Example of a waste eco-audit

General objectives

• Create an attitude of respect and protection towards the environment, encouraging a critical and active attitude among students.
• Use the entire school as a centre for experimentation, making use of all the physical and natural resources at our disposal. Raise awareness of the impact of our waste as a destructive agent on the environment.
• Learn to differentiate and value the concepts of reduction, reuse and recycling as necessary means for controlling our waste. Provide students with appropriate environmental terminology.

Contents

• Waste: concept and historical production.
• Throwaway culture.
• Waste treatment.
• Landfills, incinerators and types of containers.
• Selective collection.
• The 4 R's rule: reduce, reuse, recycle and reflect.
• The school is a waste-generating centre.
• The school is a waste management centre.
• Paper. Recycled paper.
• Paper reduction in the school.
• Measuring and weighing waste.
• Environment and health.
• Reuse of different materials.
• Creation of a warehouse for unusable items.
• Recycling of materials.
• Ecological labelling.

Waste issues to be audited

• Photocopies were made at the school.
• Detergents and cleaning products used.
• Type of paper used: recycled or normal.
• Amount of paper, paints, and packaging stored.
• Polluting products we use: correctors, paints, inks…
• The amount of disposable products we use.
• Weigh the amount of waste generated in the centre: paper, cardboard, organic, plastics and briks daily.
• Use of the warehouse for unusable items by the respective cycles.
• Analysis of the waste generated in each classroom and its possible reuse.
• Implement selective waste bins in each of the centre's rooms and playground.
• Campaign for the cleaning and maintenance of the facilities.
• Correct disposal of the different types of waste.
• The existence of information campaigns among the population on selective waste collection.
• Interview with the cleaning ladies on the appropriate behavioural guidelines for their work.

Activities

Survey:

1.  Do you think you are respectful of the environment?
2. Do you consider yourself responsible for the pollution of the planet?
3. Do you think you can do something to improve the environment?
4. Who disposes of rubbish at home? Your mother / Your father / Your siblings / You / Indistinctly
5. Do you throw all your rubbish in the same bin?
6. How many bins do you have at home?
7. And at school, do you throw the paper with the rest of the rubbish?
8. Do you know where each type of waste should be disposed of?
9. Are there glass bins near your house?
10. What about paper?
11. Do you use them?
12. Do you know what is done with the glass and paper from these containers?
13. Do you think plastic can be recycled?
14. Do you know what a landfill is?
15. Would you like to have a landfill near where you live?
16. What is recycling?
17. Do you flush rubbish down the toilet?
18. Do you know what a sewage treatment plant is?
19. In the countryside, do you throw rubbish on the ground?
20. In the village, do you throw rubbish in the street?
21. Do you know any environmental groups?
22. What do you put in the Yellow bin / Blue bin / Green bin?

After passing the survey, the results are discussed. The 4R Rule is explained: recycle, reduce, reuse and reflect.

The approach could be:

• Reducing means being less consumptive and more selective when buying.
• Reuse means that packaging that is used once can be used again.
• Recycling is the reuse of the raw materials of a product.
• Reflection is the human capacity to analyse possible options to make intelligent choices.

Artistic competition.

1. All the pupils will work on the elaboration of works of an artistic nature or that could have a practical use in daily life (folders, purses,…) using waste material from home or school (soda cans, waste paper, plastics, tetrabriks,…). Both types of works will compete in different categories: artistic and practical designs.
2. This task will be carried out, preferably, during the art education hours assigned to each group.
3. It is not compulsory to submit the works to the competition, but it is compulsory to work on them.
4. An exhibition will be set up with all the works produced.
5. The works will be individual, indicating the name of the author and the title of the work on a piece of paper that will be handed out at the same time. The materials used will be indicated on the paper.
6. Only one work per student in each category may be submitted, which will be given to each tutor to be sent to the Environmental Committee.
7. The Environmental Committee will be the jury. It will award four prizes: two for each category, consisting of lots of books.

Warehouse ‘unusable things’ (circular to be sent to pupils)

We have come up with an idea to collaborate in the care and maintenance of the environment.
As you all know, recycling materials is very important for the conservation of our forests and nature in general. For this reason, we believe that we can collaborate at school by not wasting materials and using waste materials or elements when carrying out plastic or handicraft activities.
For this reason, it has occurred to us that we could create a warehouse in the school for all those leftover materials or objects that, although they are no longer useful to us, could be useful to other classmates.
And so that it doesn't become a rubbish dump or a place where everything that nobody wants ends up, we propose that your teachers should be in charge of sending us everything that they think could be reused, such as cardboard, boxes, cork balls, damaged toys from which we can get something useful, leftover paper, cellophane, cardboard, etc. which, although it may not be useful for the work that you are doing, could be useful to others.
We hope that you will collaborate and that you will contribute and make good use of these materials.

