Clean Up New Zealand Week

TKI Hot Topic for August 2003

Clean Up New Zealand Week is being held on 15–21 September 2003. This TKI Hot Topic provides background information on the week, and lists a number of ideas to help you support its aims by cleaning up your own environment.

Clean Up New Zealand Week

Organised by the Clean Up New Zealand Trust, the first formal Clean Up New Zealand Week was held in 1998. It has been a regular annual feature ever since. Held in partnership with The United Nations Environment programme and Clean Up the World, over 200 countries have instituted their own clean-up week.

The first Clean Up New Zealand Week attracted an estimated 28,000 volunteers. Last year that number totalled over 155,000 participants, and this year the Clean Up New Zealand Trust is aiming to involve around 250,000 people.

Your class or school can get involved by nominating a place to clean up such as a local reserve, riverbank, or walkway. Register your class or school through the Clean Up New Zealand website.

Addressing the waste problem in New Zealand

According to the Clean Up New Zealand site, each New Zealander produces about 900kg of waste every year. This is more than most OECD nations. Nearly half is household waste (food waste, grass clippings, plastic shopping bags, glass and plastic containers, and paper) and most of it can be recycled, reused, or reduced. At the moment, the majority of this waste is going into landfills. Waste takes longer to decompose in landfills, as the environment lacks sufficient air and water for materials to efficiently break down. This inhibited demposition creates a toxic liquid called leachate, which can leak into water aquifiers and contaminate our water supplies.

Clean Up New Zealand has provided a few simple ways to help you reduce the amount of waste going into landfills:

• Recycle and reuse objects and materials like jars, bottles, and paper.
• Purchase items packaged in recyclable or biodegradable containers, or buy products with little packaging.
• Compost vegetable food scraps.
• Grow your own food – even a small garden can help.
• Create new treasures or artwork from junk material.
• Ride a bike or walk instead of using a car whenever you can.
• Trade toys or clothes with friends instead of throwing them out.
• Plant trees and learn about local plants and animals.
• Volunteer to help clean up and green up local parks.
• Organise a "do without" day – try doing without anything made of plastic, aluminium, paper, or another form of household waste for a whole day.
• Put a "No Junk Mail" sign on your letterbox.

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Resources on TKI

Clean Up the World
Around the third weekend of September each year, millions of people in more than 100 countries join forces under the banner of Clean Up the World – a non-profit, community-based environmental programme that inspires and empowers individuals and communities to clean up and conserve their environment.
www.cleanuptheworld.org

United Nations Environment Programme
This is the website of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It highlights activities and links relating to the organisation's mission to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment.
www.unep.org

United States Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA website highlights environmental issues and contains an education section for students and teachers with information on conservation, endangered species, ecosystems, water, air, waste, and recycling.
www.epa.gov

Ministry for the Environment
The Ministry for the Environment reports on the state of the New Zealand environment, how environmental laws work, and advises the Government on environmental issues.
www.mfe.govt.nz

The refuse situation in New Zealand

How much waste do we produce?
The Ministry for the Environment's waste indicators programme gives details on the amount of solid waste disposed of in landfills around New Zealand, and the amount of waste disposed of per person.
http://www.environment.govt.nz/indicators/waste/landfill

Ecological Footprint
Calculate your personal ecological footprint: i.e. the amount of land required in New Zealand to support your lifestyle. It is suitable for secondary levels.
www.mfe.govt.nz/withyou/do/footprint/index.html

Reducing the waste problem

Zero Waste New Zealand
The Zero Waste New Zealand Trust is an organisation whose mission statement reads, "encouraging and motivating all sectors of New Zealand society to work towards a target of zero waste". This website outlines the philosophy and work of the organisation and it includes solutions, news and events, resources and links.
www.zerowaste.co.nz

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
In this integrated level 1 social studies and English unit, intended for year 1, students explore jobs and activities related to the recycling process. http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/recycle/home.html

Recycle City
Play this game to learn about the effect of different ways of disposing of solid waste.
www.epa.gov/recyclecity

Garbage
This online exhibition is organised into four major sections – What is Garbage?, There's No "Away", Nature Recycles, and Making Choices. Throughout the exhibition you can read about people who have made a difference, and access a variety of activities for home or school use.
www.astc.org/exhibitions/rotten/rthome.htm

What can I do to help improve our environment?
This web page gives ideas on how to reduce dioxin levels, prevent stormwater pollution, reduce vehicle pollution, keep the air clean and reduce waste. It discusses which products are environmentally friendly and links to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority for information and energy saving tips.
www.mfe.govt.nz/withyou/do

Hands on Plastics
This site provides resources about plastics intended for middle-upper school students. Background information about the plastics industry is written for teachers and there is a simplified version for students. Lesson plans, printable worksheets, and multimedia classroom activities focus are also available.
www.teachingplastics.org/hands_on_plastics/index.html

How Composting Works
This site takes a look at how composting works. It explains what happens when solid waste is composted, the benefits to composting, how to make your own compost, and how to make compost for scientific observation in a classroom or laboratory setting. Activities related to rubbish, recycling and composting are included.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/composting.htm

Ollie Recycles
Ollie Recycles is an environmental website for children all about the 3R's – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It contains information, games, puzzles and quizzes. Students can choose to use an Australian or a United Kingdom version of the site. It includes information and ideas for teachers on using the resource. The site is suitable for all primary levels but requires reading ability.
http://www.ollierecycles.com/uk/html/recycle.html

Living Heritage – Recycling at Campbells' Bay Primary School
Campbell's Bay Primary School in Auckland has created a website about recycling at their school as part of the Living Heritage initiative. Campbell's Bay students studied recycling to try and find ways to help people recycle more, to discover why it is good to recycle, and to implement new ideas for recycling at their school.
www.livingheritage.org.nz/schools/campbellsbay3/index.html

Online projects

Junk to Gems
Junk to Gems is a British Council New Zealand online collaborative project. It gives students and teachers the opportunity to create works of art whilst gaining an awareness of the need to 'reduce, reuse, and recycle', locally and on a global basis. It is open to all ages, and integrates the visual arts, science, technology, and social sciences curriculums. The project takes five weeks to complete.
http://www.junktogems.org.nz

An e-Learning Process
This site shows how primary schools in New Zealand and partner schools in Victoria Australia, worked collaboratively on a waste management project using the Internet. Contents of this web page include reports from the children about their knowledge of recycling and a video conference. Downloadable templates and resources are available also the process link informs teachers about an e-learning process with activities. Schools can use this site to register as Globalnet Satellite school in 2003.
www.globalnet.org.nz/schools_projects/process/process.shtml

Please note: These links were valid when this page was posted. However the Web is very volatile, and TKI has no control over outside websites. Please let us know if you find anything inappropriate, if you find a broken link, or if you have an update for a link by emailing links@tki.org.nz. Te Kete Ipurangi recommends that teachers view all websites we link to before using them with students.

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