(sorry, I'm a bit bored and couldn't resist)