Recycling - Teaching Our Young
Although every year the government organizes numerous recycling campaigns and
activities, there are still those who do not appreciate the importance of recycling and do
not incorporate it into their daily lives. This is why it is all the more important that
children be taught from a very young age about the importance of recycling and how
to inculcate it into their lives. As parents we do not need to wait for them to be taught
by teachers at school, but we can start by teaching them about recycling and show
them simple recycling activities at home.
Did you know that ?
1. It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper.
2. It only takes one aluminum tin to generate enough energy to power a 100 watt light for 3 hours
3. It takes one tree almost 10 years to grow.
4. Recycling glass lowers the melting temperature of new glass. This also reduces the energy required to manufacture glass by 32%.
5. Malaysia imports more than 25,000 tons of waste paper a month in order to manufacture paper based products.
The following are some creative and useful ideas on different activities for parents as well as teachers to start to encourage children on how to love mother earth, from the ‘Kindergarten’s Curriculum Guide.’ (‘Panduan Kurikulum Sekolah’):-
1) Interacting with the environment
a) Educate children on the names of plants and vegetation growing around them.
b) Tell them a story about the beauty of mother nature through a picture.
c) Discuss with children on how different natural phenomenon’s occur, such as rain, lightning, etc.
2) Maintaining the environment’s cleanliness
a) Discuss on how to make their environment cleaner.
b) Discuss the topic of ’Recycling.’
c) Discuss the topic of our responsibilities with regards to recycling.
3) Pollution
a) Explain how pollution occurs.
b) Give examples of pollution that they would have seen.
Know which are ’Recycling’ containers
You could also teach your children to identify the ’Recycling’ symbol, and that there are three different types of recycling bins:
1) Blue bins – For the recycling of all paper based products, i.e : old newspapers, magazines, note books, etc
2) Brown bins – For the recycling of all glass based products, i.e: all sorts of glass bottle or containers
3) Orange bins – For the recycling of plastic and aluminum based products, i.e : plastic mineral water bottles, soft drink cans, aluminum foil paper.
Recycling is a lifestyle that should be inculcated from the home. As such these are a few activities to start of with:-
1. Prepare a household budget for what is needed within a month.
2. Remember to bring along your own reusable bag when shopping.
3. Regularly used items such as soap and shampoo should be bought in bulk or in large economy sizes, so as to save the household budget.
4. Used paper should be reused to write notes, etc.
If children are taught about recycling and conservation in an interesting and interactive way, they are sure to retain what was taught more effectively as well as have the desire to conserve the environment from a young age.
References:
1. Ministry of Housing and Local Government
2. ’The Conservation of our Environment – Recycling, a joint responsibility ’ (Perlindungan Alam Sekitar – Kitar Semula Tanggungjawab Bersama – Hasnah Ahmad Nadzar (2008)
3. ’Kindergarten’s Curriculum Guide’ (Panduan Kurikulum Prasekolah), Prof. Madya Dr. Rohani Abdullah, Nani Binti Menon & Mohd Sharani Bin Ahmad (2003)
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