Recycling: Learning from Nepal Promoting Excellence in Science Teaching and Learning

2 Objectives Recognise differences between reducing, reusing and recycling. Compare the impacts of recycling aluminium to obtaining the metal from its ore. Evaluate evidence to make a decision about the efficacy of recycling

3 Reduce, reuse, recycle… How are they different? Which do you do?

4, reuse, recycle…Reduce

5 Reduce,, recycle…reuse

6 Reduce, reuse, …recycle

7 Is recycling worth the effort? Compare recycling aluminium to extracting it from bauxite rock. Make a decision and justify it. Compare recycling aluminium to extracting it from bauxite rock. Make a decision and justify it.

8 She finds plastics that can be recycled. She sells them to a man who sells them to a recycling factory. Dimaya lives in Nepal. She sorts through waste. The factory melts the plastic and makes new things, like pots and bottles.

9 Dimaya also finds colourful plastic bags. She and her mum and sisters reuse the bags. They cut the bags into long strips, which they weave into baskets and sell.

10 Reuse challenge What can you make from old plastic bags or used aluminium cans? © © wow-imports.com

This activity was produced by the Association for Science Education in partnership with Practical Action as part of the Global Learning Programme. The GLP is a ground-breaking new programme which will create a national network of like-minded schools, committed to equipping their students to succeed in a globalised world by helping them to deliver effective teaching and learning about international development and global issues at Key Stages 2 and 3. ASE is providing the science education support for the Global Learning Programme which is funded by the Department for International Development. This activity can be found on the Global Learning Programme ASE Primary upd8 primaryupd8.org.uk and Practical Action practicalaction.org.uk/schools websites. primaryupd8.org.uk practicalaction.org.uk/schools Promoting Excellence in Science Teaching and Learning 11 Acknowledgements

12 Student sheets Recycling: learning from Nepal Sheet no.TitleNotes SS1Is recycling worth the effort? Energy, waste and raw materials Reusable. One per pair. SS2Is recycling worth the effort? Impacts on people Reusable. Cut into cards. One per group of 6. SS3The efficacy of recycling

13 Red mud waste is alkaline (pH 10 – 13) and toxic. You cannot farm or build on it. 100 kg of bauxite makes 60 kg of red mud. What to do Read the information. Copy and complete the table. Decide – is recycling worth the effort? Aluminium from the Earth All aluminium comes originally from the Earth’s crust. But you cannot just dig aluminium from the ground. Its atoms are joined to oxygen atoms, in aluminium oxide. The aluminium oxide is mixed with other substances in bauxite rock. To get aluminium from bauxite: 1 Crush the rock. Separate aluminium oxide from the substances mixed with it. 2 Dissolve the aluminium oxide in a special solvent. 3 Pass a amp electric current through the solution. This splits up aluminium oxide to make aluminium and other products. Waste Step 1 makes ‘red mud’ waste. Step 3 makes carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Energy Making 1 kg of aluminium needs 260 MJ of energy. Quality You can recycle aluminium many, many times. Its properties do not change. Aluminium from bauxite Recycled aluminium Raw materials Waste produced Energy transferred Is recycling worth the effort? STUDENT SHEET 1 Energy, waste and raw materials Recycled aluminium Aluminium is recycled like this: 1 Separate and wash used cans. 2 Send a lorry to collect the cans. 3 Shred the cans and remove their paint. 4 Heat to 660 ºC in a furnace. The aluminium melts. 5 Pour the liquid aluminium into a mould. Waste The process makes little waste. Energy Making 1 kg of aluminium needs 15 MJ of energy, including lorry fuel.

14 STUDENT SHEET 2 Is recycling worth the effort? Impacts on people What to do Role play a web chat to compare the impacts on people of extracting aluminium from bauxite rock the impacts on people of recycling aluminium. Allocate roles in your group and read the role cards. Fen, China China produces more aluminium than any other country in the world. We use electricity to split up aluminium oxide. I am worried because most of the electricity is generated by burning coal. This makes lots of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, and also sulfur dioxide gas, which makes acid rain. In China we dry most of our red mud, and most of it goes to landfill. About 10% of the dried red mud is used to make bricks, which is good. I would like them to use more of this waste product. Dandak, India India produces more than 3 million tonnes of aluminium oxide each year. There is a bauxite mine near me. It is noisy and dusty, but my mum runs a shop near the mine. Without the mine she would have few customers. The money she earns pays for my school uniform – and my tablet computer. 14 Ebenezer, Jamaica In Jamaica we make 4 million tonnes of aluminium oxide every year. The mines don’t look good – they dig up lots of trees before they get down to the bauxite, destroying animal habitats. The red mud waste reservoirs are dangerous – I’m not allowed to go near them. I think we should abandon bauxite mining and make money from other things. Britta, Iceland A new aluminium plant, Fjardaál, opened near my home in Ships bring in aluminium oxide from far away. At Fjardaál they use electricity to extract aluminium from the oxide. The aluminium company built a new hydroelectric power station specially. Aluminium is important for packaging. It is used to make aeroplanes because of its low density. My mum works at Fjardaál, which is good for our family, but the new power station flooded land and damaged plant and animal habitats. Callum, UK Washing and separating our cans is too much effort. The lorry that collects our recycling is noisy and uses lots of fuel. It’s better to get aluminium from rock. Agi, Hungary I live near the Ajka alumina plant. In 2010 one of the red mud reservoir dams collapsed. A wave of red mud flooded my village, killing 10 people. The alkaline mud caused terrible burns, and destroyed all sorts of living things.

15 The efficacy of recycling: does it have the desired effects? STUDENT SHEET 3 Read the information in the table. Use the web site to find the facts you need to complete the table. Make a decision: Which materials in the table are worth recycling? Why, or why not? Think about whether recycling the material cuts waste and energy requirements, as well as whether recycling reduces the need for primary resources such as trees for paper, sand for glass and oil for plastic. Number of times the material can be recycled Example of how much energy is saved by recycling Energy used to produce the material by recycling compared to producing it from its primary resource Material aluminium glass paper plastic 5% 30% 10% Recycling 1 tonne of paper saves enough energy to run a typical UK home for 6 months. indefinitely white paper 5-7 times brown paper times depends on the plastic

This activity was produced by the Association for Science Education in partnership with Practical Action as part of the Global Learning Programme. The GLP is a ground-breaking new programme which will create a national network of like-minded schools, committed to equipping their students to succeed in a globalised world by helping them to deliver effective teaching and learning about international development and global issues at Key Stages 2 and 3. ASE is providing the science education support for the Global Learning Programme which is funded by the Department for International Development. This activity can be found on the Global Learning Programme ASE Primary upd8 primaryupd8.org.uk and Practical Action practicalaction.org.uk/schools websites. primaryupd8.org.uk practicalaction.org.uk/schools Promoting Excellence in Science Teaching and Learning 16 Acknowledgements