Facilitator Tip: Be sure to do this activity according to your municipality's waste collection system.
Background: Waste segregation must begin at home, as it is critical to recycling and disposal. Lack of segregation, collection and transportation of unsegregated mixed waste to landfills impacts the environment. Segregating waste reduces the amount of waste that reaches landfills, thereby taking up less space. Pollution of air and water can be considerably reduced when hazardous waste is separated and treated separately.
Waste segregation also rules specify the colour coding for bins that should be used for dry, wet, and hazardous waste. The waste must be put in the correct colour bins so that it can be appropriately dealt with. You should also align the colours and type of waste according to your municipality waste collection system to enhance understanding and practicality
Activity:
The facilitator should prepare paper sheets with names of different degradable and non-degradable waste as described in the materials list above. If required, the facilitator may add a few more items or names to ensure each participant has one sheet. Some of the names can be repeated.
- The facilitator should introduce the topic to the group, show them the three coloured bins and explain which kind of waste will go into each of the bins.
- Then, the facilitator should ask each participant to pick one sheet from the pile of sheets placed in a box.
- The facilitator should then ask the young people to put their sheets in the appropriate bins (blue labelled for dry waste, green labelled for wet waste and red/black labelled for hazardous waste).
- The young people will then identify the right bins for each product in the sheet and put them in the bins accordingly.
Conclusion
After completing the activity, the facilitator should check the sheets thrown into the dustbins. In case of a mistake, the facilitator should inform the participants of the composition of that particular product and in which bin it should have been thrown.
Evaluation
The young people should now understand the concept of segregation and the categories into which items need to be segregated.
