WRAP the Waste Resources Action Programme
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
Resource Pack for Secondary Schools
Acknowledgements
Collation and authoring of the teaching materials1:
Jo Gwillim and Ann MacGarry (Centre for Alternative Technology)
Colette Pitts and Karen Mills (Collective Learning)
Rhys Bebb (Eco Schools Wales/Keep Wales Tidy)
WRAP would like to thank the staff and pupils at the following secondary schools in Newport for their contributions and support during the
development of these materials:
Basseleg School
Duffryn High School
Hartridge High School
St Julian’s School
This project was supported by2:
Simms Recycling Solutions, Newport City Council, Newport Wastesavers, Waste Awareness Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government
Image credits
Huw John
Powerpoint slide 1
Sims Recycling Solutions
slides 2,3,4,5,7,10
Basel Action Network
slide 8
Centre for Alternative Technology photographs (appendices)
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www.cat.org.uk
www.collectivelearning.co.uk
www.eco-schoolswales.org
2
www.SimsRecycling.co.uk
www.newport.gov.uk
www.wastesavers.co.uk
www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk
www.wales.gov.uk
Contents
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
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Overview: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Disposing of WEEE responsibly ……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Lesson Plan ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Lesson Outline ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Differentiation ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Further activities …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Useful References and Resources …………………………………………………………………………………………….
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Getting Further Help and Advice………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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Appendices ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Classroom pictures ……………………………………………………………………………………………………
Density of common plastics …………………………………………………………………………………………….
Jumping ring construction and use ……………………………………………………………………………………
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Introduction
For schools involved in a WEEE collection day/event these materials and notes are intended to provide ideas for ways in which the educational
value of the day for pupils can be enhanced and enriched. Involvement in the day itself not only provides opportunities for community
participation but also actively encourages young people to examine the impact of their actions and choices locally and globally and become
active global citizens.
The main classroom activity that is described, lends itself most readily to Science or Design and Technology but there are numerous
opportunities to extend the work to other subjects – particularly Geography; and to link the work to various cross curricular themes, frameworks or
strands such as PSE/PSHE within the different curricula. As one of the fastest growing industries recycling also provides ample opportunities to
explore careers and the world of work.
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Overview
Consumption and Waste
 Reduces waste
Provides opportunities to:
 Raise awareness of the Waste hierarchy
(prevention, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover)
 Consider sustainable product design
Natural Environment
 Reduces quarrying and mining
 Conserve resources
 Protects natural habitats and
ecosystems
Provides opportunities to:
 Highlight the impact of human
activity
Climate Change
 Conserves energy
Provides opportunities to:
 Raise awareness of the links
between lifestyle and CO2
emissions
Choices and Decisions
 Reduces consumption
Provides opportunities to:
 Increase understanding of how
our actions and consumer
choices impact on others
Disposing of
WEEE responsibly
Health
Provides opportunities to:
 Consider ethical issues such as the
health implications for workers in
counties where illegal toxic waste is
off-loaded
Wealth and poverty
Provides opportunities to:
 Increase understanding of the
inequalities that exist between people
within and between countries
 Highlight issues relating to unequal
access to resources and wealth
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Lesson Plan
Prior knowledge
No prior knowledge is required, but familiarity with the following would be useful:
 We need to burn fossil fuels for energy and this creates carbon dioxide gas.
 Greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change.
 Magnets attract ferrous metals.
 Some materials will float and sink in water.
There are also many cross curricular opportunities outlined later in this document.
Room requirements
 Science Lab or DT room with benches for group work in 3’s or 4’s.
 Access to water taps.
 Work benches or tables that won’t get damaged by water.
 Data projector and speakers.
 Computer for power point and video.
Resources required
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16 x items of a varied range of scrapped Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).
8 x 1 litre plastic beakers or measuring jugs
8 x strong magnets.
A perforated plastic tray with a mixture of pre washed shredded WEEE waste3 including low and high density plastic, steel, and
aluminium. The low density plastics should be polypropylene and /or LDPE and the higher density a mixture of ABS and solid polystyrene.
A table of common plastic densities is given at the end of the lesson plan.
8 x 500g containers of table salt.
Paper towels.
A copy of “Home Sweet Home” video. Available from http://www.anitasancha.co.uk. A low resolution copy can be watch free on line, or a
high resolution copy can be downloaded for £3.99 or a DVD purchased for £5.99
Setting up the classroom
Setup the room so that pupils can work in groups of 3 or 4. Each group’s table should have at least two different types of WEEE such that the
common materials (steel and plastic) and power source can be clearly identified.
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Ask your local approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) for samples. A list of approbed AATF’s can be found on the Environment Agency
website http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/waste/32086.aspx
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Lesson Outline
Time
(mins)
3
Activity
Ask pupils if they had been aware of the collection day and whether they had been involved in
any way
Describe what the collection day had entailed using power point images.
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Show video “Home sweet home”.
Ask what was making planet earth unhappy.
Discuss the major sources of CO2 emissions in a UK person’s lives. Heating, transport, food
but most importantly the STUFF WE BUY.
Find out who the “shopaholics” are.
