Recycled: Part 3

By SANDY McKAY, Illustrator JENNA PACKER

"Gidday, Byron," Mr Read said. "Nice day for it."

And now, here he was, two weeks later, looking like he'd just stepped out of a tropical holiday brochure. He was wearing the brightest Hawaiian shirt in the world, a pair of denim shorts that looked like chopped-off jeans and some of those funny sandals like hippies used to wear. All in all he looked pretty relaxed and not at all like he was going to flip his lid.

So why had he come to school with a black plastic rubbish bag and why was he, at this very moment, tipping its contents all over the floor?

"Rubbish!" said Mr Read jamming his lips together and squinting his eyes up tight. "This term we're going to be learning about rubbish."

Then he flared his nostrils wildly and started drawing on the blackboard with a stick of red chalk.

REDUCE! RE-USE! RECYCLE! he wrote in big red letters.

Meanwhile the rubbish was tumbling quietly, all over the floor.

Publisher: Longacre Press, $14.95 Age group: 9-14 years