Happytown Class Debate Key Stage: 2-3 Resources Needed: The Scenario and scripts for the roles as appropriate. A PowerPoint presentation may be beneficial to illustrate some of the points which arise as part of the guided debate. See associated web resources. Curriculum Links Citizenship KS2 1a 1b 1d 1e 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f 2g 2h 4a 4b 5a 5b 5c 5e 5g Eco-Schools this session can be used to support the waste topic Web resources: Associated PowerPoint presentation from http://eis.leics.gov.uk/support/greenerschools/pages/ Worksheets-and-Resources.aspx Learning intention; Know how people can improve the environment by recycling Success Criteria: I can explain why it is better to send rubbish for recycling than to a landfill site I can listen to other peoples views on recycling I can use evidence to form my own opinion I can solve a problem that affects everyone by listening to different ideas. Context Waste and Recycling Key Vocabulary Waste, rubbish, recycling, landfill, tonne, incinerate, landfill, reduce, reuse. Notes Popular Misconceptions The waste collection process ends when their rubbish goes into a bin. All rubbish goes to the same place. Rubbish is not their problem Teaching Outline
Leicestershire County Council recommends that a full health and safety assessment be carried out prior to participating in any activity detailed here. Useful Contacts Leicestershire County Council, Environment & Transport Education Officer, Waste Management, 0116 305 8280 matthew.copley@leics.gov.uk Eco-Schools Tel: 01942 612641 Blaby District Council 0116 272 7781 Oadby & Wigston Borough Council Borough Council 0116 288 8961
Harborough District Council 01858 821 132 North West Leicestershire District Council 01530 454 653 Charnwood Borough Council 01509 634 764 Hinkley and Bosworth Borough Council 01455 255 979 Melton borough Council 01664 502 499
Teachers Scenario Mayor Dilbert of Happytown has a problem. The people of Happy town are creating lots and lots of rubbish. The food that the people buy comes in plastic wrappers which have to be thrown away. The toys people buy come in plastic and cardboard boxes, which have to be thrown away. The clothes, computers, lightbulbs, furniture and carpets all eventually wear out or get dirty and have to be thrown away too. Nearly everything we buy we will eventually thrown away as rubbish, and everyone throws away rubbish every day. With lots of people, and over a long time, that all adds up to a lot of rubbish! In Happytown It s Mayor Dilberts job to get rid of all that rubbish (dispose of it) properly. At the moment its clogging up the streets. Mayor Dilbert has a few options to try. He could: 1) Collect all the rubbish together and bury it in a hole in the ground. This is called a landfill site. 2) He could collect all the rubbish together and burn it in an incinerator. 3) He could ask the people of Happytown to make less rubbish in the first place, reuse things rather than throw them away, and recycle the rest of the rubbish to make new things. Dilbert has asked you, the people of Happytown, for help. What do you think Mayor Dilbert should do? Some of you have been given a role to help you decide what Dilbert should do. Take it in turns to read out your characters opinion. The rest of the class should listen and carefully decide who is right. When everyone has read out their opinion, the class should vote on what Dilbert should do. Think hard about your choice before you vote! A PowerPoint presentation is available to support this activity. This can be used and modified as necessary. http://eis.leics.gov.uk/support/greenerschools/pages/worksheetsand-resources.aspx
Conclusion Option 1 Build a landfill site You decided to advise Mayor Dilbert to build a landfill site in Happytown. Mayor Dilbert goes ahead and digs a big hole, which fills up with rubbish over the next few years. The smell is quite bad, and people don t like to live near the landfill site. People start to call the town Smellytown instead. When it is windy, rubbish blows out of the hole and has to be collected again. When it rains, horrible smelly goo (leachate) pours out of the landfill and flows into the local river, making the fish very unhappy. After a few years, the landfill becomes full of rubbish and it can t be used any more. The land is poisoned, and so can t be used to build upon or to farm crops for food. A new piece of land has to be found to build a new landfill site upon, until all the land has been used up. Eventually the people of Smellytown run out of new plastic, metal and glass and are forced to dig up the old rubbish to be reused and recycled. Maybe it would have been simpler to reduce, reuse and recycle the rubbish in the first place? Are you sure you made the right choice? Think again and make a new choice. Option 2 Build an incinerator You decided to advise Mayor Dilbert to build an incinerator, where all the rubbish is burned. Mayor Dilbert goes ahead and builds the incinerator in Happytown. The incinerator works well, and there is no longer a rubbish problem in the town. However, there is a lot of black smoke and pollution in the air which affects Happytown and other places where the wind blows it. Eventually the residents of Happy town run out of plastic, glass and metal because they have burned all their supply and turned it into smoke and ash. Imagine living in a place with no plastic, metal or glass! Are you sure you made the right choice? Maybe you should think again and make a new choice. Option 3 Reduce, Reuse and Recycle You chose to advise Mayor Dilbert to ask the residents of Happytown to create less rubbish (reduce), to reuse things rather than throw them away, and to recycle things when they do have to throw them away. Mayor Dilbert goes ahead and asks the people to reduce and reuse what they can, and also builds a recycling centre for the rest of the rubbish. This got rid of the rubbish problem in Happytown very quickly. The recycling centre created lots of jobs for the people of Happytown, and they never ran out of the materials they were recycling. Mr / Mrs Lazybum learned that recycling was a good thing for everyone to do and changed his / her ways. The landowner became less greedy and made his land into a park with trees and flowers. Good choice!
