7-11 years

Reduce

Reducing our waste means not making it, by deciding not to use or buy things

Here are some suggestions to reduce your waste:

· Have a waste free lunch by not having crisps or using cling film that have to be thrown away. Using a container that you can use again to look after your sandwiches and having fruit or vegetables, so the peelings and cores can be composted after you have eaten them. This will mean you do not need to throw anything away when you have finnished.

· Use both sides of a piece of paper, so you use one sheet instead of two

- Encourage the person at home who does the shopping to try not buy products with lots of plastic packaging.

Reuse

This is where we use something again.

Here are some examples of reusing, do you do any of these already?:

· Make a junk model by using items such as plastic bottles, cereal boxes or even an ice cream or margarine container, to make a fun model.

- Take your unwanted clothes or toys to a charity shop, so they can be used by someone else and raise money for charity at the same time.

· Using a plastic bottle for taking water, squash or juice to school, after school clubs or on trips

Recycle

The items you place in your recycling box or bin at home are taken away and turned into something new. For example a plastic bottle could be turned into a fleece, a ruler or even back into a plastic bottle. A can could be made into a fridge, a bike or even an aeroplane.

Composting

Composting is when you can put all your fruit and vegetable waste into a special conatienr, known as a compost bin. Worms and bugs then come along and break it down into a mixture known as compost, which you can put into your garden.

You can put a whole range of things into your compost bin such as:

· Fruit and vegetable peelings, cores and skins

· Grass and plant cuttings

· Tea bags

· Egg shells

· Shredded paper

- and lots more!

However you cannot put cooked food, meat or dairy products such as milk and cheese in a compost bin.

To find out more about composting have a look at the national home composting campaign

Now you know more about the 3Rs why not:

Meet Captain Busta and his engineer Pong, who are visiting from a far off planet to find out how the people of Earth deal with their waste.

Take a look at our fascinating facts pages

Have a go at these fun games!

Find out even more, by taking a look at our links page

Is there a question we have not answered, or something else you would like to ask? Well why not send us an email and we will get back to you as soon as possible.