Ask “are there any other problems associated with Buying lots of stuff. Points to bring out are
pollution associated with production, distribution and disposal, as well as resource depletion.
Especially oil and metals in short supply such as copper or lead.
Ask about what evidence they have to support this. – rising fuel prices, and roof lead and
copper wire being stolen as the scrap value increases.
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Establish what WEEE stands for. (Waste Electrical and Electrical Equipment)
Show the PowerPoint slide of the composition of waste from the Newport collections.
Ask pupils to check that the equipment they have on their table has a plug/socket/USB or can
be powered by batteries.
Explain that if equipment has a plug/socket or has batteries it can be recycled.
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Ask pupils to identify the most common materials in the equipment. – plastic and steel.
Other materials being aluminium and copper.
Get the pupils to identify the 2 most significant materials – steel (ferrous) and plastic.
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Tell pupils that there are large factories that take up to 100,000 tonnes of WEEE waste per
year and separate it into the various types of metals and plastics so that it can be recycled by
plastic and metal manufacturers. Show slides of equipment piled up and going into the factory.
Ask pupils what goes on in these factories. How are the objects they see in front of them split
up (separated) into different types of material.
Discuss with the class how this could be done.
Tell pupils that there are in fact very few workers in the factory. Nearly everything is done by
machines. Show slides of the shredded and sorted materials
Tell pupils that the WEEE is broken into small pieces or shredded.
Powerpoint Slides
Slide 1 Newport WEEE collection.
Pupils assiting with the collection
Slide 2 Items of WEEE waiting to go
into the recycling plant
Slide 3 Shredded and sorted WEEE
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Share the mixed tray of shredded waste between the groups and explain that it’s of no use
unless the materials are separated into to separate piles of very high purity.
Ask how the factory might separate the materials. Draw out their ideas; magnets, floatation,
weight etc and discuss each.
Tell pupils their task this lesson is to sort their mixed materials into separate piles.
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Handout the magnets and ask pupils to separate the ferrous material into a separate pile.
Show the slide of the big magnetic drum used to separate ferrous materials in the factory.
Slide 5 Magnetic drum
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Ask pupils to look at what is left. Is the plastic all of the same type? Some are hard and some
more flexible. Show the power point slide of the different types of plastic. How can these be
separated?
Show them a measuring jug and ask if that gives them any clues. Tell them that different
materials will have different densities; some will float and some will sink in water. Handout
jugs, tell groups to fill to 500ml and separate out the floating and sinking material into separate
piles.
Slide 4 Different types of plastic
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Ask The sinking material contains metal and plastic. How can they be separated as they are
both non magnetic? Show the jumping ring apparatus and explain that an electric current
through a coil of wire creates a magnetic field and an a.c. current produces a changing
magnetic field. Show the copper and steel rings and Ask the pupils to predict what will happen
to the steel and copper rings when the coil is energised. Demonstrate that a changing
magnetic field will repel a non ferrous conductor. This can be used to separate non ferrous
metals from other materials.
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Why bother to recycle? – saving raw materials. Show slides bauxite mining and the aluminium
extraction plant. Brainstorm problems: Loss of biodiversity, loss of productive land, resource
depletion, not only bauxite but also the fossil fuels needed for energy at every stage in the
process.
Slide 6 Bauxite mining
Slide 7 Recycling scrap aluminium
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Why bother to recycle? - Looking after people and the environment. Show the slide of what
happens to WEEE goods if they are not properly disposed of by us and are sent overseas.
Discuss whether this is fair. Get the class to think about what we in Britain need to do to make
sure that people in other countries don’t suffer because of us buying new equipment.
Pic 1 Inside the burn houses Guiyu China
Women sit by the fireplaces and cook imported computer parts
Pic 2 Lagos Nigeria
Children standing in front of smouldering electronic waste . urned elctronic waste produces
carcinogenic and highly toxic chemicals. These children live next to the dump.
Source: Basel Action Network
Slide 8 Toxic waste
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Why bother to recycle? - saving energy and carbon dioxide. Refer to the Climate Change
Act4. Discuss the implications for the pupils of an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 –
they will be in their 50’s. Unless energy saving and renewable energy measures are adopted it
will mean heating houses, driving cars, using computers etc only 1 day in 5. Pupils to discuss
in their groups whether this type of life would be acceptable to them and what alternatives
there might be.
Energy reduction measures such as recycling will be vital if we are to live the sort of lives we
would like.
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Show slides of the Sims WEEE plant in Newport. Linking the work that the pupils had done in
the classroom with what happens in real life.
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Quick fire questions to finish off. Go round each group and ask them questions to see how
much they had learnt. Some suggestions:
Slide 9
What happens to WEEE if it’s not properly disposed of in the UK?
Why is making Aluminium so bad for the environment?
What does WEEE stand for and how can you work out if something is WEEE?
The energy that’s saved by recycling aluminium can run a TV for how many hours?
What is ferrous metal? And how can it be separated?
How can different plastics be separated?
