Education

Sometimes people make mistakes and put things in the wrong bin. It is to my belief that these mistakes occour when people are unsure about what bin their rubbish goes in. To solve this problem, I propose we create posters and lists with pictures to show where to put your waste. I also think it's a good idea to create art out of our waste to minimise the amount going to landfill.

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Art

I believe that creating art like mats, out of single use plastics is a smart way to minimise the amount of waste going to landfill.It would also save all the energy that it takes to compress soft plastic back into a solid shape. I also believe it would be profitable if we sold the mats and other things at the markets or give the to charity to help the homeless. It would also show how much plastic people use and how much of it goes to landfill.

To make the mats, you will need soft plastic, like grocery bags, breadroll bags or even large chip packets. You first need to cut the soft plastics into long strips. Next, tie them all together in three long lines. Then plait them together.After plaitting, get a long thin strip of plastic and sew the plait together in a spiral shape. You can be as creative as you want and add bright colourful strips of plastic. You can even knit it or crochae it as I have done to mine.

If we made money from selling the mats, I would want the money going towards buying things like bins, and solar pannels that would make our school more plastic-free and reduce our environmental impact. Though I like the idea of buying new bins, I think we ought to give at least 50% of the mats we make to charity to help the homeless.

Lists and Pictures

Most people put waste in the wrong bin because they don't know what one to put it in. I believe it would help drastically if a list of items that could be put into that particular bin was placed next to it. But there are also those people who can't be bothered reading and just throw their rubbish in the red bin. We can also draw pictures and have photographs of the things so it's quicker and less confusing to put your rubbish in the right bin.

Knowledge

I believe people don't know what bin to put a particular thing in is because they were never taught what bin to put it in. To test this theory, I've conducted a test/survey to share with people from Byron Bay Public school, Byron Bay High School and Saint Finbar's about litter.
Here are the questions:

  1. Have you been educated about what waste goes in what bin by:
    Your parents YES/NO
    Your teacher YES/NO
    Posters or Advertising YES /NO
  2. According To Byron Bay Shires Waste Management System, what bin should the following items go in?

  3. Chip Packets
  4. RUBBISH RECYCLING COMPOST I DONT KNOW
  5. Glad wrap
  6. RUBBISH RECYCLING COMPOST I DONT KNOW
  7. Yoghurt tubs
  8. RUBBISH RECYCLING COMPOST I DONT KNOW
  9. Food Scraps
  10. RUBBISH RECYCLING COMPOST I DONT KNOW
  11. Plastic Soft-drink bottles
  12. RUBBISH RECYCLING COMPOST I DONT KNOW
  13. paper bags
  14. RUBBISH RECYCLING COMPOST I DONT KNOW
  15. Museli bar wrapper
  16. RUBBISH RECYCLING COMPOST I DONT KNOW
  17. Do you know what soft plastics are? I so, please provide two examples below.
  18. ____________________________________________________________________________
  19. According to Byron Shires Waste Management System, can soft plastic be recycled?
  20. YES/ NO/ I DONT KNOW
  21. What needs to be done with plastic bags before they're put in the bin?
  22. _______________________________________________________________________

Out of the 24 people I surveyed/tested, none got them correct. They would circle RUBBISH for the answer for the muesli bar wrappers, wrap and chip packets questions when it would go in the recycling instead.

The intriuging thing is that nearly all the people I surveyed/tested indicated that their parent and teacher had taught them about recycling. However, they all got them incorrect. Less than half the people ( 46% ) knew what soft plastics were, and of them, only one knew that they were supposed to be put in a bag before being thrown in he recycling. It seems that every body knows that food scraps go in the compost and nearlyy all of them put the hard plastics (drink bottles and yoghurt tubs) in the recycling. From this information I can conclud that the children aren't up to date with the new recycling system and theres a lot of confusion about what to do with soft plastics.