Teacher resources - recycling and reducing waste
Brisbane City Council has created free online lesson plans and fact sheets to help teachers with information about waste minimisation, recycling and litter prevention.
Lesson plans
These lesson plans have been designed by qualified educators with expert waste and recycling knowledge to help teachers meet curriculum objectives. The lesson plans include activities, games and curriculum links for various years on the topics of litter, nude food, organic recycling, packaging, waste minimisation and waste.
| Topic | Lesson plan | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|
| Waste minimisation | Wasting away (Word - 110kb) Get hands-on and see how your waste breaks down underground. | Prep + Years 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Green Waste | The circular life of green waste (Word - 109kb) Join the mission to get organic waste out of landfill. | Years 7, 8 |
| Circular economy | The rising impacts of e-waste (Word - 235kb) | Years 9, 10 |
Household waste | Red, Yellow, Green: Unpack household waste (Word - 1.5Mb) Explore Brisbane City Council’s three waste streams and discover how each bin is collected, managed, and processed. | Year 4, 5, 6 |
| Nude food | Nude food lunch guide (Word - 116kb) Promote healthy eating and reduce waste to landfill with every lunchbox. | Prep + Years 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Nude food | What's in your lunchbox (Word - 111kb) Enjoy your morning tea, then catalogue and analyse what you leave behind. | Prep + Years 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Organic recycling | Hungry worm (Word - 108kb) Get crafty and learn about how worms are the link between growing and recycling food. | Prep + Years 1, 2 |
| Waste minimisation | Six ways with a plastic bottle (Word - 107kb) Use your imagination and design skills to see what a plastic bottle can become. | Prep + Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| Waste minimisation | Sort it out (Word - 132kb) Learn how to reduce, reuse and recycle and what happens after things go to the bin. | Years 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| Waste minimisation | What's in the bin (Word - 154kb) Audit your school's bins and analyse the waste types and where they should go. | Years 5, 6, 7, 8 |
Fact sheets
These fact sheets are designed to supplement a lesson and help your class find out more about reducing and recycling waste.
- Benefits of recycling (Word - 117kb)
- Compost (Word - 138kb)
- Decomposition times (Word - 126kb)
- Landfill (Word - 2Mb)
- The 3 Rs (Word - 109kb)
- Towards Zero Waste (Word - 128kb)
- Waste hierrachy (Word - 1.6Mb)
- What are we throwing away? (Word - 254kb)
- What happens to your recycling? (Word - 100kb)
- What is waste? (Word - 105kb)
Recycling materials fact sheets
- Aluminium (Word - 162kb)
- Glass (Word - 167kb)
- Paper and cardboard (Word - 166kb)
- Plastic (Word - 170kb)
- Steel (Word - 107kb)
Get Grubby and other resources
Have fun teaching children from three years of age to Year 2 about recycling, worm farms, composting and reusing materials with Dirt Girl and Scrap Bay and the Get Grubby program. This program is free for early learning centres, schools, family day care and outside school hours care centres in Brisbane.
More information
For more information about these teaching resources and other waste and recycling support for schools, email our Waste Education team.