Class 5 · Society and design
Sort a day of household waste
What does one home throw away in a day? Which kind of waste is the biggest?
What you will learn: Sort and count dry waste into types and show it on a graph.
Small test at the end: scroll down to the end of this page for five short questions that check what you have learnt. Tap an answer, then press Check answer. Go to the questions ↓
Jump to: Check yourself · For grown-ups · For teachers
Safety first
Gloves on. Only clean, dry items a grown-up has checked. Wash hands after.
Keep it safe:
- A grown-up checks the waste first. Children never handle glass, blades, broken things, medicines, batteries, nappies or sanitary waste, or food waste.
- Wear gloves while sorting.
- Wash hands with soap afterwards.
You will need
- One day of clean, dry wasteA grown-up collects it first and removes anything unsafe.
- GlovesKitchen or garden gloves.
- Paper and a pencilFor the tally and graph.
- Three or four boxes or bagsOne for each type.
Time: About 40 minutes.
The story
Dadi's dustbin is full again, though it was emptied only yesterday. "What do we throw away so much of?" she wonders. Tara and Tanmay put on gloves to find out, using only the clean, dry waste the family has set aside. Which kind of waste will turn out to be the biggest?
The idea
Dry waste can be sorted into types, such as plastic, paper and metal. Sorting helps it get recycled.
Count each type with a tally, then show the totals on a bar graph.
The biggest bar shows which type to try to reduce first.
Only clean, dry, safe items are sorted by children. Some waste is never handled by children at all.
Worked example
Zara sorts a day of dry waste
- With gloves on, she sorted clean dry waste her family had put aside for one day.
- Tally: plastic 12, paper 8, metal 2, other 3.
- Total: 12 + 8 + 2 + 3 = 25 items.
- Plastic was the biggest type: 12 of the 25 items.
Her idea: carry a cloth bag to the shop, so fewer plastic bags come home.
Try it
A grown-up checks first.
They take out anything unsafe and leave only clean, dry items.
Sort into types.
Plastic, paper, metal, and other.
Tally.
One mark for each item. Bundle every fifth mark.
Draw a bar graph.
One bar per type, with an even scale and labels.
Choose one idea.
Which type is biggest? Write one way your family could make less of it.
Clean up.
Put each type in the right recycling bag or bin. Wash your hands.
What you make (paper or offline)
Your waste tally and graph
A tally and total for each type.
A bar graph with a title and labelled axes.
One idea to reduce the biggest type.
Make it on paper. Keep it with you. Nothing to upload.
Check yourself
Five questions about what this page teaches. Choose an answer and press Check answer, or open "See the answer and why". Nothing is saved or sent: your choices stay on this screen and disappear when you leave or reload the page.
How do you want to answer? You choose, and you can change at any time.
See the answer and why
- A. 22 Not this one. That leaves out the 3 "other" items.
- B. 12 Not this one. 12 is only the plastic.
- C. 25 Correct. 12 + 8 + 2 + 3 = 25.
- D. 23 Not this one. Add again: 12 + 8 = 20, 20 + 2 = 22, 22 + 3 = 25.
See the answer and why
- A. The other items Not this one. "Other" has only 3 items.
- B. Paper Not this one. Paper has 8, fewer than plastic's 12.
- C. Metal Not this one. Metal has the shortest bar, only 2 items.
- D. Plastic Correct. It has the tallest bar, 12 items.
See the answer and why
- A. A flattened cardboard box Not this one. Dry cardboard is safe to sort with gloves.
- B. A broken glass jar Correct. Broken glass can cut. A grown-up removes it first.
- C. A rinsed plastic bottle Not this one. A rinsed, dry bottle is safe to sort with gloves.
- D. A clean paper bag Not this one. Clean, dry paper is safe to sort with gloves.
See the answer and why
- A. So the bin looks tidier Not this one. Tidiness is nice, but recycling is the reason.
- B. So each type can be recycled or handled the right way Correct. Paper, plastic and metal are recycled in different ways.
- C. Because all waste is the same Not this one. Waste types are different. That is why we sort.
- D. So we can throw more away Not this one. Sorting helps us reduce and recycle, not throw away more.
See the answer and why
- A. Putting plastic in the paper box Not this one. That hides plastic in the wrong type and spoils recycling.
- B. Carrying a cloth bag when shopping Correct. Fewer plastic bags come home, so the plastic count drops.
- C. Reading more newspapers Not this one. That would add to the paper bar, not reduce plastic.
- D. Drawing the plastic bar shorter on the graph Not this one. The graph must show what really happened.
Think back
Were you surprised by the biggest type?
Which items could be reused instead of thrown away?
Investigate further
- Sort again a week after trying your idea. Did the plastic bar shrink?
- Find out where your area's dry waste goes after it is collected.
Same spark, other subjects
Your own town
Why it is where it is, how people move around it, and what it throws away.
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- Draw a map with a key Geography · Class 4
- Big Cities Sit by Water... So Why Is Delhi Big? Geography and history · Class 5 · Learning guide
For grown-upsTap a heading to open it. The safety notes are at the top of the page.
Before you start
- Keep one day of dry waste aside. Remove glass, sharp or broken items, medicines, batteries, nappies, sanitary waste and food waste before the child sorts.
- Provide gloves.
Questions that help
- "Which type is biggest? Why do you think so?"
- "What could we do differently?"
What's really going on
Counting what we throw away turns a vague idea ("we use a lot of plastic") into evidence a family can act on.
Separating dry waste by type helps recycling in many local schemes.
Other ways to do it
- If sorting real waste is not suitable, use the numbers in the example and draw the graph.
For teachersLearning aims, classroom ideas and what to look for.
Learning aims
- Collect data with a tally and present it in a bar graph.
- Use data to suggest an action.
Subject links
- Social science: waste and the community.
- Mathematics: tallies and bar graphs.
- Science: materials.
These links are general. They have not been checked against a specific board syllabus.
In the classroom
- Use clean, dry classroom waste from one day, checked by the teacher first.
What to look for
- Safe handling: gloves, only checked items.
- Action linked to the biggest bar.