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Experimentals: Recycling household items

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Man shakes hands with woman beside wheelie bin, in front of large pile of rubbish
Experimentals: Recycling household items

SUBJECTS:  Science

YEARS:  3–4


Discover why plastic is harmful to our environment and how recycling helps to reduce its impact.

Listen to Jon Dee, founder of Planet Ark, discuss the problem of plastic.

Watch as a bag of household items are sorted to identify what can be recycled.


Things to think about

  1. 1.What things around you are made from plastic? What do you know about the interesting characteristics (properties) of plastics? Are they flexible, waterproof, strong or transparent? Why is plastic so harmful to our environment?
  2. 2.Watch as the 'hippies' poke a pencil through the plastic bag of water. Explain what happens (think about the properties of plastics). What does Jon Dee from Planet Ark say is the problem with plastic? What solution does he give?
  3. 3.When deciding if a plastic item is recyclable what do you need to look for? Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and High Density Polyethylene HDPE are two types of plastic commonly recycled. Find a soft drink bottle made from PET and a plastic milk bottle made from HDPE. Ask an adult to help you cut small squares of each bottle and mix them up. Place them in water, what do you observe? What property helps you sort them?
  4. 4.Draw a table listing things that can and can't be recycled. Include the items shown in the clip as well as adding some of your own.



Date of broadcast: 16 Sep 2006


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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