Theme | Segregation of Garbage at source |
Relevant Grades | Class 6,7 |
Key Learning Outcomes |
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Session Duration | 1 hour (Approximately) |
The Mission:
Students will be able to explain the environmental impact of improper waste disposal methods through this activity. The students are expected to create a game in which they are expected to prevent the plastic pollution and soil degradation due to waste dumping in open land.
Concepts to understand:
2.1 Types of Garbage.
A garbage is a discarded product, and of no use to us. We produce garbage from our homes, factories, farms, schools, amusement parks, and various other places. Do you know there are two types of garbage?
Organic Waste | Non-Organic Waste |
Waste produced from vegetative sources is known as organic waste | Waste produced from non-vegetative sources is known as organic waste |
Example: Left over food, vegetable cuttings from kitchen, vegetable husks from farms, wood cutting, paper, etc. | Examples: Metal pieces, metal filings, plastic waste, glass, worn off clothes made of synthetic materials, etc. |
Properties of Organic waste: 1. Rots completely over a small period of time when buried in soil. 2. Produces foul smell while rotting. 3. After rotting it converts to manure. 4. It can be degraded by micro-organism. | Properties of Non-organic waste: 1. It either rots partially, or do not rot at all 2. Compost can never be made from it 3. It remains in the soil for longer duration. 4. It can not be degraded by micro-organisms. |
2.2 Sources of waste
Waste is largely produced from three sources:
- Household: We produce organic as well as in-organic waste from our home during the day
- Industrial and factory: While manufacturing a product or washing or cleaning of some objects we produce harmful waste like chemical waste and dirty water
- Agricultural farms: The waste produced from the farm is purely organic in nature like wheat husk or vegetable peel, etc.
2.3 Waste Disposal practice
In India, currently we segregate the waste on as solid waste and liquid waste. Solid waste is further segregated as degradable and non-degradable waste.
- Waste management for degradable organic waste: The waste that is organic in nature and can be degraded with in small time duration is degraded by methods of –
a) Vermicomposting: Organic waste produced from house, small gardens are collected in small quantities in house and is stored in a pit. Red worms are added to the pit and the waste is digested by these worms and is converted into vermicompost. Vermicompost is used as manure in gardens. Vermicompost thus produced do not harm us in any way. Vermicomposting is also practiced for waste produced from mandi and large farms. |
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b) Biogas production: In small villages, liquid waste like human faeces, cow dung, etc is collected in a large pit and bacteria are added to the waste. It is slowly digested and converted to biogas which is used as cooking fuel in small villages or small-scale factories within the villages. The biogas is useful and does not have any harmful effects. And a manure is a by-product obtained at the end |  |
c) Recycling of paper: Wood pieces, wood dust, used paper are collected and churned to small pieces and converted to a pulp. This pulp is then recycled to make tissue paper, toilet paper, newspaper, paper plates, etc. Thus, waste is again recycled in a usable form. |  |
d) Incineration of solid waste: Organic solid waste like paper, dry vegetable husk, wood, etc. is collected, treated properly to remove water from it and then shredded to small pieces. This waste is then used as fuel in electricity production plant. By burning this fuel, we create electricity and the harmful gases created by burning waste are treated to create less or no pollution before releasing it in air. |
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- Waste management for non-degradable: The waste that is non-organic in nature is disposed in following manner.
- a) Glass disposal: Glass waste can be recycled into glass bottles, windowpanes, windshield in vehicles, etc. Thus, glass waste collected from household, industry, etc are recycled into other goods. Thus, glass waste does not harm the environment.
- b) Metal disposal: Metal is used to make utensils, vehicles, building, furniture, etc. The leftover metal scrap is collected and recycled to make other products. This metal waste does not harm the environment.
- c) Landfills: Large chunk of waste like torn of clothes, shoes, computer spare parts, plastic bags, plastic toys, etc. are collected on a piece of land for years, churned into small pieces and are buried in a pit. This practice of waste disposal is called landfill. The waste disposed in landfills either rots partially over long period of time or does not rot at all. Thus, it stays in the soil for longer period. These landfills are then converted to playground. Farming or construction activities are strictly prohibited on such places.
This method is not effective for waste disposal. It pollutes soil and while partially rotting, it mixes with rainwater and can lead to waterborne diseases. Therefore, it becomes vital to effectively discard and recycle e-wastes and non-degradable wastes.
2.4 Plastic Pollution
Plastic disposal practice and plastic pollution: Plastic waste is collected in large chunk and is disposed off in either landfill or disposed in ocean. Plastic does not degrade for long period of time. Thus, it remains as it is for years. The waste disposed pollutes the land as well as waster.
DID YOU KNOW? There is a large patch of plastic floating in Pacific Ocean. It is known as the great pacific plastic patch. It covers the size of 1.6 million square metres, which is three times the size of entire France nation.
To avoid plastic pollution in oceans alternative disposal practices are suggested as follows:
- Recycle the plastic: For plastic that can be recycled easily should be separated and collected at the source and should be recycled to form other plastic products like bottles, containers, toys, etc.
- Reuse the plastic: Sturdy plastic products like boxes should be taken reused if they are usable. Food grade plastic bottles should be reused to fill oil, water, juices for shorter period of time after properly cleaning it. Plastic bags should be only used to store clothes, paper, etc. It should not be used to store food.