Extension questions: Do you reduce, reuse and recycle at home and at school? If not, what kind of things could you do to reduce, reuse and recycle at school and at home? If so, what kind of things do you do to reduce, reuse and recycle? What else could you do to; reduce, reuse and recycle? Many people are affected by how our rubbish is dealt with. What might happen if you lived in a town where people did not reduce, reuse and recycle? All kinds of people reduce, reuse and recycle. Find out which of these things you can do at school and at home to help out. Web resources You may find the following web resources useful; What is a landfill site.pdf http://eis.leics.gov.uk/support/greenerschools/pages/worksheets-and- Resources.aspx
Intentionally blank
Roles and scripts Local Shop owner who wants to increase trade by building a landfill or incinerator. I am Mr / Mrs Benn. I own a grocery shop in Happytown. I want to get rid of rubbish so that lots of people come to Happytown and buy things in my shop. That s how I make my money. If the rubbish is put into a landfill, lots of people will come to Happytown as it will look neat and tidy. If we build a landfill site, more people will come to Happytown to work there. That means there will be lots of extra people around who will want to buy things at my shop. I ll be rich!. Resident worried about the smell caused by landfill. My name is Mr / Mrs Smith. I live in Happytown near to where the landfill might be built. If Mayor Dilbert collects all the rubbish together and puts it into a big hole in the ground, Happytown will begin to smell. When it is windy, the rubbish will blow around the town and have to be collected all over again. If a landfill is built, more people will come to Happytown to work there, and each new person will make more rubbish, so the landfill site will get bigger and bigger. I don t want to live next to a big smelly landfill site. Landowner selling the land to build the landfill site. Resident worried about the smoke caused by incinerating rubbish. I m Mr / Mrs Moneybags. I own the land where the landfill site might be built. If I let Mayor Dilbert build it there, I can charge him lots of money for using my land. I will be extra rich, so I can afford to move into a big house away from Happytown and the smell and the rubbish on the landfill site. I really want Mayor Dilbert to build a landfill site because I love being so rich! My name is Mr / Mrs Goblins. I live next to the field where the rubbish incinerator might be built. I m worried that if the rubbish is burnt, the air will be full of smoke and pollution. I want Mayor Dilbert to get rid of the rubbish, but I don t want the incinerator to be built in Happytown, or anywhere that the smoke and fumes might cause harm!.
Intentionally Blank
Lazy resident who can t be bothered to sort waste for recycling Im Mr / Mrs Lazybum. I don t really mind what happens to the rubbish, I just want someone to come and take it away. Rubbish is dirty, smelly horrible stuff. I don t want to spend any of my time sorting it out into different types so it can be recycled. I m too lazy to do that. I think the rubbish should be buried in landfill or burned in an incinerator so that I don t have to worry about it any more. Once I put my rubbish in a bin its not my problem any more! A resident worried about the waste of resources by burning or burying rubbish Im Mr / Mrs Green. I live in Happytown and I m worried that if we bury or burn all the rubbish, we will pollute the land and the air. If we bury or burn all our rubbish, we might eventually run out of plastic, glass and metal. If we spent a little bit of time sorting the rubbish and recycling it, we would be sure we would never run out of those things. Reducing reusing and recycling would solve Happytowns rubbish problems, and mean that in the future, we never run out of Plastic, metal or glass!
Intentionally blank
Additional information and services: Leicestershire County Councils offers a wide range of services for schools and community groups: The Schools Recycling Challenge Leicestershire has consistently been one of the best performing counties for reusing, recycling and composting waste in the country. Annually, over 54% of the 346,000 tonnes of waste collected by local authorities within Leicestershire is recycled in some way. Leicestershire aspires to increase this amount by an additional 4% by 2017, keeping us at the forefront nationally. Leicestershire s schools play a key role in meeting this challenge. The Schools Recycling Challenge has been designed to help schools reduce reuse and recycle a greater proportion of their waste, making the most of educational opportunities along the way. Contact our education officer for further details and to take part. Educational Talks and activities Schools and community groups can receive free classroom talks, activities and assemblies which focus upon the benefits of reducing the amount of rubbish we each throw away. These are designed to be educational, engaging and fun. If your school or community group has an interest in receiving a free talk or activity, please get in touch with an education officer with a description of your groups needs. Contact us Leicestershire County Council, Environment & Transport Education Officer, Waste Management, 0116 305 8280 matthew.copley@leics.gov.uk