Sorting waste - for a better future

• Dispose of button and normal batteries in the specific containers for them.
• Place unusable glass in the green bins so that it can be recycled.
• Dispose of rubble from construction sites in authorised rubbish dumps, request specific containers or go to the nearest Ecopark.
• Deposit cardboard and paper separately from other waste in the blue bins. This will recycle the paper, and fewer trees will be cut down.
• Do not throw expired medicines in the rubbish bin or in the toilet. Take them to the pharmacy, they know what to do with them.
• Reuse used paper on one side, so you don't waste paper.
• Recycle unusable materials to create new jobs, toys, activities…
• Keep food in lunch boxes, so we save on aluminium foil and plastic, which are later waste.
• Don't throw glass in the forest. With just one piece of glass, you can start a fire and burn down a forest.
• A button cell battery pollutes a lot. One gram of its contents if it reaches a river or the sea, can pollute two million litres of water.
• 20% of the waste we produce is paper and cardboard that can be recovered.
• 1 tonne of recovered paper saves 14 20-year-old trees.

The waste we produce in the classroom

Activity-generating questions:

1. Why does the classroom get dirty?
2. What does it get dirty with?
3. How can we avoid littering?
4. What waste is in the litter bin?
5. And on the floor, which ones do we find?
6. What could we reuse the paper in the litter bin for?
7. Is the paper worth money?
8. What is it made of?
9. What is the path of the paper we throw in the bin?
10. What effect does waste have on the environment?
11. Do we waste paper?
12. Do we dispose of each waste item in its proper place?
13. Do you use tissues?
14. Do you use waste paper when studying?
15. Do you throw away plastic shopping bags?
16. When shopping, do you choose returnable packaging?
17. Do you buy products in returnable packaging, or in cans or plastic?

Composting

Before composting at school, some activity-generating questions are required:

• What is a fertiliser?
• What are the most common fertilisers?
• What is the basic composition of fertilisers?
• What are the differences between organic and inorganic fertilisers?
• What is the influence of compost on soil, water and atmosphere?
• Can we make fertilisers at home?

From there, it is necessary to find out what compost is, its advantages and disadvantages and its impact on human life.
To make compost, we will have newspapers, food waste, eggshells, wood and wood shavings, leaves, pieces of meat, fruit peelings, stale bread, etc.
All these elements are deposited in the compost bin on a daily basis. We will place them in different successive layers: dry leaves, soil, green leaves, organic waste, etc.
Every day, we will stir the contents so that oxygen reaches all parts of the heap, and we will moisten it. Note which materials decompose first and which least, as well as what happens to the inorganic objects you added to the mix.
After two or three weeks, the compost will be ready to be used as fertiliser in the school garden.

Recycling

• Locate on the school map where you think the waste bins and selective waste containers should be placed.
• What materials do you think we should collect selectively? What do we do after collecting them?
• Where do we take them?
• Do you know who disposes of them?
• How is it done?
• Are they used for anything afterwards?
• Why do you think it is interesting to recycle them?
• Do you know what kind of paper is used in the school? recycled, normal, ecological?
• Do you do anything at school to avoid wasting more paper than necessary? What other measures do you think should be taken at school to save and recycle?

Poster for waste sorting activity

NOTICE

On Thursday you must each bring to school three items that can be recycled: tetrabriks, pillars, cartons, paper, plastics, etc. ….
Together we will sort them and put them in the appropriate bin.
Remember at home to sort the rubbish and use the specific containers for each case.
The Environmental Committee

Reusable foils

Continuing with the waste collection campaign, we think it is important that paper written on one side only can be reused on the other side.
That is why we propose that you use a box in each classroom to deposit reusable sheets of paper or notebook paper. In this way, we will save paper and help to avoid useless waste.

The treasures of rubbish

For 15 days, each team is responsible for collecting, weighing, and recording the amount of waste from the school.

Hold an exhibition showcasing all the work produced

• Water survey zone.
• Weather zone: exhibition of the weather station and the data collected.
• Exhibition of recycling projects carried out by everyone.
• Exhibition of plants from families.
• Exhibition of the results of the eco-audit: Energy, Water and Waste
• Area on different types of energy, experiments, interactive activities, solar panels, energy saving murals, connector games on waste disposal, characteristics of an electricity bill, wind energy, etc.
• Water area, experiments, water treatment plant built in art class, water pump, murals on water saving, recommendations, interactive panel on the water cycle, etc.
• Waste area, containers of all types, recommendations for use, murals on the subject, waste weighing scales, results graphs, etc.
• Experimentation corner, microscopes and binocular magnifying glasses showing the flora and fauna of the river.