- Reduce the plastic consumption: In order to reduce the plastic pollution, we should actually reduce the plastic consumption for packaging, wrapping, etc. Instead, we should use jute bags, cloth bags etc.
- Use plastic waste in road construction: An alternative plastic waste disposal system is proposed where non-degradable and non-recyclable plastic waste should be used in construction of roads. This is non-conventional practice and been practiced in only certain parts of world. This practice is not followed widely.
GAME DESIGN
Problem statement:
Waste segregation is an important part of managing a city, town or a village. In the modern day, we have turned into a super consumer where we consume a lot of products. It is important to discard the unusable/broken products safely so that it is safely recycled or disposed.
Game Design Overview:
You have your own waste disposal company who is on contractual basis with the local government. You role play the role in which you are required to ensure safe and proper disposal of different types of waste. If you wrongly dispose any of the wastes, then your contract agreement will be cancelled. If you do not take timely action in disposing the waste, your contract will also be cancelled. The game will be over if the contract is cancelled in both the cases.
How to Design the Game:
Step 1:
You can create three different type of waste segregation
- Organic Kitchen Waste – cooking wastes, food waste, organic cooking product wastes, vegetable wastes etc.
- Non-Organic Recyclable Waste – Wastes that are in-organic or not organic in nature should be put here. It includes glass, metals etc.
- Plastic Wastes – This includes plastic wastes, plastic products etc.
- Dustbin for e-waste – This includes electronic wastes like unused smartphones, electronic products, computer parts etc.
Step 2:
You being a waste management contractor, will have to ensure that the garbage you receive daily should be properly classified into the above segregations depending on the above categories in Step 1. Every now and then you will keep receiving wastes, you should ensure timely action or you will have lot of unsorted wastes piled up. Once this exceeds a certain value, the game will be over for inaction.
Step 3:
Once you start segregating the wastes, the segregation container will start filling up. The job doesn’t end here, you will have to decide what to do with the containers. There will be several options ranging from:
- Recycling plastics, metals, glass
- Burning plastics, metals, glass
- Using organic wastes for bio-gas, compost manure etc.
- Burning organic wastes
- E-waste disposal by giving the e-waste to e-waste certified disposer
- Burning e-waste
Step 4:
You will have to chose the methods that harm the environment the least. If you choose methods that will harm the environment, the game will be over.
Step 5:
Once all the wastes are safely disposed, you can finish your game successfully.
Stage 1: You are asking to sort the waste at home in 3 dustbins –
- Red bin for organic kitchen waste. The amount of waste collected from cooking should be displayed approximately. Use the rough conversion formula as 1 kg of organic kitchen waste – 250 gms of organic manure after drying and vermicomposting. On sorting and disposing it rightly the game player should get an applause message – You have sorted the organic waste correctly. It will turn to manure that can be used by farmers.
- Blue dustbin for non-organic recyclable waste. The amount, metallic waste, glass waste, etc. collected from the household should be stored in blue box. This will be collected and segregated before proper disposal.
use rough conversion formula – 1 kg of metallic waste = Recycling value 20 Rs. And 1 kg of plastic = 2 rs Recycling value. Player would get the amount earned on the basis of the amount of waste collected, properly sorted and disposed to recycling unit. - White dustbin for plastic waste. The amount of plastic waste generated should be cleaned, and if can be repurposed then should not be dumped. For the waste that can neither be repurposed nor be recycled, if possible shred it to pieces and store it in the white dustbin.
Player should get message as to- for alternate of packaging, one can use paper bags for dry goods, and use glass or metallic containers in the store for liquid or semisolid goods like milk, oil, pickle, etc. And should get a did you know facts about how plastic is dangerous.
Assessments:
Learning Objective Based Evaluation (0-2) | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | ||
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Higher Order Thinking Skills | Problem Solving | Critical Thinking | Innovation | Creativity | ||
Q5 | Q6 | Q7 | Q8 | Q9 | Q10 | |
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Learning Objective Based Evaluation Total Score | /4 |
Higher Order Thinking Skills Total Score | /8 |
Total Score | /12 |
Learning Objective Based Evaluation
1 point Questions:
Q1. Organic wastes are wastes from vegetables, wood products, dead living beings etc.
- True
- False
Q2. Which of the following waste should not be recycled?
- Plastic
- Metal
- Glass
- Food
Q3. Which of the following statements are not true?
- Plastics should be recycled and not littered or burnt while disposal
- Glass, metals should be recycled and reused
- Electronic wastes should be burnt and destroyed
- Organic wastes should be used as compost manure, bio gas fuel etc.
2 point Question:
Q4. How will you maintain garbage disposal at your home?
- Maintain separate disposal for recyclable products like plastic, metals etc. Dispose them by giving them to authorised recycling agents
- Ensure that electronic wastes are not discarded along with organic wastes
- Organic wastes can be discarded underground or used for biogas
- All of the above
Evaluation of HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills)
Identification of the Problem Statement:
Q5. What is the objective of the game that you have designed? (1 point)
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Q6. Does the game designed solve the problem? Justify your answer. (1 point)
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Solution of the Problem Statement:
Q7. How does the game designed address the problem? (1 point)
____________________________________________________________
Q8. Can the solution be implemented in real life? Justify your answer (1 point)
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Innovation in the Problem Statement:
Q9. What are the innovative aspects of the solution for which the game is designed? (2 points)
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Creativity in the Game Design:
Q10. Describe and explain the unique design elements used in the game. (2 points)
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