Reduce My Rubbish
What can you do?
MoreWelcome to our Waste and Recycling teaching resources section.
Here you’ll find information packs, detailed lesson plans and a wide selection of curriculum linked activity ideas that can be easily adapted to suit the group’s needs.
We’ve put together some fun waste themed activity sheets for children that are great for use in school or at home.
Find out about recycling, search for compost creatures, have a go at cooking with leftovers or create a single-use sea creature.
Sign up to our ‘Reduce Single-Use Award Scheme’ and earn certificates for cutting down on the amount of single-use plastics and products in your school.
The accompanying Primary School and Secondary School Resource Packs contain lots of information and practical ideas to help you to help you to reduce single-use one step at a time.
From plastic wrapped sandwiches and disposable spoons to pre-packed snacks and throw away bottles, schools play host to a whole range of single-use products. Single-use products are items that are only used once before being thrown away or recycled. Huge amounts of energy and resources are used to create them and, although only used for a few moments, will have a long-lasting impact on our planet.
Getting involved with this project is not only a great way of involving students in tackling important environmental issues, but it will also allow you to earn awards for your schools and can help towards achieving an Eco-schools award too.
For further information, resources and to sign up please click here.
Looking for some inspiration to get you started? Take a look at our case study to learn more about what Bignold Primary School have done to earn their Bronze and Silver Reduce Single-Use Awards. To view the case study, please click here.
Lunchtimes can be a very wasteful time in schools, with pupils bringing lots of throw away packaging in their packed lunches. Challenging them to bring in a ‘waste free lunch’, that produces as little waste as possible, is a great way to address this. Our waste free lunch pack contains lots of ideas and information to get you started.
Join in with Norfolk’s Litter Campaign, designed to help primary school teachers raise awareness about the issues surrounding litter and to provide support with taking practical action to tackle the problem. This pack contains lots of information, facts, an assembly plan, curriculum linked activity ideas, games and advice on organising a school litter pick.
Norfolk County Council has teamed up with The Salvation Army’s Recycle with Michael scheme to offer all Norfolk schools the chance to raise money by recycling textiles.
The Salvation Army can use all your unwanted, pre loved, outgrown clothing, linen and any other textiles you would be kind enough to donate. These items are used for various projects to ensure we recycle and, in addition, raise vital funds for the charity.
For more information please visit the Salvation Army’s schools pages or email RecyclewMichael@satcol.org.
The overuse of single-use plastic is an issue that is having a significant impact on our environment. There are some simple changes we can all make to help to tackle this problem. Our ‘single-use swaps’ sheet gives some useful tips for making changes both at home and at school.
The work you complete for our Reduce Single-Use Award Scheme can also contribute towards further accreditations.
Eco schools offers schools the chance to gain accreditation for introducing, managing and completing environmental actions in their organisation and local community. They offer ten different topic areas to work within, one of which is waste.
Surfers Against Sewage run a plastic free schools programme that offers further accreditation and resources for nurseries, primary schools and secondary schools. The work you’ve completed so far can contribute to this, plus you will be provided with further challenges.
Norfolk Youth Parliament campaigns on the issues that matter most to young people. It helps those aged 11-18 to have a voice on the future of Norfolk and make a positive contribution to their community. One of their current priorities is tackling plastic pollution. To find out more, get involved or contribute, click here.
This can be run either with the whole school, or a smaller group, and provides an introduction to waste and the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Please click here to access.
In order to identify what your school throws away and any particular problem areas, a waste audit can be carried out. This involves collecting, sorting and weighing waste from around the school in order to produce an action plan that aims to reduce the waste and improve recycling. Please click here to access.
A great introduction to recycling. This session explores the different items that can be recycled at home and involves the children in a hands on ‘sorting race’ to work out which bin different things need to be placed in. Please click here to access.
This session looks at the various options for disposing of waste and discusses how recycling is beneficial. The pupils will be encouraged to use a range of information sources to investigate what can and can’t be recycled at home. Please click here to access.
We have developed a whole range of curriculum linked activities that provide some great ideas for broadening and enhancing any waste or recycling linked topic. Please click here to access.
Books, both fiction and non-fiction, can provide a great way to introduce a new topic or provide inspiration for project work.
Please click here for information about a range of environmentally themed books.
This child friendly leaflet is designed to help you to find out what you can and can’t put in your home recycling bin.