Using materials again
Chemistry · Key Stage 1 · The School
Sorting waste
Not everything goes in the same bin. Paper and card, glass, metal cans and many plastics can be RECYCLED — collected, cleaned, broken down and made into something new. Food waste can be composted. Sorting properly matters, because one wrong item can spoil a whole load.
What recycling does
A glass bottle can be melted and made into a new bottle. Paper can be pulped and made into new paper. Aluminium cans can be melted and reused again and again. Recycling saves the energy and materials needed to make things from scratch, which is why it is worth the sorting.
Using less comes first
Recycling is the third choice, not the first. Better still is to use LESS in the first place, and then to REUSE what you have — a water bottle refilled, a bag used again, clothes passed on. Reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order, and the order is the important part.
A plastic drinks bottle is collected, sorted, shredded, washed and melted into pellets — and usually becomes fleece fabric or a bin, not another bottle, because the plastic is a little weaker each time. A glass bottle can be melted and made into a glass bottle again, over and over. An aluminium can comes back as a can. Now count: which of the three would you rather your drink came in?