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For up to date information regarding legislation and climate change http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/contents
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Differentiation
More able pupils could be given the basic equipment and the task of sorting their shredded WEEE attempt it with little direction. The properties of
magnets and the concept of materials of different densities floating or sinking should be well established.
If more time is available or some groups finish earlier the remaining sinking material may be further separated by adding common salt to the
water to increase its density. As a guide 36g of table salt in 500ml of water increased its density sufficiently to separate mixed ABS and
polystyrene. The exact quantity required will change depending on the plastics being used.
Less able pupils can concentrate more on the physical aspects of separating different materials. The different qualities of different plastics can
be explored by careful examination of samples in terms of their stiffness, brittleness, density. Samples of shredded plastic can be compared with
the plastic used in different parts of the WEEE equipment on display.
Further activities
 Investigation of the total life story of raw materials e.g. iron ore for a product that is recycled and one that is disposed of at the end of its
life. The “where’s the impact” card set detailed in the resources section is a very good tool for bringing this alive.
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Thinking about sustainable product design. How can products be made in a sustainable way? Aspects to consider are:
o The energy used in manufacture.
o The energy used in use.
o The life expectancy of the product.
o The concept of built in redundancy.
o The effect it has on the livelihood and well being of the people who contribute to each stage of its production.
o The abundance of the raw materials needed to make the product.
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Product pairs: looking at pairs of products designed to do the same task and comparing their qualities of sustainability. Examples could
include different types or torches – wind up, normal battery powered, solar etc.
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Performing a survey of school and household waste and using data from the BIR report (see resources section) to calculate which type of
waste recycling or reduction would result in the largest energy and carbon dioxide savings.
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Useful References and Resources
Vital waste graphics. (UNEP/GRID Arendal publications)
A free UN download with lots of information and graphics. It covers all aspects of waste from a global environmental and humanitarian
perspective.
www.grida.no/publications
Report on the Environmental Benefits of Recycling. Bureau of international recycling.
A technical report looking in detail at the environmental aspects of recycling different materials. A useful reference document giving energy and
CO2 savings of different processes.
www.bir.org/pdf/BIR_CO2_report.pdf
The living planet report 2008. A regular World Wildlife Fund publication giving an up to date assessment of the ecological state of the planet. It
uses eco footprinting to look at human activity around the world and is very good at emphasising fair shares.
http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report
Eco-schools have some good downloadable lesson plans for waste and consumption. Try the KS3waste minimization lesson in the climate
change section.
www.eco-schools.org
Sims Recycling Solutions web site has some excellent online animations of what actually happens in a WEEE recycling plant. In addition to
some good “did you know?” facts and UN recycling reports
http://simsrecycling.com/news-and-resources/audio-and-video
The recyclenow website has animations, information, and lesson plans complete with power points and videos.
http://www.recyclenow.com
Where’s the impact is an excellent card based activity that allows pupils to work out for themselves the environmental impact of everyday
objects that they take for granted. Available from the Centre for Alternative Technology.
www.cat.org.uk
Getting Further Help and Advice
UK Wide:
WRAP the Waste Resources Action Programme www.wrap.org.uk
Recycle Now www.recyclenow.com
Recycle More www.recycle-more.co.uk
Wales:
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WRAP Cymru, the Waste Resources Action Programme www.wrapcymru.org.uk
Waste Awareness Wales www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk
Scotland:
Zero Waste Scotland www.zerowastescotland.org.uk
Northern Ireland:
WRAP Northern Ireland, the Waste Resources Action Programme www.wrapni.org.uk
Arc 21 Southern Waste Management Partnership www.arc21.org.uk
North West Region Waste Management Group www.northwestwaste.org.uk
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Appendices
Classroom Pictures
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Densities of common plastics
Plastic
PVC (polyvinyl chloride)
PET
HDPE (high density
polyethylene)
LDPE (low density
polyethylene)
PP (polypropylene)
PS (polystyrene)
ABS
Common use
Windows, guttering, cable insulation
Fizzy drink bottles
Plastic petrol cans. Pipes.
Density (kg/l)
1.1
1.36
0.95
Plastic milk containers
0.92
Plastic chairs, rope, car bumpers
Disposable cups, yoghurt containers
Phones, LEGO, computer keys
0.91
1.05
1.1
Jumping ring construction and use
.
The coil is a 500g reel of 1.6mm (16 SWG) copper wire energised by a 12V A.C. supply of at least 12Amps. There is usually about a cm of wire
protruding from a hole on one face from the start of the winding. If the enamel is scraped off a connection can be made to this, either using a
terminal block or soldered. The other end of the wire is on the outside of the coil and it is easy to make a connection to this.
The jumping ring demonstration relies on the changing magnetic field inducing eddy currents in the ring. These currents create a magnetic field
that repels that of the electromagnet. In a ferrous ring the magnetic attraction of the core is greater than the eddy current effect and the ring
doesn’t jump. With a non ferrous ring (copper or aluminium) the field caused by the eddy currents is sufficient to make the ring jump.
Warning The coil and, and especially the copper ring will get hot. It should only continuously be used for periods of a few minutes and never by
unattended pupils.
To view a Physics Lab demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_kKXJUargU
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