Lesson video

Hello again, it's lovely to see you.

What have you been doing since we last saw each other? That sounds super fun.

I've been baking bread and it was delicious.

I made it using yeast and flour and all sorts of other things.

And I put some salt and rosemary on the top and it was delicious.

Today we're going to be looking at some more of our science lessons.

We're going to be thinking about why recycling is so important.

Do you remember last time when I told you about the landfill sites and what happened to all of our materials that we throw away? Yes, they ended up in the landfill sites and they took a really, really, really long time to break down.

So today we're going to talk about recycling, which is a different way that we can dispose of our materials, but make them into something more useful.

I think that recycling is really, really, really important and it's something that you can do at home.

So today we're going to have a look at what sustainability is and what it means.

Today we're going to look at what sustainability is and what it means.

We're going to look at which types of materials can be recycled and then we're going to do a mini recycling investigation of our own.

So today you will need an exercise book or paper to write in.

A pencil.

And if you want to join in our investigation at the end, you might need some materials made of plastic or tin or crisp packets.

But if you don't have those items, that's okay 'cause you can share my items instead.

If you don't have any of those things, pause the video now and go and get them.

Let's start by recapping our previous knowledge.

Last lesson we learned about natural materials.

Natural materials are materials that came from a plant, an animal or the ground.

Can you remember where cotton came from? That's right, cotton comes from a plant.

What about wool? Wool comes from an animal.

Well done.

And what about coal? Coal comes from the ground.

Well done.

The other type of material that we learned about was the synthetic material.

A synthetic material was a material that is made by humans and sometimes called manmade.

Three examples we had were plastics, glass and ceramics.

What was one of the properties of plastic? Right.

What was one of the properties of glass? And what was one of the properties of ceramics? Okay.

So then we thought about landfill sites and we remembered that lots of the materials that we throw away end up in landfill sites and they take a really long time to break down.

There's lots of problems with landfill sites.

Firstly, they don't look very nice.

Secondly, they produce harmful toxins.

And thirdly, they produce harmful pollutants.

This means throwing things away into landfill sites is not good for our environment.

The word sustainability.

My turn, sustainability.

Your turn.

Is meeting the needs of the present, so the people right now without sacrificing the ability of future generations, people in the future, from meeting their needs.

That's quite complex, isn't it? Let's look at that definition again.

Meeting our needs now, without stopping people in the future from being able to meet their needs.

Let's take an example.

When I drive my car, what does my car need in order to be able to drive? It needs petrol.

Petrol is a natural resource.

Where might petrol come from? You might've said a plant, an animal or the ground.

Petrol comes from the ground.

Because petrol is a natural resource, it is limited so it might run out.

What could happen to the petrol that I use to power my car? It might run out.

If we are using petrol sustainably, there would be enough for me to use now and enough for people in the future to use in the future.

Do you think we're using petrol sustainably? No, we are not using petrol sustainably.

In fact, we're using it up very fast indeed and we will run out.

Who is this a problem for? Is it a problem for me or is it a problem for people in the future? Well, it's a problem for people in the future.

But if I don't do something about it, there won't be anything that they can do.

So it's a problem for me too.

Scientists have told us there are three things that we can do to increase sustainability.

Firstly, we could use less.

That's called reduce.

Secondly, we could reuse items again and again.

And thirdly, we can recycle.

If we reduce items we don't need use as much and therefore there's more left over.

If we're reusing items such as plastic bags when we take them back to the shops, we use less and therefore we need to use less materials to make them.

And then thirdly, we can recycle materials into new useful products rather than throwing them away.

What are the three things that we can do to increase sustainability? We can reduce, reuse and recycle.

These are called the 3 Rs.

I want you to think about which of the following are sustainable choices? Option one, using a fuel such as coal that will run out.

Option two, generating electricity from wind, which won't run out.

Option three, recycling materials so less end up in landfill.

Or option four, using items such as plastic once and then throwing them away.

Two of these are sustainable choices.

Pause the video now and decide which two are sustainable choices.

Option two is a sustainable choice because we're choosing to generate electricity from a resource that won't run out.

That means we can use it now and they can use it in the future.

Option three, recycling materials so less end up in landfill is also a sustainable choice.

Because if less materials end up in landfill, there are less harmful toxins and pollutants produced.

Now we're going to recap our knowledge about sustainability.

There are four questions for you to complete.

I want you to pause the video, complete the four questions without using your notes.

Try to remember all the answers from your head.

You can press play when you're ready to continue.

Here are the answers.

You can mark your answers in a different colour pen.

Make sure you add in the correct answers if you didn't get it quite right.

The 3 Rs are reduce, reuse and recycle.

We can reduce the amounts of waste we produce by avoiding disposable items, reducing packaging and printing on both sides of paper.

Reusing plastic bags, selling or donating old clothes and using a ceramic coffee mug instead of a takeaway cup are examples how we can reuse materials.

And finally, recycling is converting waste into a reusable material.

So we have three options.

Remind me what the 3 Rs stand for.

Reduce, reuse and recycle.

Reducing and reusing are quite simple, recycling is a little bit more complicated.

Recycling is when we take an object and make it into something new.

For example, you can make new pencil cases out of old tyres.

You can make new paper out of old paper and you can make new plastic bottles out of old ones.

We are going to investigate some materials to see if they can be recycled, sorry.

Firstly, we need to learn about what the symbols mean.

For us to be successful in our investigation, we need to make excellent notes here.

