The 3 R’s
• Reduce ~ Reduce means to cut down on the
amount of waste being thrown out
• Reuse ~ Reuse means to use things over and
over again and find new uses for objects e.g.
use a water bottle over and over for school!
• Recycle ~ Recycle means to re-use the item and
create something else with it.
• The average person throws away 726
kilograms of waste each year!
• The average family throw away the
amount equal to half a fully grown
elephant each year. Doesn’t sound that
bad? That’s equal to 1 . 5 TONS of
rubbish each year…
Types of waste
• There are 2 types of waste, biodegradable
and non-biodegradable.
• Biodegradable means it’s able to rot naturally
and non-biodegradable can’t rot naturally.
• Examples of biodegradable waste include
garden and kitchen waste like potato skins
and banana skins. Newspaper is also
biodegradable!
Click the picture to learn more about
biodegradable and non-biodegradable
waste!
How to STOP!
• Buy things loose. When you’re buying
vegetables or fruit buy them without the
packaging, as this produces less waste.
• Make a compost pile and have a brown
bin at home
• For more info on how to stop waste visit
Kids' Stuff About Waste Reduction and
Recycling 
Plastic Bags
• 1% of plastic bags are recycled.
• A few years ago a study showed that 8 million
pounds of plastic bags are thrown away each
year.
• If you don’t recycle them, animals can eat them
and get stuck in their throat and they will
suffocate.
• Last year 4 billion steel cans were
recycled in the UK. Don't forget that all
steel is 100% recyclable and can be
recycled many times without losing any
quality.
Paper
• 1 ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees!
• Reuse paper around the home as scrap paper
or packing material. Envelopes can also be
reused.
• Another good way to reduce paper is to read the
news online – this will stop the massive amount
of trees being cut down for newspapers alone!
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• In our school we do lots of things to reduce, reuse and recycle.
• We recycle old glass lenses, stamps and mobile phones, on top of every
thing else like paper, cardboard and plastic bottles.
We have a compost bin, a breathing area, a green house and every class
has its own blue bin.
We have a garden for birds, rodents, insects and more!
We even have a newly refurbished our P6 vegetable garden!!!
Our school runs 3 bus services, cutting down on the amount of CO2 we
create!
We also use our textbooks over and over and over again, helping to save
trees!
We have an eco-schools club run by Ann Hegarty and we have 2 green
flags!
Rubbish being CRAMMED into
a landfill site.
Waste being dumped…
A recycling centre?!?!
What to put in your blue bin.
• Paper
• Cardboard – e.g easter egg boxes
• Christmas, birthday and special
occasions cards.
• Milk cartons
<< For more click
• Plastic bottles
here 
• Glass bottles
• Newspaper
What NOT to put in your blue bin.
• Hot ashes
• Organic waste
• Animal waste
• Plastic
These are able to go into your
brown bin along with small
amounts of newspaper.