Garbage In, Garbage Out

Every home, school and market produces garbage, and the way we handle it affects our health and surroundings. In this chapter you will follow garbage from the dustbin to the landfill, a low-lying open area where municipal waste is spread and covered with soil, and which can later be turned into a park. You will learn to separate garbage into two kinds: biodegradable waste, such as fruit and vegetable peels, leftover food and dry leaves, which rots and becomes harmless, and non-biodegradable waste, such as plastic bags, glass and metal cans, which does not rot. Local bodies give blue and green bins to collect these separately. The chapter explains composting, in which kitchen waste rots in a pit to form manure, and vermicomposting, in which redworms quickly convert waste into rich compost. You will learn to make recycled paper at home, understand why plastics are harmful when burnt or thrown carelessly, and practise the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle, to cut down the garbage we produce.

Detailed Worksheet: Garbage In, Garbage Out Section A - Definitions (10 marks) 1. What is a landfill? What happens to a landfill area once it is full? (2 marks) 2. Distinguish between biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste with two examples of each. (2 marks) 3. What is composting? What are the conditions needed for it? (2 marks) 4. What is vermicomposting? Which worms are used for it? (2 marks) 5. What do the three Rs stand for? Give one example of each. (2 marks) Section B - Calculations and Applications (15 marks) 6. Sort the following into biodegradable and non-biodegradable: banana peel, plastic bottle, newspaper, glass bottle, egg shells, aluminium foil, dry leaves, polythene bag, cotton rag. (3 marks) 7. A family produces 1.5 kg of garbage daily, of which 60 percent is kitchen waste. (i) How much kitchen waste do they produce daily? (ii) How much in a 30-day month? (iii) If they compost all of it, how much garbage do they send to the landfill each month? (3 marks) 8. A school of 600 students uses about 3 sheets of paper per student per day. (i) How many sheets are used in a day? (ii) If 8000 sheets are made from one tree, about how many days of use equals one tree? (iii) Suggest two ways to reduce paper use. (3 marks) 9. Give one reason for each: (i) plastic bags should not be thrown into drains (ii) burning plastics is harmful (iii) cattle should not be allowed to eat from garbage heaps. (3 marks) 10. In a vermicomposting pit, redworms can eat about their own weight of food daily. If 500 g of redworms are in a bin, (i) how much kitchen waste can they process in a day? (ii) in a week? (iii) Why should salt, oil, vinegar and meat not be added? (3 marks) Section C - Diagrams (10 marks) 11. Draw a labelled diagram of a vermicomposting pit. Label the layer of sand, the layer of fine gravel, the kitchen waste, the redworms and the covering of gunny bag or grass. State why the pit is kept moist. (4 marks) 12. Draw a flow diagram showing the journey of garbage from a home to a landfill and to a composting site, after separation. (3 marks) 13. Draw two dustbins, green and blue, and list four items that go into each. (3 marks) Section D - Analysis and Higher-order Thinking (15 marks) 14. Ravi buried four items in a pit in the garden: a banana peel, a polythene bag, a cotton cloth and a glass piece. After three weeks he dug them out. (i) Which items changed? (ii) Which did not change? (iii) What does this show? (iv) What should be done with the items that did not change? (5 marks) 15. A town is running out of space for landfills. (i) Why is this a serious problem? (ii) How can composting help? (iii) How can recycling help? (iv) Suggest two habits each citizen can adopt to reduce garbage. (5 marks) 16. Plastics are useful but also harmful. (i) Give two advantages of plastics. (ii) Give two harmful effects of careless disposal of plastics. (iii) Why should we not burn plastics? (iv) Suggest two alternatives to plastic carry bags. (5 marks) Instructions: Time allowed 2 hours. Attempt all sections. Draw all diagrams neatly in pencil and label every part.