I would like you to pause the video and draw this table into your notes.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

The first symbol means that items can be widely recycled.

That means that materials can be recycled easily everywhere in the U.

K.

Usually, these items are picked up at our doorstep and we have a special bin to put them in.

Where I live, we have a black box for all our recycling.

But where my parents live, they have a different box for paper, for glass and plastic.

It's really important to ask your parents about how to recycle where you live.

Remember, the materials that we are recycling, take a really long time to break down in the environment.

It is much better to make them into something useful.

What does the green arrow mean? The green arrow means that items are widely recycled.

Normally, from our homes.

Can you give me three examples? Great, cans, tins, aerosols, plastic bottles, paper, card and glass are all examples of materials that are widely recycled from our homes.

Pause the video now and complete the first column in your table.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Where there is a black arrow, these materials can be recycled.

But they're a little bit harder to recycle, so you have to check your local area.

Sometimes you have to drive them to a special recycling centre.

These include things like plastic pots, plastic tubs and food trays.

What does the black recycling arrow mean? It means you have to check locally as to whether you can recycle these items in your area.

Pause the video and complete your table.

Press play to continue when you're finished.

Materials that have this logo on them, with the recycling arrow crossed out, cannot be recycled.

These materials have to end up in landfill sites and they include things like crisp packets and biscuit wrappers.

We want to reduce the amounts of items that we use with this kind of packaging because we can't make them into something else that is useful.

Pause the video and complete your table.

You now have four questions to test your knowledge on sustainability.

Number one, name two materials that can be recycled anywhere.

Number two, name two materials that can only be recycled in specialist centres.

Number three, name two materials that cannot be recycled.

And number four, what happens to objects that cannot be recycled? Pause the video now and answer the questions in full sentences.

You're going to mark your answers, using a different coloured pen.

Number one, items that can be recycled are things like cans, tins, aerosols, plastic bottles, paper, card and glass.

You don't need all of the items, but well done if you remembered them all.

Items that may be able to recycle locally are plastic pots, tubs and food trays.

Items that cannot be recycled at all are crisp packets and biscuit wrappers.

And materials that cannot be recycled, end up in landfill sites.

So, lets have us look at some materials in our houses.

If you have your own materials, you can look at your materials.

If not, you can do the investigation with me.

Before we start, we need to draw this table into our notes to record the results from our investigation.

Pause the video now and draw it.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

So, item number one, the first item I'm going to look at is this tin can.

If I look carefully on the back of my can, I'm looking for my symbol, either the green arrow or the black arrow or the crossed out arrow.

Let's have a look.

Oh, I found it.

Can you see? That's it.

Can you see the green arrow? That means that this can, can be recycled.

It means it can be recycled locally so I can put it in the recycling bin at my house.

In my table, I'm going to write tin can under object.

And under recycled, I'm going to write yes, from home.

Now to look at our next object.

The next object I've got is this plastic pot.

I'm going to have a look for my symbol.

Let me show you.

Can you see.

This one's actually a bit complicated 'cause it's got a can be recycled logo and a can't be recycled logo.

This says that the cap, the bit at the top can be recycled.

But you have to check whether you can do it locally or in a specialist centre.

But the tube can't be recycled.

So actually, most of this can't be recycled.

Maybe I'll think about whether I'd buy it again in the future.

I would write plastic pot under object.

And under recycled, I would say the cap can be recycled but the tube can't.

Let's look at the next one.

The next one is this jar of sauce.

The jar is made from glass.

Do you think that this is going to be recyclable? I think it's going to be recyclable.

Because if I remember that list that we had earlier, glass said it was commonly able to be recycled.

Let's have a look.

Yeah, can you see the logo? That logo tells us that this glass can be recycled easily from our location.

Right.

Finally, I have a pack of crisps, what do you think about my crisp packet, do you think that they're going to be easily recycled or not easily recycled? I think you're right.

I don't think that they're going to be easy to recycle.

Lets have a look.

Can you see the logo? What does that logo mean? You're right, this logo means that it cannot currently be recycled.

Where is this crisp packet going to end up when I've eaten all of the crisps? It's going to end up in a landfill site.

What's the problem with landfill sites? That's right, they're not very nice to look at, but they also produce harmful toxins and harmful pollutants.

Of my materials, which ones could be recycled? The tin can and the glass bottle could both be recycled.

Which one couldn't be recycled? The crisp packet couldn't be recycled.

And the plastic part was a bit confusing, some of that could be recycled the cap, but not the main sleeve.

So you should have completed your table.

This module is all about asking big questions.

So I'm going to ask you some big questions at the end of each of our lessons.

These questions are questions that you can go away and think about and discuss with your families and friends.

They are really important questions that scientists are asking themselves all of the time.

Today's question is, should we ever use anything that cannot be recycled? Let's have a think.

Will be our argument that no, we shouldn't use anything that cannot be recycled? Yeah, if we can't recycle it, it means it's going to landfill and that's not going to be good.

Because one, it doesn't look very nice.

Two, it produces harmful pollutants.

And three, it produces harmful toxins.

Why might it not be possible to never use anything that cannot be recycled.

Well, this is actually really tricky.

But the problem is that plastics and things that can't always be recycled are really cheap to use.

And so if we had to make everything from glass or tin cans, it would be much more expensive to buy some of our items. So that's why we don't always have items that can always be recycled.

Enjoy having that discussion with your families later.

Remember to do the quiz at the end of your lesson to help you recap all of your knowledge.

See you next time.