How to teach kids to see a future beyond the bin

By Claire Bell 15 September 2020

In anticipation of National Recycling Week (9-15 November), we've collated all the ways schools can get involved to teach their students how to be waste warriors. Our collection of activities, lesson plans and resources will teach kids to see waste as a resource, how to recycle right and more.

Planet Ark is excited to kick off this year’s Schools Recycle Right Challenge on 5 October, ready for Term 4. For a decade, primary and secondary schools and Early Learning Centres have been taking action against climate change by reducing their waste and recycling more. These small steps have a big impact, teaching students to value resources by creating change or learning in the classroom.

This year we have revamped our Schools Recycle Right Challenge website to make it even easier to find resources. We’ve worked with Cool Australia to update all our curriculum aligned lesson plans and also have some brand-new lesson plans on the Australasian Recycling Label.

Here’s a few ideas on how your school can get involved:

• Check out our Getting Started Guide 

• Visit our lesson plans page to find lessons designed for every learning stage

• Explore our activities and resources page with in-class work sheets and colouring-in sheets for our early learners

• Take a look at our guides for practical recycling activities including:

  • Waste free lunch challenge

  • How to set up a recycling system

  • Schools recycling games

  • Recycling arts and crafts

The challenge runs for six weeks ending during National Recycling Week on Friday, 13 November, so there is plenty of time to decide how you want to get involved. Whether you choose from the above list of activities or create something of your own, we would love to hear about what you do!

Look out for our competition towards the end of October with a chance to win some great prizes for your school or centre.

Visit the Schools Recycle Right Challenge website for all activities, resources and more information.